Hours?

Some units self schedule, but from what I have seen, that is not the norm. Some facilities have 12 hour shifts, and some have 8s. In some settings, you'll be expected to work every other weekend, night shifts, rotating days/nights, or a whole host of different schedule types. It all depends on where you live and what the job market is like by the time you graduate.

This will vary WIDELY depending on where you work.

My first place of employment we self-scheduled, for 12 hour-shifts. We had to do three/week for full-time positions, with a total of six weekend shifts per six week scheduling period. PRN and part-time requirements were different, and required a different number during the period. We could request days we wanted and days we weren't available, but we weren't guaranteed those days, especially when I was assigned to one floor, since we had to compete with everyone else on the limited staffing space. When I switched to float pool, we had more hours available, so we got more of the days we wanted because the availability of shifts was better.

New hospital, they don't self-schedule, but they do take requests for days off in advance, and we still have the weekend requirements for work. I don't end up seeing much of a difference, since self-scheduling never guaranteed days you wanted, anyway. I think the availability of shifts depends on the staffing and competition rather than the type of scheduling.

If you can't work full-time shifts consistently, you can consider a PRN position. Most of those you choose your hours, and do full-time or part-time hours as available. Only downside is you usually don't have benefits, and you aren't guaranteed the full-time hours like a full-time employee. But if census doesn't drop often, that largely won't matter, if you don't need benefits.

You'll probably just have to scope things out when they come up. I've been a single mom since nursing school, and having resources like multiple friends or mom groups is a valuable networking to get going. I've relied on neighbors, friends, coworkers, whoever could help, and mine was four when I graduated.

It all depends on what the facilities are looking for, but yes some nurses do work part time. Generally if you're hired as FT or regular PT (as opposed to casually/per diem/on call/prn), there will be weekend requirements. What I've seen is 8-hr nurses work every other weekend, 12-hr nurses work every 3rd.

Also what I've noticed in my area is that it's much easier to get the hours you want in nursing homes. In fact, years back I left an ICU job for a SNF job because I needed to work 8-hr day shifts. The wait for such a position in the hospital was longer than Methusaleh's life, it seemed.

***by "the hours you want," I mean there are more options. I don't know what hours you personally want.

Where I work, full time staff works 3 12 hour shifts a week. There is self-scheduling. You are not guaranteed to always get what you want, and there are guidelines for how many holidays, weekends and nights you are expected to schedule yourself for. I enjoyed the flexibility of self-scheduling.

The people who have the most freedom in scheduling are the per diem staff. We have a minimum of one shift in a pay period, but otherwise we can choose what days and shifts we work. The downside is that there are no benefits like health insurance, or retirement funds, and we are the first ones cancelled if the census of patients is low. The freedom is here, but a single mom with a baby would need something more dependable than per diem.

Some areas of nursing require you to be on call after hours. I have known L&D, OR and dialysis nurses tell me that they had to have childcare arrangements available in case they got called in to work.

Do you realize your son will be in school when you graduate?

In the current environment, you will be working night shift 3 twelve hour shifts, every other weekend and holiday.

You could work two 12 hours shifts, but you would not receive benefits.