8 or 12 hour shifts

[LPNTOBE2017]

Hello Everyone,

I am not a nurse. I am a pre-nursing student. I would just like to know do you prefer working an 8 or 12 hour shift? What are the pros/cons of working either shift? I thank you for taking time out to read and respond to my post.

carmen

[RNforLongTime]

I currently work 8 hr shifts. I'd LOVE to work 12 hour shifts but I'm told that it won't work where I'm currently employed. The way my schedule runs is 7 in a row, 2 off, 3 on and 2 off. The short week is nice. The 7 day (or nights in my case) is tough.

I prefer 12's.

[NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN]

I've done both. 12s are awesome but 8s allow me to see my son more....wxcept right now on swings when he's at school when I'm home and I'm at work when he's home. If I could get 8 hr day shift it would be ideal. I'd love to read him bedtime stories every night and help with homework. Some day. ...

[Labmom1118]

I work both in a level 1 nursery. I do 12's on my weekend and mostly 8's during the week. Oh, did I mention that it's nights? Since we do VS at 0700, 1500, and 2300, doing 2300-0700 means that I have to get started right away on vitals, baths, and weights. Hopefully we're not having a shift change delivery which throws my whole night off. Working a 12 gives me a few hours so that I can get started and not feel rushed. On the other end, that first 12 is so hard and you can't do anything but work and sleep when you're doing 3 in a row. An 8 gives you a little bit more of a normal life.

[cynmrn]

I miss working 12's, which I did while working full-time in acute care. I am currently a school nurse working 8's and while I enjoy the work hours, I miss having those stretches of 5 days off in a row. I miss only taking 3 days of PTO and getting like 12 days off in a row. I am thinking about returning to 12 hour shifts so my husband and I can have some time to ourselves during the week while the kiddos are at school.

It's true that during 12 hour shifts, you don't see much of your family during your work days, but the payoff is that you get more full days off with them instead of hanging out after being at work all day.

[theRPN2b]

I prefer 12's, to make full time hours you only need 2 shifts per week, and that means you get more days off during the week (instead of just 2 in your typical 8 hour shift job).

[lunchboxRN]

I hated 8's. I did that for 2 years. I was tired after getting home and never felt like I had time to start anything I needed to do after driving home, eating dinner... I LOVE 12's. They go fast! No, I don't like not getting to see my family on work days for more than a few minutes, but I have so much extra time now. Before, weekends were a rush to do mundane stuff like clean and shop on Sat so I could relax/do fun stuff on Sun.

Also, taking driving into consideration, I have about 10 xtra hours a week from my job change. Also, when I feel like it I can pickup an extra shift and still have plenty of non-work time.

[wanderlustnurse88, RN]

I've worked both. I didn't mind the 8 hour shifts when I was part time. Then I went full time and didn't like working the 8s. It felt like I was alway there. Then I worked a hybrid of 8s and 12s. I still only had 2 days off at a time. We now do 12s and I live them. It's a long day, but I feel like I can get all my tasks done for the day. I'm single with no kids so working all day is fine for me.

[CelticGoddess, BSN, RN]

I've worked both 8's and 12's. I prefer 12's. I did 8's for 2 years, 3-11. I never saw my family, felt like I was always at work. When I got my first hospital job, working 12's, I only worked 2 days a week (still nights) and it was wonderful. Now I work 3 nights/week and still love it. I NEVER want to go back to 8's.

[JerseyTomatoMDCrab, BSN]

If you're doing anything bedside (acute care, LTC) 12s are the way to go. I could never have handled going into work 5 days a week when I was working in the hospital. Plus it's so nice to have days off during the week to go to the doctor, catch up on housework and run errands. I miss that sometimes.

[jjmm RN,BSN]

I work in acute care (med-surg unit) and I hated 8 hour shifts. I worked mostly 7-3 with some 3-11. I felt like I was always there, and unless I had really easy patients I would always be there late charting. I barely ever got 2 days off in a row, and felt like I lived there. Its also really stressful to deal with the same difficult patients and families every single day, which often happened. If you work a streak of days on you will get the same group most of the time. After almost a year of that and a stint on the 7p-7a night shift I finally got a 12 hour day shift and I love it. The days are long, but I don't feel like I live on the unit and finally get multiple days off at a time. It's too stressful of a unit to feel like you can never get away for a couple days.

[~Shrek~]

12 hour day shifts (three 12's) > 8 hour day shifts (five 8's) > 8 hour evening shifts > 12 hour night shifts > 8 hour night shifts

[nutella, MSN, RN]

I used to like 12 h shifts - that was before I got older ...

8 h sifts are ok with me but I try not to work 40 h /week because this one day off per week is the day I schedule all kind of things,do food shopping, and big homework in graduate school...