SOON TO BE NURSE

LovingLife123 · May 18, 2018

Don't we all want to be home as much as possible with our families while making great money? Lol.

klone, MSN, RN · May 18, 2018

Yes and yes.

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · May 18, 2018

The Baylor hospital system has a "weekend plan" where you only work 2 weekend days.

However, until you get trained up and comfortable, I would encourage you to put in the time you need to get trained up and comfortable.

Good luck.

JKL33 · May 18, 2018

Hi, I've just had a few question in my mind because I've been considering becoming a nurse.
Can you work part time being being a new grad?
Is is it possible hospitals or clinics would offer something like 2 12's or 3 10's?
I want to have a family and want to be home as much as possible while still making a decent living.

On the chance that you haven't yet started your family, consider the idea that you could take a couple of years to establish yourself and then have even more options for tailoring your work schedule.

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN · May 18, 2018

Can you work part time being being a new grad?

It is possible to work part-time as a new grad, though part-time new grad positions are hard to come by.

Now, whether working part-time is the wisest thing to do as a new grad is another story entirely. It's hard to make that transition from student to novice nurse when you're only working 1-2 shifts a week.

Is is it possible hospitals or clinics would offer something like 2 12's or 3 10's?

For a part-time job, 2 12s may be possible.

10s are usually (in my experience anyway) not often seen in acute care settings. It's usually 8s, 12s or if you're Baylor, 16s. 10s might be seen in clinics and non-actue care settings.

I want to have a family and want to be home as much as possible while still making a decent living.

Ah, the eternal struggle. I feel you.

However, you also need to be realistic about your career. Yes, working part-time and making a decent living is possible in nursing. However, it's not very likely to happen right out of the gate, but after you've gained a few years of experience. Also, nursing is not the cash cow that people sometimes make it out to be: if you're expecting to make full-time bank while working part-time hours, you will be very disappointed.

Of course, you could always end up in a per-diem spot where the hourly base rate is quite a bit more than the hourly rate of a FT/PT employee. But per-diem spots are rarely offered to new grads because facilties expect their per-diems to hit the ground running: they're not going to hold your hand and teach you Nursing 101, especially if they are paying you $10 more an hour than the average employee. It usually takes a year or two of experience to be eligible for most per-diem jobs.

Also, with per-diem jobs, you lose the security of guaranteed hours as the job doesn't have to guarantee you a single hour. So it can be feast or famine: as much work as you want to take on one week, but get cancelled from every single shift during the next. A wise person would not rely on such insecurity for their family's financial needs, especially if they are the sole breadwinner.

Hope this helps. Best of luck whatever you decide!

KelRN215, BSN, RN · May 18, 2018

On the chance that you haven't yet started your family, consider the idea that you could take a couple of years to establish yourself and then have even more options for tailoring your work schedule.

Agree.

When I worked in the hospital, all new grads were hired into full-time positions. Mostly 40 hrs but some 36 (which was still considered full-time). I dropped to 36 hrs a year and a half in.

Acute care shifts are more commonly 8 hrs or 12 hrs. 10 hr shifts are mostly found in the outpatient world. When I worked in the hospital, the only person who worked 10 hr shifts on my entire floor was the permanent evening charge RN who was one of the most senior nurses on the staff. She came in at 1 to help out for 2 hours before taking over charge at 3pm. Eventually they took that away from her when they got rid of the 8 hr evening charge role/switched to 12 hr charge shifts.

If it's the kind of flexibility that you're looking for, private duty nursing offers a wide range of shift lengths and you can pick the cases/shifts that fit your needs. You could potentially find a case that's 2 10 hr shifts/week. I don't recommend doing this kind of nursing as a new grad, though. And the pay is generally crap so there's also that.