Single parenting & nursing

Nurses General Nursing

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I am about to graduate with my associates in nursing. I am also a single mom. My hope is to work in labor and delivery. The problem I'm running into is that they work 12 hour shifts and often times you have to start on nights. Does anyone have any advice on how to manage a nursing career while also single parenting a 5-year-old? I am willing to look into other areas of nursing as well if anyone has any suggestions on that.

Specializes in Critical care.

L&D to me means most likely hospital-affiliated. See if the hospital has daycare, as one affiliated with a hospital would largely accommodate 12hr shifts. The one I'm familiar with even has options for school-aged children to be bused to the daycare for day shift parents to pickup after work, or bused to school for night shifters.

Most of the hospital jobs in my area do 12 hour shifts.

A nurse new to our unit from L & D mentioned that she did also have on-call reponsibilities in L&D as well, and one of the reasons she left was the unpredictability in schedule.

Most of the single parent nurses I know use family members to help with childcare. One nurse worked a weekend night pay plan, and her daughter spent the weekend with her aunt, uncle and cousins who lived in the same area. Another had shared custody and worked the days her ex had the kids( a regular custody pattern, plus self-scheduling departments help).

Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

12 hour shifts have pros and cons for us single moms. I have contemplated which scenario will be best for me, when I obtain my RN.

3 X 12 hours means 4 days off. The first spent recovering from working so much!

5 X 8 means shorter work days, but only 2 days off.

As for me, I have always been able to find licensed child care providers who are willing to work my strange hours as a nurse.

I used "strangers" who were licensed when my son was ages 7-9. Then, I moved closer to my old neighborhood, where my best friend is a licensed child care provider. She works with my strange hours. She has kept my son as early as 4am and as late as midnight.

Specializes in Pediatrics.

Night shift you could hire

A college student to sleep over

A nanny

Coordinate with other nurses

Family?

The cold hard truth is that some employment opportunities will be eliminated because you are a single mother. Something you might like could be cost prohibitive, while a position you would never consider might be the only viable option.

I've raised 3 kids with a large chunk of it as a single parent with the flexible hours of home health. Made my calls from home, got kids to school, made my visits, did my paperwork either while they were doing theirs or sitting in my car waiting for them at some practice.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Mother-Baby and SCN.

Most nursing jobs work 12 hour shifts and some nights. The coveted "day jobs" will usually only be available to those with experience. L&D can be a very competitive field, especially for a new grad, especially with an associates. You may have to take whatever position you can get initially, then work your way up to a L&D position. You will have to have help from family/friends/babysitters for your child. I recommend getting NRP asap if your goal is L&D. Good luck

Specializes in Geriatrics.

As a single parent, I work night shift, 12 hours. I have a child care provider with a "day job," so if my daughter is sick and must stay home from school, I would be forced to call off if I worked day shift. Night shift means as long as she's not severely ill, I can still go to work because I still have child care. As for sleep, she's school aged, so I sleep while she's at school. I cannot, however, work a job at this point that would require me to be on call.

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