In-patient Mental Health. Staff shift times.

[Loray]

Hi to everyone. :balloons:

Where I work is an in- patient mental health .There is a discussion happening between the staff about shift times.

Q. What are your most common start & finish times.

e.g 7am to 1530hrs.. 1400hrs to 2200hrs ...2130 to 0730.:monkeydance:

There are ideas here about a 1000hrs to 1800hrs. ?????

Q. What are the most effective shift times to care for clients & for staff as well : ???????

Q. Is there feedback and experience of shift times you could add to our disscussion.:welcome:

I would be most greatful to have your time and input to have some new ideas .

Cheers to all Loray

[epg_pei]

We have day 12 7:30am to 7:30pm; night 12 7:30pm to 7:30am; eve 12 10-10; day 8 7:30 to 3:30. I hate eve because your whole day is shot and it's dark when you get home, dark and very cold if it's winter. Days are good, they go quickly. Nights are generally brutally boring.

[Loray]

Hi Epg_pei,

Thankyou for the feedback I will add to our staff discussion.

Cheers Loray

[AUMPsychRN]

we have some 12 hr shifts (7a - 7p and 7p - 7a) (11a - 11p)

8 hr shifts (7a - 3:30p; 2:30p - 11:p; and 10:45p - 7:15a)

reason for overlapping is so that floor is covered during report times.

i personally work 2 12's (7p-7a) on sat and sun and then 2 8's (10:45p-7:15a) on mon and tues. i like the fact that i get to spend some time with patients in person but am able to have time to examine the charts, get more background info than i will ever get in report.

also i think 12 hr shifts provides better patient care and communication between shifts (this comes from those 8 hr shift reports - they usually suck).

anyway my worth.............

[Lee Anne]

Right now the nurses in my facility (including me) are working one month of each shift. We work 8's. So, schedule looks like 5 nights, 2 off, 5 nights, 3 off,5 nights, 3 off, 5 nights, 3 off and then I switch to afternoons for one month, then days. We are thinking about changing to 12 hr shift, 2 days(7a-7p) 2 nights (7p-7a) with five days off and every 6 weeks we would get 6 days off. Our facility is more long term care for mental health and adictions.

Can anybody see any disadvantages? are we looking to get burnt out? Any advantages (besides the obvious)?

Thanks