Nursing is Family Friendly?

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Hi everyone. I have gotten into a nursing program beginning this fall. I'm feeling very excited to get started. However, now that it is a reality, I am starting to really think about the logistics of the 3 days a week/12 hour shifts and wondering just how family-friendly a nursing career is.

When you start out, are you able to have a set schedule? Would it be hard to find a job with the 7pm-7am shifts on Fri/Sat/Sun every week? (My husband works long days but only Mon-Thursday.) Or are shifts always rotating and changing week by week? Is there a good amount of flexibility, or am I dreaming?

I know there are probably many different scenarios, but is it unreasonable to think it's a possibility to make something like the above schedule work?

I know there will be times when life doesn't fall perfectly into place, but I am hoping for something that works most of the time. Please let me know if I am being unrealistic. :)

ETA: I'm sorry if this is in the wrong forum. I thought it was a question best to ask experienced nurses but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have posted here without actually being a nurse...?

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It really depends on you… You can actually pick your own schedule, and your own shifts. But, it also depends on the hospital. It is a profession, where you can really dictate your working hours, but if you work less, of course the pay scale will be according to that.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Don't be afraid to post here even though you're not yet a nurse. :) When appropriate, the mods will move posts to different forums, but you needn't worry about that.

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A nurses schedule depends on a variety of factors such as the hospitals scheduling policy , what shift you are hired for and etc. For example at my job we self schedule but there are a set of rules such as working a night shift per 6 weeks for rotators and if you are night shift you can break up your weekend shifts. Hope this makes sense. Bedside nursing does offer lots of flexibility in my opinion. Just be prepared to work holidays and snow days which may not be family friendly.

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Yes and no.

In some ways it is very family friendly. By working three days/nights a week, "long weekends" or stretches of having 3-5 days off in a row are extremely common and can facilitate short trips to visit family members out of town and spending long stretches with family. I've also found that a lot of units allow for self scheduling making it more than feasible to adjust your schedule to do things like be off of work on the day of your anniversary or your kids birthday, or just a day that is important to your family.

In other ways, not so much. As a nurse you will miss some holidays. How many and when are dependent on your facility's rules, but it's just going to happen. Also, last minute changes are really very difficult and everyone knows that part of having kids is having last minute things come up. Your kid throws up at 5:30 in the morning and you have to be at work at 7. Try to call out? It is, more than likely, going to be a problem. So having support is key, whether that is your spouse, grandparents nearby, etc. A "last minute" childcare plan is needed in nursing.

Also, a lot of it depends on how long you have been at your facility. I know that two months into me working at a facility I asked if I could have a day off the schedule and have it swapped for a day in another week that I would be willing to work. My manager emailed me with a friendly but firm response essentially telling me no, not unless I could do the swap myself. A year and a half later at the same facility, after I have proven my loyalty and the fact that I am a hard worker and someone the facility doesn't necessarily want to loose, when I emailed a request for essentially the same thing, I received an email basically stating "your switch has been made and is in the house schedule."

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As a new nurse? No. You take the scut shifts at a lot of places until you get seniority. I worked weekends holidays, 3 on 1 off 3 on a lot of the times....

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Would it be hard to find a job with the 7pm-7am shifts on Fri/Sat/Sun every week?
Since your scheduling needs are reasonable, you should not encounter much trouble finding a facility that is willing to grant you the opportunity to work weekend night shift. It is not as if you are demanding to work Monday through Friday from 7:00am to 3:00pm with no evenings, nights, weekends, or holidays.

The reality is that a large number of staffing holes occur on nights and weekends. The OP actually wants to work every weekend on the night shift, and many hospitals would consider this a blessing.

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Since your scheduling needs are reasonable, you should not encounter much trouble finding a facility that is willing to grant you the opportunity to work weekend night shift. It is not as if you are demanding to work Monday through Friday from 7:00am to 3:00pm with no evenings, nights, weekends, or holidays.

The reality is that a large number of staffing holes occur on nights and weekends. The OP actually wants to work every weekend on the night shift, and many hospitals would consider this a blessing.

True, you can have my weekend shifts OP.....Off to work I go....

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Specializes in hospice.

If you are willing to work every weekend I highly doubt you'll have a problem finding jobs. There is also the "double weekend" at places that run 8 hour shifts, usually LTC, SNF, rehab, etc. where you work 16 hours each on Saturday and Sunday only.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
There is also the "double weekend" at places that run 8 hour shifts, usually LTC, SNF, rehab, etc. where you work 16 hours each on Saturday and Sunday only.
Yep. I worked weekend double shifts for several years while attending school.

I worked two 16-hour shifts from 6:00am to 10:00pm every Saturday and Sunday. This schedule enabled me to receive 32 hours of pay for working two long days per week and left me with Monday through Friday off.

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Thank you for the great input all. Anything that helps me get a fuller picture is much appreciated! Several of you have supported my thought that since the shifts I want are typically "undesirable", it isn't ridiculous to hope for something that works for us.

As a new nurse? No. You take the scut shifts at a lot of places until you get seniority. I worked weekends holidays, 3 on 1 off 3 on a lot of the times....

Is this common? I have a husband who can have a little wiggle room, but we don't live near family nor do we have a great system around us that could support me working like that, unfortunately.

I am doing this as a second income for our family, so maybe I need to consider part time? Is that a possibility fresh out of school?

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I am doing this as a second income for our family, so maybe I need to consider part time? Is that a possibility fresh out of school?
Generally speaking, most employers in the US are unwilling to spend the money to train and orient a new grad who only wants to work part-time. In exchange for their investment in your training, they'll want a full-time commitment.

Most part-time positions in my city are offered to experienced nurses who started as full-time, but opted to change their status to part-time. So after a year of working full-time, you can perhaps request to switch to part-time status.

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