joanncm109

Just depends where you work. 72 hrs. is full time. It is 3 shifts per week, 12 hrs. each shift. As far as the weekends, that is entirely up to the place of employment. When the employer is doing their full time hours, if you work 72 hrs. a pay period, you are considered a .9 FTE. (full time employee) If you work 80 hrs. a pay then you are considered a 1.0 FTE. That has something to do with the way you accrue benefits, such as sick hours and vacation hours.

I worked 3-11 for about 15 years total. I loved it, but it doesn't seem to work if you have a family. When I was younger, I found myself sleeping more, but less as I aged. You sort of have to make yourself go to bed. I loved not having to go in early, though. I have been working days for most of the past 15 years. I try to go to bed early when I have to work the next day also. If you take a nice hot shower before bed, that seems to help me relax. Also, a cup of sleepytime tea. Good luck!

I used to do pre ops for a pediatric surgery unit. One of the questions I asked if the pt. was young enough was "Do you feed your baby table foods?" One day, as I was asking the questions, I got the strangest look from a mom. She answered "No, just regular foods." Seems I had asked her if she fed her child "table scraps" !!!!

Many years ago, I got pulled to an OB unit. When I got ready to chart, I opened up this particular chart and low and behold this is what I read from the previous nurse: "lady partsl packing out, Dr. Goodwin in" !!! LMAO !!!!!!!! The good old days of long hand charting!!

When I was a student nurse, we had a general surgeon who would always write an order to "dress bid and prn". A fellow student in my class had a patient of this surgeon's one day. She had this patient to get up out of bed in the am and put his street clothes on before she walked him around the hallway! I thought our instructor was going to die of embarrassment in front of the staff nurses when everyone found out what she did!!

I was sick for the first year also! I worked on a large pediatric unit and it was not unusual for us to get 10-15 admissions in a single shift. Most of those were gastroenteritis and that is what I ended up with most of the time. Just remember to wash your hands all the time. You can't do that enough. It does get better!!