12 hour rotating shift thoughts??

jennylee321 · Nov 29, 2017

Try it out, I much prefer 12s, more days off and less days at work. I felt like I was constantly at work when I did 8 hr rotating shifts. It's definitely not the same as doing mon-Fri 9-5. You work the same number of hours as other people but most of the time you are working at different times then they are.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Nov 29, 2017

As you said, you have an option to try. Might as well try it. Shift preferences are highly personal. I loved evening shift, sleep till I wanted to get up, plenty of time to do what was needed before going in.

Check out other threads on this, but rotating days and nights is pretty hard on the body. I could never do it.

Best wishes, let us know how it's going.

LovingLife123 · Nov 29, 2017

Realize that working those 2 night shifts does not take up two days of your time, it will take up 4 days. You gotta prep by sleeping the first night you go in, so that day is gone. Then, the day you come home after the second night shift you will sleep that entire day away. Are the two nights together?

I just hated night shift. It ended up being too time consuming for me and I was miserable.

RNperdiem, RN · Nov 29, 2017

Would you have self-scheduling? If you do, then you have the ability, within some limits, to adjust your schedule to support your needs.

For example, some nurses love scheduling themselves with several shifts in a row, then take a stretch of days off. Others prefer to break up the working days with time off between. For day and night rotation, I can go easily from day to night, but it takes time to catch up on sleep to go back from nights to days.

I used to work 8 hour shifts, and once I took a job requiring 12 hour shifts, I really enjoyed my extra days off.

merang · Nov 29, 2017

I currently work 12 hour shifts. I love it however at times those 12 hour shifts can turn into 13 or 14, however it's only 3 days a week. Were I work we have to work every 3rd weekend and our manager lets us fill out a "wish list" over a 6 week schedule. We have to work so many Monday and Fridays within those 6 weeks. I figure if you can be at a job for 8 hours 4 more isn't that bad and again it's only 3 days a week.

RottylvAPRN · Nov 29, 2017

I worked 12 hr rotating shifts, we did 2 weeks of nights then 2 weeks of days (7-7). It took me forever to adjust to the night weeks and by then I was back to the day shifts :) We also did self-scheduling and it was really helpful, you could have a lot of days off in between switching from days to nights.

NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN · Nov 29, 2017

I remember when there used to be a lot of 8 hour hospital shifts available where I live. Then every facility that I can think of switched to 12s. Fact is, it's easier to find staffing for 2 shifts than three. I wouldn't be surprised if the 8 hour shift option is no longer on the table if enough people "try" the rotating shifts thing.

Personally, there is no way in hell that I would flip flop my shifts like that. Being able to get through one late night shift in a pinch might be possible, but 12 hours when I'm used to starting my day at 5:30am (hour drive)? Not happening.

anewsns · Nov 29, 2017

Rotating is actually kind of fun. It switches up your pace and my favorite thing is when I switch over I can suddenly stay up late and sleep in all the time. I just try to get plenty of sleep in general and it works out. I was always a 3-11 girl too, so Your body is already somewhat adjusted to both days and nights. I actually don't need to prep as much as much as I thought as my sleep always sort of defaults to somewhere in between the two shifts anyway. We have self scheduling. Nice to have 2 days off between the flip flop. I try to plan my days a couple weeks in advance like whether it's going to be a high activity errand / Social day or more a laundry/ tv day and not fight the changing energy levels. I have no kids, as you can tell here. I don't consider days wasted since I'll generally be awake the same amount of hours on a day off even if it's the middle of the night and we got a 24 Hour grocery store and gym. The only huge bother on nights is lack of sunlight. Sorry for the ramble. This is my favorite topic.

oceangirl1234 · Nov 30, 2017

I love my 12's. They are the best. And night shifts aren't that bad...it is actually nice to work at a different pace sometimes. Just make sure you get enough sleep and you will be fine.