what do you all think about 12 hour shifts?

Nurses General Nursing

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I personally miss the days of normal 8 hour days. I find myself craving a normal 5 day work week. I have been considering leaving acute care for this reason. So what do you all think? Has 12 hour shifts increased the stress of nursing and contributed to nurse burnout?

Specializes in Telemetry, Nursery, Post-Partum.
Perhaps I was interpreting people saying they had more time to get things done as being "things at work". This sounds like you have more time at home to get things done, but that's not what other posts indicated to me. I can understand the home thing. Same reason why I work 3-11 and not 7-3. After 7-3 I was worthless. Before a 3-11 I can get in a good bunch of stuff at home.

Now back to the at work question: I don't see how being there 12 hours makes doing 12 hours worth of duties any easier.

Off to work now, where my main goal in life will be to leave on time!

I think other posters are saying you have more time to get things done at work. I think this primarily applies to 7a-7p though...On my old unit (telemetry) we did assessments primarily at 7a (well, started them then) and 7p. We did not have to rechart an assessment at 3pm unless you were picking up the patient at 3pm (or 11p), we were primarily staffed with 12 hour nurses, and trying to phase out 8 hour and 4 hour shifts. The idea of having "more time" is that, if you are working 7a-7p, the bulk of your work is in the morning (assessments, most qday meds, I & O at 3p,etc) and from 3-7p the work load is lighter (aside from admissions), so you can put off some things till this "lighter" time of the day, instead of trying to cram everything in by 3pm and have report ready, etc. I have found working 7p-7a, I could have my assessments done by 10pm, I&Os at 11p, the majority of meds are at 10 pm or midnight, I could have chart checks done by say 2am, and then I just have to watch my patients and stuff, and relax a smidge until its time to do I & O and report in the morning. 11p-7a I always felt behind because you are trying to get your assessment done before the patient is totally asleep, plus you have meds at midnight frequently, chart checks (which you can get a headstart on during a 7p-7a shift), etc. Same work basically, less time. Hope that made some sense!

I love my 12 hour shifts, I hate working 5 days a week! If I could work parttime, I wouldn't mind 8 hour shifts as much, but I don't want to come in 5x a week, yuck. Even though working nights you kinda lose a day off for sleep, 12 hour shifts are still worth it.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Nursery, Post-Partum.
Question for those who like 12 hour shifts! Do you do the same schedule every week?

See where I work I do 12 hour shifts and the days vary every week, so I find it very hard to adjust and not too feel exhausted and wanting to sleep on my days off.

For example my schedule for one month is:

1st week Sunday, Wednesday, Friday

2nd week Monday, Tuesday, Thursday

3rd week Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday

4th week Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday

I don't know if it's the varying of the schedule or the 12 hours shifts that wear me out. Some days I do crave the normalacy of a 9-5 job, but I think that may be my age showing.:uhoh3:

I try to keep a somewhat regular schedule, with holiday requirements it doesn't always work out, but I try to always do something like this (12 hour nights):

1st week: thurs,fri,sat

2nd week: sun, wed, thurs

And repeat! I'm usually pretty tired after the 4 days strech, but then I have nearly a week off coming up, so it works well. I do start to get really tired of work by that Sunday night though! Also, this way I get in my weekend requirements (we need 5 shifts, I do 6 this way) and have every other weekend off.

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I personally miss the days of normal 8 hour days. I find myself craving a normal 5 day work week. I have been considering leaving acute care for this reason. So what do you all think? Has 12 hour shifts increased the stress of nursing and contributed to nurse burnout?

Thanks for your input everyone. I was a little surprised that so many people LOVE 12 hour shifts. I too loved my weekend option for a while, but my family thought it was too much of a sacrifice after one year. Anway, glad to hear I'm in the minority on this. Although, misery does love company.

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Specializes in HHC.

I think the best schedule I ever had for 7p-7a was as follows:

Weekends consisted of Fri, Sat and Sun....

So...it never changed and went as follows...

Work Fri,Sat,Sun

Off Mon and Tues

Work Wens Thurs

Off Fri,Sat, Sun

and just kept rotating this way....great for making any plans...you could count out months in advance...or even the year if you wanted to....

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I'm right there with you on working 8 hour shifts. People think that working 8 hour shifts every day are awful, but I just did 3 years in CCU of working 12 hour shifts and I felt like crap the other 4 days. It took me 3 of those days to get over the 3 days I worked, so I really only had one good day off. I come home now more relaxed, I get 8 hours of sleep, me and my husband can plan things again "together" because he works 5 days a week on days and hopefully I can now lose weight!!!!!!

I hated working 12-hour shifts when I worked in acute care. It wasn't the only reason why I left, but it was one of the reasons. Yes, I only had to work 3 shifts/week, but I was so drained after those shifts that it took me 2 days to recover. Not to mention that I could never get used to working evenings/nights. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if I could have worked days.

I am SO much happier now that I work a normal, mundane schedule, Monday-Friday, 9-5. I feel like a normal human being again and the depression that I felt when working in acute care has lifted. I actually look forward to going to work on Monday! However, I will say that working 8-hour shifts in acute care would probably be worse than working the 12's. It's probably just that I dislike acute care in general.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

I would love to work Fri Sat Sun. Have 4 days during the week off for golf in a row. What a lovely thought.

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I definitely know it increased stress for me. Twelve hours of stress mentally and physically (turning 300-500 lb. pts. every 2 hours) isn't good for anyone. I don't care if you do have 4 days off. In the long run what do you think is going to happen to your legs, backs, etc...

I personally miss the days of normal 8 hour days. I find myself craving a normal 5 day work week. I have been considering leaving acute care for this reason. So what do you all think? Has 12 hour shifts increased the stress of nursing and contributed to nurse burnout?
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Specializes in ED, Cardiac Medicine, Retail Health.

I will start working 3 twelves (Fri Sat Sun) and have 4 days off. I like working twelves as I feel I have more time to chart and do patient care.

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Specializes in HHC.

Correctional Nursing right now with doubles....we'll see how it goes...but Correctional Nursing is a different ball game....more "mental" than "physical"....

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Again, can someone please explain this to me. If a nurse works 12 hours, do you only do assessments once in that 12 hours? If the facility is only 12 hour shifts, are assessments done only twice a day? We have 8's and 12's, but all treatments, assessments, I and O's are still geared about 8 hour time tables. So a 12 hour nurse who comes in at 7 p, would still be doing I and O's at 10 pm and 6 am. I just don't understand how you who do 12's have more time to get your work done, when there's still the same amount of work to get done, not less because you're there longer.

In our facility, any thing ordered q shift, means q 8 hour shift, not whatever kind of shift you are working.

I work two 16 hour shifts per week (Saturday and Sunday) at a long term care facility. Since this is not an acute care facility, full head to toe assessments are only done weekly, monthly, and as needed. Of course, I obtain vital signs on all patients every shift. I simply think it requires less effort to manage my time during a 16 hour shift. I hated coming to work 8 hours per day for 5 days weekly. Now, I absolutely adore having 5 days off in a row.
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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, Rehab, ACU-Telemetry.

;)i think 12 hr shifts are great in one important aspect, "you only have to work three shifts/week". but the negative side is this: we, who work 12hr shifts, know how utterly tired :o we are all of the time. no matter how much we take care of ourselves, we still remain tired, especially if you work nights. for those of us who work nights (i have done nights for sixteen years), and i am tired all of the time.

i am in school to get my bsn degree and possible masters, because i want to be a clinical instructor, so i know, that someday, i will have to go to days and work a 'typical' shift, but i will worry about that when the time comes.

kathy, rn

ohio:lol2:

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I personally only had the oppurtunity to work 8hr shifts during my orientation. I now work 12 weekend shifts, every weekend. I don't mind the scheduled because I love nursing but I love raising my children. I do wish the weekend started on fridays so that I wouldn't miss church. I wouldn't mind 8 hour shifts if I had to work them because the 12hr shifts during the week were draining and you're left too tired to do anything. Besides the schedule changes all the time no week is like the other. If I had to choose, it would be 8hr shifts until the children are grown.

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