What is the longest shift you have ever worked

Nurses General Nursing

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What is the longest shift you have ever worked, doing patient care in a acute setting?

Agency nurse, LTC, 24 hours. three different times, three different places.

no replacements.

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25 hours in the middle of a flu outbreak.

I was scheduled to work 16.5 (6am-10:30 pm), half the staff was out sick, my night shift relief called off and there was no one to replace me.

Thank God I had been working the group 2 years and everyone was stable.

It was looking like I was going to have to work the day shift (I was scheduled) until my DON got there and replaced me.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I am a student and have been working 16 1/2 hour shifts on a med/surg floor. A few weeks ago, we had a code at 10pm and I was to leave at 10:30! I told my Dad I couldn't even get my head together, i was so tired. My Dad said, "I wonder how many nurses accidently make mistakes because they are so tired?" Later that day I called my boss and told her something would have to change. I no longer work those long shifts, thank goodness and thanks to my Dad for guilting me out! :)

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I work in a small LDRP unit and I had a weekend from h*ll about a year ago. I was working 7a-7p and the night charge called in sick. They couldn't get anyone else so I said I could work until 11p (I had to work the next day 7a also). 11 came around and I had no relief so I slept in the unit in an empty bed while my second nurse took care of the patients. This other nurse at the time couldn't do charge (new grad) so if anything else came in I would have had to get up. Worked the next day until about 3pm and then was able to go home on call until 7p. Then they didn't want to pay me for the 8 hrs I slept in house. They wanted to pay me on call pay, which is $2/hr!:angryfire I couldn't leave at 11pm and abandon my patients. They didn't want to pay me but who would have be the first to say patient abandonment?? Anyway, I grieved it through the union and they paid me overtime for the hours I was stuck there.

Beth

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When I was young and foolish I got talked into 20 hrs once. With all the studies showing the higher propensity for errors RT nurses working over, we need to be careful what we get roped into. Hopefully the MOT will stop as a result when hospitals recognize they are creating problems for everybody. But likely they will continue and make it the nurses' responsibility to say "I'm too exhausted to stay over...I'm not safe'. Which we mustn't be afraid to do.

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Last summer, my husband in Kuwait and silly me offered to work whenever they needed me..........I know, I know, I have sinced recovered from the temp 'brain damage'.

This was my schedule and I worked it....

Thur-12hrs

Fri-12hrs

Sat-17hrs (crashed in an empty room) back on shift at 0620

Sun-12hrs

Mon-8hrs

That is 49 hours over the course of a weekend. I was off for 3 days after that and I think I slept the entire time. This ole' gal was pooped!!

I have NEVER done that again!!

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19 hours. I was scheduled to work 7-3, 3-11 called off, and the 11-7 agency nurse did not show up. I had to threaten management that I would report the situation to the corporate office if I was not relieved of duty. I had been frozen over many times for 16 hour shifts, it was getting more commonplace. But I feared, being exhausted and making a fatal med error. What I got from management was, that the management nurses would not work the floors, regardless of the staffing situations. A friend worked 11-7 & was frozen over for a 7-3, she barely made it through the morning med pass. I could see that she was drop-dead exhausted, but none of the administrative nurses who came in at 8:30 a.m. would relieve her. That has to be the hardest double shift to work. Needless to go on, but neither one of us work there anymore. And yes, they are still understaffed.

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Specializes in Newborn ICU, Trauma ICU, Burn ICU, Peds.

22 3/4 hrs. Was scheduled for a 12 hr, came in two hours early (6pm) for a meeting and was mandated to stay from 0800-1200 then they could not find a replacement form me, oh yes, and it was the "fall back" time change, so that added an hour. Finally the Nurse Manager came in and took over.

I have frequently worked 16, 16, 12, 16, 16 in a pattern like that.

Generally I feel fine and have ususally been lucky enough to get the same patients every day.

Faith

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