what is 'Best Shift' and/or 'Area of Nursing' to be in for Single Moms?

amy08004 · Oct 23, 2009

I would think the 7-3 shift would be the best

Per diem would be my 2nd suggestion.

abbabask · Oct 23, 2009

It totally depends on your situation. If you are a single mom with a child who is in school, my recommendation is to get into office nursing because your hours with better correlate with your child's school hours, and you will not be working weekends/holidays. School nursing would be even better because you'd also have the summers off with your child.

If you have a younger child, hospital nursing may be better because you can (depending on where you work) choose to work four 8hr or three 12hr shifts. That can work out great if you can find a hospital that has good on-site childcare because they'll even stay open til 7pm until your shift is over. I am kind of in that situation right now. I am working three 12s and I have a two yr old that stays with her dad some days and my mom some days. I like having more days off with her than I would if I worked in an office 4 or 5 days a week. As she gets older though, I will most likely go into office or school nursing so I can have evenings at home with her and not have to battle the holiday time.

Hope that helps.

jess41378 · Oct 24, 2009

I worked night as single mom and still do. My mom or boyfriend watch my son overnight. If kids are in school then home care or infusion home care is flexible with hours during the day.

nickynoodles · Oct 24, 2009

Im thinking that night shifts at a hospital (11-7am or 7-7am) would work out best. I can sleep when my child is in school! The issue for me would be childcare for when Im at work. I will be in a new area w/o any family around.

nickynoodles · Oct 25, 2009

per diem is on call, right?? that would never work for me, finding childcare at the last minute would be near impossible.

nickynoodles · Oct 25, 2009

abbabask,

you said 4 8hour shifts, dont you mean 5 8hr shifts? I would think you would need to work 5.

when I graduate nursing school my child will be entering kindergarden. I dont have a support system to help me get my child on the bus or picked up after school so I would need to be there to do that and want to be there to do that anyway so I was thinking night shift would be best for me but again thats contigent upon finding quality childcare for teh nights im working. add weekends and holidays to that and it becomes even that much harder to figure out.

amy08004 · Oct 25, 2009

I don't think so.

I believe per diem (daily rate) means, not regular shift and you pick which days and times you want to work.

A schedule is printed out with the days and time and you elect which.

HTH

abbabask · Oct 25, 2009

Well like I said, it totally depends on your situation. That may well be what works best for you, and that may be totally unworkable for someone else. I personally was so wiped out from night shift, I felt like I spent all my days recovering rather than enjoying time with my child. However, my child does not have kindergarten to go to, which would be some good time to sleeo.. she only has a mothers day out 3 mornings a week to help us out.

As far as shifts go, no I did mean four 8hr shifts, not 5. You MIGHT be able to find a place that does that, I've just never seen it.In the hospital world, 32 hours is considered full time for most networks. This is becuase if you worked five 8 hr shifts, that would automatically always put you at 40hrs, and any thing over that is considered overtime. And since you'd actually have to arrive at your shift 15 min early and leave 15 min later than your shift's start and end time (for nursing report, etc), that would always put you into overtime.. and I will tell you it is rare for a nurse's job to be over at the end of their shift. I am usually still there charting for at least 15 to 30 minutes on a fairly good day. Also, if you worked 5 8hr shifts, that would leave very little flexibility in your scheduling, as most units require you to rotate and work some weekends here and there unless you have alot of staff on weekend plan.

Every nurse I work with has a unique childcare situation.. and we all have our kids doing something different to make our lives work. You just have to figure out what works for you. Nights may be it. Nursing is defintiely not ideal for being a single mother, although there are some great positives to it as well if you can get it worked out right. Best of luck to you!

abbabask · Oct 25, 2009

And remember - with nursing, you can try a schedule and if it doesn't work.. you can always leave for another hospital or change your area of nursing entirely. Nothing is permanent. If nights turn out to not be a great fit for you, a school nurse job might just pop up at your daughter's school and you might have her same schedule, you know? There are so many options and it will just take some tweaking to get yours right.

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Oct 25, 2009

As had been said, it depends on your out-of-work support network more than the job.

carachel2 · Oct 25, 2009

If I was a single mom with a school aged child, I would get myself into shool nursing ASAP. It may be difficulty to find a job at your child's school, but I imagine you can find one at least in the district. I realize it may pay less than shift work, but you are going to pay out the wazooo for summer and holiday care. I'm not even a single mom and I can tell you that it is very, very hard to arrange summer care if you don't have family around.