Hi all! I'm a Cardiothoraic Surgery ICU nurse, still a fairly new nurse with 1 year experience. I enjoy my job and love that I can self-schedule. I work nights.
I'm thinking about scheduling myself for 6 days off, 8 days on so I can travel more in these next few months without using any PTO time. I'm single with no kids (except a 4 month old puppy).
Has anyone done this schedule before? I have a few coworkers who have and got mixed reviews. I'll love to hear from people who have worked 5 or more days straight. I've done 4 in a row, not more. I can also do it for half the schedule to just text it out.
Yes, that is the part that sucks. But seeing as I have no social life and I normally work lots of weekends for the weekend diff anyway..it works out fine for me. There is definitely pros and cons
That is my best friend's schedule. She works Fri-Wed, and 4 of the shifts are 12s so she's actually a 0.8 FTE. It would kill me to do it, but she loves her days off. She's also miserable and cries when it's time to come back to work, but I think that's more to do with our manager and work load than schedule, although it might help her to get some rest. I did the opposite (8 on 6 off) until I went per diem, and the 8 days on seemed like an eternity.
I did this for about a year and a half and I didn't quit because it was too difficult. We generally get the same patients back if you work consecutive shifts and if I wasn't afraid to ask to change assignments if they weren't something I could stand for 6 days in a row. We did all our traveling on my days off and I accumulated a lot of PTO. My feet would really hurt at the end and my ankles would be pretty swollen, but I was at my heaviest and I'm sure that would be better today. My co-workers all thought I was crazy but it wasn't really bad. I only changed because my husband changed his schedule and now I am on a weekend plan so I have to be there most weekends.
I wouldn't recommend it for people with children (other than like one of the previous posters that had a specific custody situation).
Best of luck to you! The only downside of a schedule like that is that if you arrive and have a really crappy first shift, it's going to color your view of the next 5 nights/days lol. But, then, you will have 8 days off, which is nice, but I don't do it because I don't want to be at work 6 nights in a row; I'd just find myself dreading coming back to work knowing that I will have no free time for an entire week.
You can always try it, and if you find you don't like it, you can go back to a different schedule. Maybe 3 on, 4 off or something
You can also do a 3 on, 1 off and then 3 on again and have 7 days off (if you start on a Thursday or Friday). That will still give you a bunch of days off and not have to do 6 days straight.
So finished my 6 nights straight today and this time worked all 6 nights. And I have to say...it wasn't that bad! Yes, I was tired but once I got up to get ready for work, I was basically up and ready to go.
I think what helps me is I don't have any kids. I do have a puppy and I would get up to walk and feed him but that was about it. I would drop him off at a friend's house before going in to work, pick him up after work, eat and feed him, shower, sleep from about 9-2, get up, walk my pup, eat and feed him, lay back down around 3/3:30, get up at around 530, get ready for work, and repeat cycle.
I also would cook enough food before the first shift so I wouldn't have to spend time cooking. I also did not do any errands except what was necessary. I did have to go to a same day doctor's appointment but I went right after work and that day, left the puppy at the friend's house.
So, it is possible to do and I will probably keep this shift as long as possible! Now I'm off to go out of state for my 8 days off! Without using PTO! Ahhh...the perks! :)
Lovelymo79
908 Posts
Yes, that is the part that sucks. But seeing as I have no social life and I normally work lots of weekends for the weekend diff anyway..it works out fine for me. There is definitely pros and cons