Longer Work Hours - Dialysis

[JazieLun]

Hi there, I began working at the dialysis unit three months ago, and after three weeks of training, I'm now working independently. I still feel very overwhelmed and nervous about everything because I still have a lot of new stuff to learn, especially when I'm doing dialysis treatment for an ICU patient by myself. There are days that I'm staying longer than 12-hour shifts. If a patient needed dialysis and you weren't scheduled to be on call that day, were you expected to work past your 12-hour shift?

Sometimes, I have two schedules: one for a 12-hour shift from 7 am to 7 pm and another for "on-call" work from 7 pm to 7 am the same day. Is that normal? 

I work a 12-hour day shift with call as a full-time employee, putting in roughly 72 hours per pay period. It appears that neither the offer letter nor the interview discussed the on-call component of working the night shift.

[Janala]

There are days we work over 16 hrs. It is entirely too long. 13 is max for safety I feel. It's really becoming a problem and I believe it is contributing to the large numbers of staff members quitting. 

[Duncan6]

I think that's fairly typical for acutes.  When I did acutes- albeit 20 years ago- I often got stuck late into the evening/night with patients coming in the ER, etc.  It's why I wouldn't consider doing it anymore.