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

[HazeK]

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

[Alley Cat]

Can't decide if I like 8's better or not. My family is happier; my 9 year old wanted me home in the evening, but I am having a tough time adjusting to the new job (switching from NICU to outpt pediatric sedations on the floor). Haven't decided if my stress is from the more days on the job or the job itself.

I loved 12's when the kids were littler, but needed to be home when they are now that they're both in school. I DO like no weekends, no holidays after 19 years of both; the differential is no longer worth it to me.. . Several people at our hospital are unhappy with 12's after being used to 8's, have lost many people to other facilities which offer a choice.

[Teshiee]

I wonder even if they decided to go back to 8 hours where in the world would they get the extra staff to fill-in 3-11 it is hard enough to get stafff on a 12 hour basis!.

[sjoe]

Ya know, there are scheduling software programs that allow hospitals and other facilities to schedule a wide variety of working hours, not just one pattern, for the same number of people and the same number of hours.

For example, some people can work 8s, some 12s, some 10s, etc. This is not rocket science, but most facilities seem to be able to think about just one schedule and try to force all their employees into it. It gives them an illusion of control, I suppose, but is very short-sighted and primitive.

[Enabled]

The latest thing at one of the local hospitals is that the financial officer thinks that the nurses are deliberately bilking the place for overtime. MY girlfriend who is a unit manager had to be held down in order not to strangle the guy. They took three major members of her unit=head nurse,head tech, and another RN and opened a floor that was going to open when another closed beds Well, they opened, didn't close the beds, lost a unit manager so one of the nursing supervisors is actuing as temp unit manager adn doing evals on nurses she has only seen actually working on the unit for a few shifts before doing them. Thy said my girlfriends floor could have 7 more travelers and they were complaining without these people and the loss of the other. Who is kidding who. My girlfriend is going on vacation soon to Hawaii as her hubby wants to retire there and she is going to look around so to speak because she was thrown into the job without orientation and had to do evals and budgets that were past due and the former manager was her new supervisor and wanted to know why they weren't in on time. See the word administration gets to them. I say put administrators on the floor for clinical hours to keep their skills up because if we do go to war they are not going to be administrators. I even suggested to my girlfriend as far a creative scheduling have nurses who have kids in school come when the kids are in school and be able to leave in time for them to get the kids. They can pick up the slack of admissions, ivs as there isn't a team, patient teaching. There are a lot of tasks that can be done. The administration of the hospital came out with incentives for those RNs who wanted to work extra. No problem, BUT they were not offering the LPNs who were working extra hours. No wonder there is a riff between RNs and LPNs at times. The hospital is also having UAPs do what use to be considered nursing functions such as dressing changes and inserting foleys. Not on me you won't. There are all kinds of creative scheduling as you said. How hard is it to download a program. It is ridiculus. They could have the program designed if they had to but they are already out there

[LilgirlRN, ADN, RN]

7 on 7 off 8 hour shifts..... those were the days

[crnasomeday]

I work 12 hour nights, and I wouldn't want it any other way. I absolutely love my 12s. I've got a husband who works 4-10 hour days/evenings and three young children at home, and it's just a lot easier on me to be able to get all my time done in 3 shifts. The kids end up having to be in child care much less often (only an average of 2-3 hours weekly) than they would if I had to work five 8 hour shifts every week. It is true that by the end of my 3rd night in a row, I am just exhausted, but I don't have to be scheduled for all my nights in a row like that. It just works out nicely for me and my family.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

i'm a whole bunch >40, bad knees, bad hip, crotchety even when off.

0430 get up

0500 breakfast, shower

0530 leave house

0655 arrive after driving for 1hr 25 min

0700-1930 do nurse stuff hahahahaha get out on time?-not

2030 or later leave hospital 1 hr drive.....not as much traffic

2130 arrive home

2200 snarf down some food, read paper, mail etc go to bed

2230 to bed perchance to sleep, to dream....

0430 get up.....have had a max of 6 hrs sleep if i got off at 2030

do this 3-4 times a week. try not to run off the road after that 4th shift.

realistically bean counters truly believe that nurses "pad the clock."

have there been any studies to show the relation of error to length of shift or number of days worked?

[joannep]

Mmm, I do love my 12 hour shifts, but I only have to travel 20 minutes to work. So maybe that contributes quite a bit to my life-style satisfaction.

I find that with a 12 year old son and a 15 year old daughter I can leave a message on the bench asking for potatoes & vegies to be peeled prepared by such and such time, and hey presto when it is time for my husband to cook (when he comes home from work, he generally gets home 11/2 hour before me) much of the preparation is done.

Also, I expect the children to do their homework before we are home, unless they really need us to help them.

Joanne

[Enabled]

You should be proud of your children as not many would do that nowadays as they have to do their own thing. It is nice when the work is almost done. I am not doing shifts any more but there are many nights a week that I come in after dinner should and the operative word is should be done so that I only have to heat mine up if necessary. I live with 2 brothers and granted one is away most of the month and I don't think he should have to do it but he could order out. I also have my dad there who is almost 80 and he tries to pitch in. On the days off I will cook something with enough for leftovers or such as a sauce and freeze at least one other meal. I always try to bring the frozen stuff out the night before or at least the morning of. I have to list the directions of the microwave for dad as I don't think he will ever get the sequence with half power. Occasionally, I will be good to them and make a real treat. I also have the rule if you make you don't clean. I don't like coming in and finding that stuff that was cooked sometime earlier hasn't been put away. Any suggestions for a houseful of males with the egos to go with it. I do love them Blah!!!!! wash my tongue out with soap. Hovever,no matter what we may have said to each other an hour later we're talking as if nothing happen. And let someone outside or another one of us need something we are always there no matter what. It breaks my heart to see so many children that don't know what a caring family is all about.

[showmegirl]

:kiss One thing we all need to remember when working in a med surg ect Most the time our 8 hrs shifty is up and were still on the clock to finish up. When working the 12 hour shift that 4 extra hours help us to finish and get all done before we leave. I think the patients and familes also like knowing the nurse they get will be there and only one other change that day make it easier when i come back in the next day when there has been a change in condition. :roll

[bobstein]

Hospitals did not come up with the idea of 12-hr shifts ... nurses did. I was one of the nurse managers who worked to sell 12-hr shifts to upper administration at the request of my staff. The longer shift does NOT save the hospital money ... it actually costs MORE. It costs more because it requires more nurses. Without getting into a complete explanation about how FTE's work, it requires 4.20 nurses to have one nurse working 24-hrs a day, 7-days a week using 8-hr shifts.

3-shifts a day x 5 day workweek / 7- coverage = 4.20 nurses

Using 12-hr shifts, it requires 4.67 nurses have one nurse working 24 working 24-hrs a day, 7-days a week.

2-shifts a day x 3-day workweek / 7-day coverage = 4.67 nurses

These figures do not even include the additional nurses required to cover vacation and sick leave replacement. The typical cost of benefits for the additional 0.47 nurses is about 25% of the average hourly rate.

Typically nurses on 12-hr shifts have a lower rate of sick call-outs and have a higher morale which converts into longevity. Studies that support 12-hr shifts as a cost saver are including the cost of sick leave and the cost of hiring in new staff to replace those who quit.

The only downside that I see to nursing as a profession, is that no other profession is expected to provide 24-hr services on a regular basis. THAT requirement will never go away, regardless of the length of the shift. -Bob

[Repat]

I LOVE my 12 hour shifts!! My hospital is very creative with shifts (nursing shortage working as a plus, in a way). They offer 8's, 12's, and 4's. I work WOW - 2 12's, paid for 3. Then I can sign up for extras if I need to, or have a week off if I don't! I do also know of some nurses working 10's, but they are rare.