Longest Shift You've Worked

Nurses General Nursing

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As nurses, there may be times we are required to work long days. The other day, I successfully worked my first 23 hour shift.

What is the longest shift you've ever worked? 

Specializes in nursing student.

SilverBells....Find a way??? 

There are several things that can't be left til later.  All if them should be haneed earlier in the day. 

What that means is you set your alarm on your phone or watch at an hour before your shift ends. U got into your office at shift end, adjust your daily agenda to account for what didn't get done and new items. Reset your plan for tomorrow. 

Then Leave. Period. ?

5 Votes
Specializes in Primary Care, Military.
On 6/26/2021 at 10:54 PM, LovingLife123 said:

You lose.  I worked 36 hours once, not in healthcare, but retail.  And many moons ago.

This was a contest, right?  ?

Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Are you ever really -off- shift in a combat zone? If not, I got 6 months on you. ?

1 Votes
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
18 hours ago, SilverBells said:

Seems that even though I cut back from 70+ hours to 55 hours this week,  it still was not enough.  Slept for 13 hours straight, woke up for 2 hours, now going back to bed again 

I think there's a reason the typical number of work hours hovers around 40.

2 Votes
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
On 7/2/2021 at 12:53 AM, DesiDani said:

I had a job where I worked 2 days a week with two 18 hour shifts back to back. When I was hired I thought "cool, I get 5 days off!!". Well I locked the keys in my car multiple times from being exhausted and I slept for 2 to 3 days when I was off. For me that is odd, because I am a night owl and LOVE to stay up late. My body was like "Nope. Not this time honey". I quit that place

That's the big problem with compressed work weeks.  They look great on paper.  Your body may remain unconvinced.

4 Votes
Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Good luck. Take care.

 

2 Votes
Specializes in Emergency Room, CEN, TCRN.
On 7/3/2021 at 10:10 PM, HarleyvQuinn said:

Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Are you ever really -off- shift in a combat zone? If not, I got 6 months on you. ?

We had tons of downtime, especially in the later years of OIF. Red air was awesomeness because all operations stopped until casevac could fly. 
 

longest I worked in the hospital was 16 hours. We had fires in southern Oregon that burned down two towns and the hospital needed people. My house was in an evacuation zone and I didn’t have anywhere else to go so I came in to help. Luckily the fire didn’t get my home and I had somewhere to return to after shift.

1 Votes
Specializes in Oncology.

I mentioned in a previous thread (about being burnt out, imagine that) that I've worked 24 hour shifts on a few occasions, but that comes along with a four hour break during which most nurses take a nap. Certainly NOT something that I am proud of, but our short-staffing and lack of floats to cover call-outs, etc., leave the floor dangerously understaffed so it's kind of a lose-lose situation whenever we have someone stay for a double shift.

Although I know how incredibly dangerous this can be, I did not realize it was so rare and is just another thing to add to my list of reasons why I should start looking for a new job. ?

2 Votes
Specializes in Primary Care, Military.
12 hours ago, gere7404 said:

We had tons of downtime, especially in the later years of OIF. Red air was awesomeness because all operations stopped until casevac could fly. 
 

I guess it all comes down to where you were and when. ?‍♀️ Also who you were with. Even in downtime, you are still in a more intense "on-call" type of situation 24/7. We never had a situation where operations stopped.  

0 Votes
Specializes in Emergency Room, CEN, TCRN.

baghdad (dora/karada) 05-06, MND-N (kirkuk, tal afar, mosul) 08, 09 as an infantryman (3rd ID, 81st BCT, 155th BCT (1/10 do not recommend)). Op-tempo was way slow later part of 2009, we would rotate with other the other platoons in our company so we'd have operations (usually CLPs, route clearance, presence patrols of small towns of ASRs) one day, then the other platoons would take it so we would get a couple days off.

Sometimes we would get stuck on ops that took a couple weeks but generally we had tons of gym and call of duty time, especially when the dust storms would roll in. If an op took us more than an hour time away from a FOB they would scrap it because we couldn't get a casevac bird to fly in red air. It was like a snow day.  I suppose I worked some crappy hours in the Army, and had many days longer than 16 hours, though so I get your point. 

0 Votes
Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
22 hours ago, gere7404 said:

We had tons of downtime, especially in the later years of OIF. Red air was awesomeness because all operations stopped until casevac could fly. 
 

longest I worked in the hospital was 16 hours. We had fires in southern Oregon that burned down two towns and the hospital needed people. My house was in an evacuation zone and I didn’t have anywhere else to go so I came in to help. Luckily the fire didn’t get my home and I had somewhere to return to after shift.

Thanks for stepping in to help! Those wildfires are so scary! I have family and friends scattered through Washington, Oregon and California. I never used to think twice about wildfire season but these past few years have been brutal. Fires have come close to areas my people live but so far nobody I know has been in an evacuation zone.

2 Votes
Specializes in Geriatrics.

For the love of all that is good silver bells, please please quit the nut house and get a better job! Do it for you, do it for your family, do it for your community so that your place of employment will get better and hire more help. Your going to burn yourself out, or at least make a huge mistake that will cost you. 

2 Votes
Specializes in Rehab/Nurse Manager.

Successfully only worked 7:50am-4:50pm today.  Not bad. 

1 Votes
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