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I can tell you what I've seen in my various clinical rotations...
ICU NPs at my current hospital work 3 12s. A neurosurgery NP at a different hospital works 4 10s. And I've worked with cardiology and general surgery NPs who do 5 8s. So it all varies from specialty to specialty...and hospital to hospital. I've never seen any that do 24hr shifts though.
Our NNPs also do 24 hour shifts. It depends on the NP. Some of them (the older ones who have been with the group for a long time) do not do any 24 hour shifts. Most of the NPs are required to foot a few for the month and also will do some 12 hours on day/night schedules. They all are required to do some of each and rotate amongst themselves. I was told once that 72/biweekly is full time for them, just like it is for us as staff.
The surgery NPs we use work a 5 8 hours a week schedule. In my last unit, most of the NPs had the same schedule, but that was a telemetry floor.
It's 3 12's for us in the Adult ICU's. The union pretty much dictated this schedule because otherwise it can be appealing to do 3 24 hour shifts and have more days off. The hospital would have to pay us lots of overtime if we had that kind of schedule. However, I've met an ACNP who works in Florida in the ICU who works 36 hours straight. It's like calling the hospital your home for the next 3 days - you eat, shower, sleep in the hospital for 3 days and you get to know all those ICU patients really well. This person loves the schedule but I'm afraid I'd be delirious after 36 hours in the ICU.
guest769224
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This is for NP's working in an inpatient hospital type setting--
I am curious what length of shift most hospital NP's work? I spoke with our neonatal nurse practitioner and she told me the NNP's work six (6) 24 hour shifts each month to be considered full time. And that's it. She said it's an amazing schedule. However, when I worked in trauma, our trauma APRN's only worked (3) 12 hour shifts per week, like the RN's do.
What is typical at your hospital setting? I would love to work 24 hour shifts only (with intermittent naps when slow), and have so many days off per month. I wonder if ER NP's do this. Can anyone provide any insight on what type of NP specialties have the opportunity to work a schedule like this?