I have been a nurse for about 3 years working full time at a local hospital. My full time schedule has been 4 days on and 5 days off (2 days then 2 nights and 5 days off) which are 12 hours shifts. I have always been interested in public health where the schedule is 8 hours through Monday to Friday with weekend and holidays off but I am not sure if its any better than my current schedule. Working night shifts are becoming very difficult.
Which would you guys prefer? 4 days on 5 days off or Monday to Friday with weekend and holidays off. Have any of you experience working in the hospital and community setting? How was transition from hospital to office work?
Thanks in advance for any of your input! It would be greatly appreciated!
I have been working rotating shifts, evenings, nights, weekends and holidays for almost 10 years. I graduate from NP school next spring (1 year away) and I am literally counting down the days till I can get that M-F 9-5 ðŸ˜
Shift work...Monday-Friday sounds soul crushing. With shift work, you can easily schedule yourself to have long weekends and even eight-day vacations without having to use your PTO/vacation hours. Also, you don't have to use your PTO to schedule doctor appointments, and running errands on a Wednesday morning or going to the movies on a Tuesday afternoon sounds like heaven.
Yep, life becomes a hazzle when you have to schedule your life around work. But when you can schedule work around your life, holy guacamoles its a perfect thing. Honestly i hated my life when i was working M-F in an office, 8 hour days actually became 10 or 12 hour days counting getting ready for work, commuting back and fort in a traffic heavy city, and then not leaving on time from the office anyways. Yeah screw that, ill take 3 days of work, even if they are 24 hour long, instead of that daily grind that eroded my soul and killed my joy.
I love your sentence about scheduling work around your life! That's what I do but never stated it that way. Because I work PRN I can do this. I love shift work too. I almost took a temporary full time day position but then I thought of the traffic I'd be in both ways and missing my weekday fun with my friends and didn't complete the application.
I love your sentence about scheduling work around your life! That's what I do but never stated it that way. Because I work PRN I can do this. I love shift work too. I almost took a temporary full time day position but then I thought of the traffic I'd be in both ways and missing my weekday fun with my friends and didn't complete the application.
Wise decision on avoiding the position that would have ended your enjoyment of life. I understand some people have no choice about it, but if you have the chance I would avoid giving so much of my week to work responsibilities. You can still give work the same amount of time that anyone else does ( work 40 hours, but instead of doing it on 5 or 6 days, do it in 3 days). Some people truly do enjoy their work, and find fulfillment in it. Others like me do find enjoyment in work, but realize one day used, is a day that brings me closer to my death, so might as well live my life the way I choose to.
I just switched from shift work (nights) to a day shift Monday through Friday position. It's the best decision I've made in a long time. I never felt rested and while in theory I had four days off a week, at least one of those, if not two, were spent recuperating. Yes, I have to go to work more days a week, but I'm not exhausted all the time. I should add that I went from a bedside role to an office job. I can't imagine being at the bedside five days a week.
I've worked 3 12's as well as years doing clinical review work with M-F no holidays no weekends. I prefer evenings and weekends off. I absolutely hated 3 12's bc I flipped from days/nights, I was a walking zombie. The M-F thing was emotionally exhausting bc I worked with an emotional vampire that sucked the joy out of everything. Now I work in hospice and for the most part I love my job/hours! I work mostly M-F 8-430p most weekends and holidays off. We are on-call for 1 winter and 1 summer holiday. This year I did Christmas and did not need to leave my house, I just triaged a few calls. We are always stacked with other nurses especially for holidays so you can roll calls to one or other to still enjoy family time.
We have weekend call approx every 6 weeks and that's the only thing I don't like about the job. It's very stressful to be "on" for 48 hours. (I'm on call til Monday at 8am) that you may or may not need to go out. But I definitely work to live, not live to work so this works for me best.
That's what I prefer also. I do 12s and usually two on 3 off but I have to work every other weekend. I just can't take 5 days a week. I need time off between for my mental health. I work days now, I used to work nights I prefer nights.
PediGIRN12
8 Posts
I have been working rotating shifts, evenings, nights, weekends and holidays for almost 10 years. I graduate from NP school next spring (1 year away) and I am literally counting down the days till I can get that M-F 9-5 ðŸ˜