Shift work PROBLEMS??

I work with prisoners. 14 hours with them will grind on you.

Wow. That sounds like intense times too! How do you manage?

With 20+ patients to take care of once, my biggest shift challenges mainly revolve around time management, making sure to give everyone their meds and treatments while in the midst of dealing with emergencies, falls, constant requests for pain medication, call lights always going off, and agitated/combative patients. Sometimes I do have a partner and we split up our group of people, but there are many times when I am on my own. I know what you mean about missing your family and free time. I actually have 2 jobs, and work about 28-29 days of the month at one or both jobs. So, I have little free time and miss out on many family events.

I love my 12 hour shifts. I've actually been browsing for a new job and won't even consider shifts other than 12s. I like 4 days off and grocery shopping in the middle of day on a Tuesday when everyone else is at work. It does such working weekends and holidays when all my friends and family is off. Now that I'm a mother, working holidays sucks more. But I'll still take it over 9 to 5 grind.

Wow. That sounds like intense times too! How do you manage?

I let people express themselves and just act as a sounding board. Silence is presumed acceptance. Everyone gets the same treatment: Neutrality and best effort.

I focus on planning my RPG campaign on my breaks. Or I do some push ups or stretching to relieve stress.

So if you can afford to, try to go PRN. You call the shots, more or less and work when able/available/want to.

If you can't, keep trying to find a position that is more likely to offer daytime hours, such as outpatient nursing. Many people can scale back and afford to go part time or PRN and are much happier for it. I loved PRN nursing when my kids were babies and I did not want them in daycare. Heck, I miss those days now.

I did L/D PRN. It was amazing. When the kids were older, I went full time. I hated it. The 12 hours shifts back to back and the physical hard work that is the nature of that job, got to me as I got older. So often, such jobs are better-suited to younger folks who can handle nights, long shifts and great physical labor.

Leaving hospital nursing was the right thing for me. I have not looked back. Normal, 9 hour dayshifts and 4 days a week. It's the best thing since my PRN days. I hope to go PRN again in the future and free myself up to do mission type nursing and focus on hobbies. Also, I am not getting any younger and grandbabies are starting to come/in the future. They are my focus now. More than ever, getting older has really forced me to focus on different sets of priorities. Life is very short, that I know.

I started on evenings and hated it. Switched to nights and like it much better, but I don't think it's sustainable over the life of a career. It works for now. It is hard to stick with- on my nights off I end up falling asleep and then screwing up my sleep schedule for my work days. I need to stop doing that.

Due for a baby in a couple months and am hoping to drop to PRN or part time when I go back to work afterward, in about March.

Hey All,

I'm at a weird place in my nursing career, I've been an LPN for six years and now a newly graduated BScN RN. I am currently working on Labor and Delivery, originally it was my dream job, now it couldn't be any further from the truth. I don't even know if I can handle working full-time shift work anymore, I miss my family and free time so much.

What are YOUR biggest shift work problems???

By shift work, do you mean switching back and forth from days to nights? Or something else?

Due for a baby in a couple months and am hoping to drop to PRN or part time when I go back to work afterward, in about March.

That's exactly what I did after I had my baby and I actually feel alive. I still work overnight and take care of the baby during the day, but since I get to control the days I work, my schedule is very consistent. It's so much easier and less stressful than the chaotic scheduled that I used to work.