12 hr shifts in Australia

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Hey all, first time posting on Allnurses but I've been reading here for years. I'm wondering if nurses in OZ are allowed to work 12 hr shifts 3 days/week. Or if that simply isn't an option there. I'm a nursing student in the US and I'll graduate in Dec 2019. After 3-5 years of working here my dream is to move to Australia and work as an RN. One reason I decided to become a nurse is to have the ability to travel, and that is quite easy to do when you only work 3 days a week (as most nurses do here in the States).

I've had difficulty finding this information online in any straightforward fashion. To narrow it down I'm planning to move to Qld.

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You're Allowed (There are no laws prohibiting it) however most of your standard ward nursing doesn't do 12-hour shifts.

I've most commonly seen 12-hour shifts in ICU, ED & Labour/Birth (which is staffed by Midwives in Australia, not RN's)

The standard shifts however for RN's in Australia is 8 hour shifts, or 10 hours for night shifts

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Not sure about QLD but I'm in vic and the hospital I'm at certainly does 12hr shifts. I love them and wish more hospitals offered them

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

It depends on the ward / hospital....Also most nurses only work around 64hrs per fortnight so they only work 4 days a week.

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Most hospitals generally do 8 hour shifts (7-3:30pm, 1pm-9:30pm and 9pm-7am).
ICU are the main wards that does 12 hour shifts and some labour wards does 12 hour shifs.

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