8 Hour shift vs 12 hour shift

[gwelch01, BSN, RN]

I am a third year nursing student and getting ready for a class in nursing research. I thought a good research topic might be the 8 hour shift vs the 12 hour shift. The question would be does the difference of 4 hours more have any negative impact on patient care? What are your opinions on this as a topic for a research paper? I know a lot of hospitals have favored going to 12 hour shifts.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

There is quite a bit of very significant research on that very subject. Since conducting the literature review is an important part of this learning activity, I encourage you to do that.

[gwelch01, BSN, RN]

There is quite a bit of very significant research on that very subject. Since conducting the literature review is an important part of this learning activity, I encourage you to do that.

Thank you very much for the feed back. I was thinking the same thing. Since there was a lot of research on this subject I would have no problem finding it.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I think it is a great topic -- very relevant to what is happening in health care today. It touches a lot on topics that are "hot" right now, such as patient safety, economics, and RN work environment.

Also, as HouTx said, there is enough work done on the topic already to give you a good foundation for whatever you want to do with it. You should be able to meet your course requirements with it.

Personally, I also like it because it is controversial. For some people, 12-hour shifts and the ability to work as many hours per week as they want are a "sacred cows" that must not be touched -- and some people aren't happy about some of the patient safety research that shows that long hours and too many hours per week can be harmful for both the nurse and the patients.

The pot needs to be stirred once in a while. Good topic choice!

[gwelch01, BSN, RN]

9:27 pm by llg, BSN, MSN, PhD Guide

I think it is a great topic -- very relevant to what is happening in health care today. It touches a lot on topics that are "hot" right now, such as patient safety, economics, and RN work environment.

Thank you very much for your feed back and encouragement. When we were doing our clinicals last quarter and the RN's on the floor had 5 patients at a time, I wondered when they were working 12 hour shifts how it would be if they ended up with 5 patients who were all very demanding of medical attention. If the day was tremendously busy how would they be coping at the eleventh and twelve hour.

[Everline]

12 hours is a long shift. But having to be at the hospital 5 days a week with 8 hour shifts would be much, much worse in my opinion—in almost every way.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

I personally like my 8 hrs, although I don't work full time either. I would hate to work 5 days a week doing something as mentally exhausting as nursing is.

That's just my opinion though. Have you tried doing a Google Scholar or PubMed search? Or searched your school library's database?