12 hour night shifts

[Ricia S]

I work 2 12-hour night shifts per week as a charge nurse for two med-surg units and the ICU. The nurses self-schedule but charge nurses do not. The new schedule just came out and I am working my weekend (Sat-Sun night) and then the following Friday and Monday nights. The scheduler does not understand why I am upset. This essentially puts me on every weekend and we are only required to work every other weekend. Has anyone else had a problem like this and how did you handle it?

[stevosmusic]

Being the new grad at my work they have scheduled me every weekend for the last two months. And they often schedule me sat sun Monday and Tuesday so I work 4 in a row without overtime pay lol

[Medic/Nurse, BSN, RN]

I considered Fri, Sat and Sun nights the weekend. Not germane to this discussion, but when I adopted my son, he had a lot of therapy app'ts: OT, PT, and Speech, plus another misc appt to be named later. So, I self-scheduled to work Fri, Sat, and Sun, got day care for the whole weekend. It worked great until one month, I forgot to fill out the schedule. It came out w/a perfectly normal schedule--every other weekend off, mid week shifts. YIKES. Went to the charge nurse, and said, "I can't work this schedule". She told, and I quote, "It's not the hospital's problem that you adopted a special needs child."

Next morning I went to the nurse manager and told her my tale of woe. After she picked her jaw up off the floor, she just said, I'll fix it. Next time I worked, it was fixed.

That is truly terrible. I am sorry anyone spoke to you like that.

I just cannot.

Depending on my state of shock or prickliness, I could have gone for her jugular. True verbal exsanguinsation before she could have turned to go. She would have been dead on other floor before she could have responded to me with another meaningless word. She hit her unwelcome word limit. Because just no.

This is why I 'on occasion' think certain nurses should be banned from management. Doxxed even. A place where nurses can name the bad ones on a website - and these wanna be power trippers without the requisite skills (bad personality, uncaring, the fakers, brown-nosers, etc) get called out as the 'dastardly, dirty' beings they are - perhaps enough to put an end to badness and start to put caring back into a caring profession?

:angel:

[kp2016]

I guess I am in the wrong here, but considering I only work two 12's a week, I thought maybe I wouldn't get weekend pay every week. And since my family is 200 miles away, thought maybe I could visit them once in awhile. Guess not. Oh well. Time to retire. Life's too short.

I wouldn't be surprised if that is exactly what they wanted when they gave you this new schedule. Ive seen it over and over. A new crap schedule seems to be the preferred method at a lot of hospitals of getting rid of staff at the top of the pay scale who after years of service finally have the perfect schedule.

[Ricia S]

Yeah, I agree that is a possibility since I am an older nurse. Could be their way of getting me to retire. I won't go per diem yet because it affects my pension. And there are no 12 hour night shifts available to go back on the floor. Only 8 hour evening shifts. No thank you!

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

I considered Fri, Sat and Sun nights the weekend. Not germane to this discussion, but when I adopted my son, he had a lot of therapy app'ts: OT, PT, and Speech, plus another misc appt to be named later. So, I self-scheduled to work Fri, Sat, and Sun, got day care for the whole weekend. It worked great until one month, I forgot to fill out the schedule. It came out w/a perfectly normal schedule--every other weekend off, mid week shifts. YIKES. Went to the charge nurse, and said, "I can't work this schedule". She told, and I quote, "It's not the hospital's problem that you adopted a special needs child."

Next morning I went to the nurse manager and told her my tale of woe. After she picked her jaw up off the floor, she just said, I'll fix it. Next time I worked, it was fixed.

Wow, cold. While the employer is not responsible to accommodate every worker's situation, while the hospital's problem is to run the hospital safely, this person had no business saying what she did.

Try to understand that she is a miserably unhappy person, jealous and unfulfilled. Or constipated.

I am so sorry that she hurt you.

God bless you and your child and your whole family.

[prmenrs, RN]

I was shocked, true. But, I was the most senior person on that shift, and, w/so many younger nurses watching me, I pulled it together very quickly, just said, OK, and went about my work. I knew the nurse manager would help me, and fix my schedule and deal w/little Miss PITA.

Sometimes, you gotta suck it up, and find another path. It was my own fault for not filling out my schedule on time, which I freely admitted. I felt a responsibility to model professional behavior.