How did nursing ever "buy into" 12-hr shifts???

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Do 12 shifts help or hurt Nursing, as a profession or as individuals?

    • 51
      Helps nursing profession, and is good for individuals
    • 26
      Helps nursing profession but difficult for individuals
    • 10
      Hurts nursing as a profession but is good for individuals.
    • 37
      Hurts nursing as a profession and is not good for individual nursing
    • 34
      12 shifts have no effect either way on the professionalism of Nursing
    • 4
      who cares? it's just a job!

162 members have participated

My unit has lost four nurses to other non-hospital jobs, so the nurses can be home in the evening with their young children.

How did we ever get to 12 hour shifts?

How do we get OUT of them???

I only see them benifiting the hospitals or young nurses w/o families who enjoy the extra days off.

12 hrs nearly kill off us 'over forty' nurses, in sheer physical exhaustion

(my first day off is spent w/ feet up and naps, recouperatiing...)

12 hrs means gone before children go to school and gone when they come home and go to bed.

12 hr shifts leave so many of us so tired and 'burned out' that it is difficult to care about the Profession of Nursing, like participation in our nursing organizations, getting quality CEUs, etc.

QUESTION: are 12 hr shifts helping or hurting the nursing profession?

Haze

12 hours makes for a long shift. 8 hours makes for a long week. i do 12's and to be working ft nights, it's the only way i can stand it. then i have 4 days off per week and a life outside the hospital. i'd really feel like i ate and slept the place being there 5 nights per week. i know it's not for everyone. to be flexible. to attract staff... neither should be mandated. it should be the nurses' choice. i have even worked where we had a 4 hr., 8 hr. and 12 people matching up. creative scheduling it can work!

I LOVE my 12 hr shifts! I would absolutely detest getting up 5 days a week. I work 8am-8pm and would not have it any other way. In my hospital there are choices for which kind of shifts that you work...I chose to work 12's. I would not have taken the job if I could not work 12 hr days. Being off 4 days a week is great and my daughter only needs a babysitter up to 3 days a week. Plus I think it does help the patients...I think that it definitely establishes some continuity of care.

I love the 8's, but I work 3-4 nights a week, not 5. If you don't have to work full time, either option is a little easier to take. Not sure I would want to do 12's on our crazy floor on a regular basis.

We do 12s, but have one person doing 8s. I'm all for people doing what they can do, and this nurse is so burned out she loses it when she does 12s. BUT I have to say that when she leaves at three, the rest of us are stuck with either dividing up her patients, or, if she's charge, we are stuck without a charge nurse. The admissions we have gotten lately from 3-7 are amazing, we always get at least 2 anymore. So, when she leaves, it causes some difficulty and hard feelings. Management basically tells us to suck it up, that we have the staff and can do it. Don't see them helping out from 3-7. Bah.

I've worked 8's and 12's. I've also worked 4's and 16's. YIKES!

In the early to mid 1990's our hospital began making our units aim for being all 12 hour shifts within a year or so. Their reason: It takes less staff members to supply a unit/floor with 12 hour nurses than 8 hour nurses. MONEY IS THE BOTTOM LINE FOR THE EMPLOYERS... AS ALWAYS!

Our manager tried to let us do the shifts we wanted to. She spend God only knows how many hours trying to prepare a schedule to make everyone happy. She'd fill in as much as she could when you gave her your schedule request, and then about 2 or 3 days before she had to turn in the schedule for administration's approval, she'd be on our unit, pulling each of us aside to beg us to help fill in the "holes". That's where we found ourselves working some 4 hour shifts.

There were many nurses who enjoyed the 12's because they had so much more time off between working days. Of course when working the 12's there is no time to do anything but sleep when you get off if you have to work the next day. I usually worked the 12's and when I worked an 8 it seemed to fly by... even though the 12 hour shift is "just one more set of vital signs"... LOL

I see benefits and drawbacks to both the 12's and 8's. It could be debated forever I suppose.

The bottom line in my experience is that "nursing bought into working 12 hour shifts" because it cost the hospital less money since they needed to have less employees to staff the 12 hour shifts compared to the 8 hour shifts.

That Almight Dollar is going to be the ruin of everything I'm afraid.

I only work 8s, but work 7 days straight every 2 weeks. How can a person be expected to still have any patience on her 7th day. What other profession would expect staff to work under such conditions.

Love my 12-hour shifts!!! I work 2 12's (PT) at one hospital for the benefits and 2 12's (sometimes 3 as a PD) at another hospital for the money. If I get tired, I just cut down on the 2nd hospital.

12's are standard in California...you would probably have a riot if you tried to do away with them. (Even the cops in LA are trying to get on 12's)

Originally posted by dawngloves

I agree with NancyRN. Cops don't even work twelves!

I work 7P-7A Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I love it!! Best of all, my husband has the same schedule I do.

What does my husband do for a living?......he's a COP!

When I started out of school, I worked five 8's.....no thank you. I'm sure glad I don't do that anymore!! 12's are the way to go for me.

Anne:nurse:

Let's see here........3 nurses a day for all 3 shifts(8 hours each) =15 shifts paid for................

2 nurses for 2 shifts (12 hours) means 1 less nurse to pay for or worry about and =10 shifts........you save 5 shifts or 40 hours of pay.

Actually I love my 12's. I work less during the week, don't mess with stress raising traffic on the way home and don't feel like I have to rush through my day 'just to get done by 3'.

Plus, I feel like I get to spend more time (quality) with my pts and their families.....some of them don't come in until after 3 pm.

I disagree, I have a 4 year old and because I work 12 hours shifts I work less days which gives me time to spend with my son. Besides it is the quality time not so much just being there with your family. I can't stand working 8 hours 5 days a week oh no that is more tiring and I am glad they went to 12 hours. I guess you can say it depends on the individual, your lifestyle and what works for you. I have notice some units are incorporating 8 hours shifts with 12 hour but I rather work long hours than working lots of days.

I work 2 12 hour shifts on the weekend. We have ours set up for 11-11 and I work the 11 am one. I can do it 2 days a week. The only problem is we get mandated to 16 hours frequently. I do it to be off during the week with my son. They pay us almost the same as when I worked 40 hrs. I can also pick up hours on any shift during the wee but it is my choice. When I worked 5 days a week I was mandated frequently so I like this better.

I work three 12 hours shifts in a row. I'm 52 years old. I'm worthless on my first day off and my second day is not much better. So actually only realize 2 good days off and the last day is spent getting ready to do it all over again. I do like the time off but not sure it is really worth it in the long run.

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