Shifts

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How readily available are 8 hour shifts in hospitals? Do most hospitals offer them? Because I would love to do 8 hour nights, but not sure how acceptable/available they are....

And if any of you have 8 hour shifts, how often do you pick up an extra shift?

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Anybody know?

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Specializes in NICU.

A lot of places do offer 8 hour shifts from 2300-0700. I do 12 hour nights, so I pick up as few shifts as I can.

The higher acuity areas of hospitals where I live pretty much only have 12 hour shifts, but I don't know if that's true elsewhere.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

On our Med/Surg floor, we ONLY have 8 hour shifts. Used to have a couple of folks who did 12's, but they went by the wayside, because most of the nurses wanted 8's.

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Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics.

Many facilities offer a variety of shifts, what is available currently depends on the unit needs. I have worked scheduled 6 hour shifts with 12 hour weekends then 7 days off, two 16's, five 8's, now I am working three 12's a week but have worked two 8's and two 12's a week too. If the hours are what you want and the type of unit doesn't matter as much, look around, you will find what you want pretty quickly.

When I started nursing in the Pittsburgh area you couldn't work nights until you had experience because of the responsibilty of not really having doctors around. Now most facilities have 'house officers' to cover at night so that shift has become a really nice training ground for new nurses.

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It varies greatly from place to place and even unit to unit within a hospital. If the hours are what matters to you and you don't care, submit a resume to HR at a hospital instead of applying for a specific job. They will find a place for you! Just beware that if you go that route, you might not end up on the best floor in the house!

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Specializes in Stroke Rehab, Elderly, Rehab. Ortho.

Our hospital does 12 hour shifts for the nurses except our floor....we are the only floor that does both 12hr and 8 hour shifts... (the CNA's also do 8 hr shifts throughout the hospital) Most nurses want 12 hours though....

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Specializes in ICU, CCU,Wound Care,LTC, Hospice, MDS.

I'm in the minority. I do NOT like 12 hour shifts. I don't feel at my best the last 2-3 hours.

And I don't have children at home. Don't get me started on how little time you have with your family when you are working! Is it really made up in your 3-5 days off?

It seems to depend on the area of the country and size of the hospital,too. My husband once had an SICU job of four 10's, 6P to 4A. That wasn't bad.:(

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