Has anyone ever worked a "double shift" ie 16hr shift?

Nurses General Nursing

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I just took a job as an RN at a behavioral health facility and was told I have a choice of working 11p-7a five days a week or 2 double shifts on the weekend (3-11 then 11-7) fri and sat and then an 8hr shift on a weekday. They both equal 40 hrs a week. I have always worked 3 12hr shifts so this will be very different for me! Does anyone have any recommendation on which shifts I should go with? Does anyone work double shifts here? Got any advice? Is it real overwhelming?

I did doubles before kids. It would NOT work for me now with 2 kids.

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Every week. Double on Sunday, 8 hours Monday, Double on Wednesday. Love it!

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I have been working weekend double shifts for the past three and a half years, and love it. I work two 16 hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday from 6am to 10pm, and this setup enables me to have Monday through Friday off.

Sunday evenings are tiresome for me due to the lack of an 8-hour sleep period, but the five days off in a row makes up for most shortcomings.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, Supervisor.

I have worked many evening/night double shifts. Sometimes for my convenience and sometimes for the institution's. Usually the convenience and benefits are mutual. The thing is pacing. Skimping on breaks and holding urine is not a good idea. I peed and took breaks and did what I could. If you dont take care of yourself you cant take care of your patients. Patients are consumers, taxpayers and voters. If they dont like a system that cant give them everything they want they will change it. I will do what I can without martyring myself. I would not gladly work either option. 5 nights a week are worse to me than a couple of doubles. But if I am up for 2 doubles every weekend, that should be enough. Demanding another 8 hour shift is a tad greedy unless the returns are considerable. In any case, 2 to 3 nights and commutes are better than 5. Another consideration is how much patient shuffle you have to deal with between shifts of the double. Giving and receiving report mid double is a time suck, tho not always avoidable. Maneuver to minimize it where possible. Good luck.

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Specializes in Telemetry/Cardiac Floor.

i once worked from 7a to 11p because night shift was short, they were actually even more short than they thought they would be and we ended up with 8 patients a piece.:( they were not even thankful that i helped them out. fortunately, the charge nurse on day shift gave me two free movie tickets which made it better.:) a friend of mine works works two weekend nights, saturday and sunday 16hrs a piece and makes about 31.00/hr. she loves it!:nurse:

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Specializes in Psych, Chem Dependency, Occ. Health.

I have. I used to work 3-11/11-7 in inpatient detox. I would do a double on friday night and sometimes one other during the week so I would work 32 get paid for 40. I was per diem/contract so I set the days/hours. It was hard I wouldn't do it again but at the time it was the best thing for me in terms of daycare.

Sue, RN

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Specializes in trauma, ortho, burns, plastic surgery.

A lot! Now depend of you the patients, from how long you work there.... for me was just ok.... and at that time I really loved... but I was much more young... now.... don't ask me! Make a test first to see how you react at!

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Specializes in LTC, MDS, Education.

Did it a few times when I was in my early 20s. 3-11 onto 11-7. (on the same telemetry floor so I knew what was going on). Often, they would give me the next evening shift off. Now, doing it would probably kill me here in LTC where I don't usually work the floor ( do MDS ), 'cause I'm OLD! :D

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A couple times but I don't recommend it. Our hospital just banned working over 12 (unless an emergency...)

I would not do med passes after 12 hours...

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Pedi/Tele.

I used to work 1 double a week. 3 - 11pm and then my normal shift of 11pm - 730 am.... I wouldn't be able to function if I did two days in a row of doubles?!

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Specializes in Psychiatric mental health.

Thanks for all the resonse so far! Its been really helpful! I have to decide by monday what I want to do...It seems like a lot of you that worked doubles only had to work those 2 days which equals only 32 hrs a week but then got paid for 40 hrs instead? Is that also called Baylor as well? I think the human resource person that hired me told me I would still have to work the 8 hrs shift as well after the double double shifts on the weekend, with no extra pay or anything. Do ppl that work baylor usually get paid more or something? I wasnt aware of this, I just might have to bring it up. Also, the facilities that have nurses work double is it usually due to short staffing or something? I am a reletively new grad since december so I really dont know that much yet!

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I wouldn't do it. Working 16 hours a day will be about 16.5-17 hours by the time you leave. You will get home say at midnight and have to be back at work by 7am the next day. Doing it to help out one day in an emergency is one thing but doing it twice a week long-term is bad, bad news. Recovery time from double shifts is rough.

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