What do you think of 12 hour shifts?

lindseylpn · Aug 15, 2013

I worked 8-hour shifts office hours, for years before starting 12s within the last couple of years. I'm not sure which I prefer. 12s are nice for knocking your workweek out sooner but it's hard to do anything except sleep and work those three days, not to mention if you have a lazy husband and still have to do housework, cooking, yardwork, take point on kid care, etc. in those days. That is rough.[/quote']
I feel ya. My husband has learned if he wants to eat on my work days, he's going to have to cook himself. Lol. I cook occasionally but, I usually leave it up to him. The house is wrecked on work days too, I'll usually ask him to do a few things around the house. He probably does about 25% of what I ask of him every other week. I won't do it though, I usually devote a whole day off to getting the house back in shape. :-( I still prefer 12s though.

karika · Aug 15, 2013

I was forced to change to 12 hr. shifts. I went from a 40 hr week to a 36 hr. week. Sure - I get more days off but I took a $5,000/year cut in my salary. My employer pays less toward my benefits and retirement. Now our hospital is working on a "Lean" plan due to financial problems so RN's take 6 patients instead of 5. Acuity levels are not factored in to assignments. I am lucky if I get 30 minutes for a break and and average a 13 day. My employer no longer contributes any thing towards my pension. We work short and then are pressured about not staying late because my employer doesn't want to pay over time! Doubling back the next day can be grueling. Perhaps younger nurses in school or with children like 12 hour shifts but I feel it's an excuse by hospitals to reduce how much they have to pay nurse salaries. Working a 12 hr. shift with a heavier load is grueling and, dangerous to patients and to employees as well. For me, a stressful 8 hour day isn't as bad as stressful 12 hr. day - at least there's time to get home and do some thing to relax and gather your thoughts again. Not possible if you've worked 13 hours and then have to return to work the next day....

I am 59 and love being a nurse. Every nurse will reach my age eventually so is this really how nurses want our profession to continue?

Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM · Aug 18, 2013

References please.

Feel free to look them up yourself. That's how easy BOTH are to find. If you are a nurse, then I'm sure you have access.

Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM · Aug 18, 2013

I think 12-hour shifts are dangerous unless you have an adequate break to relax your mind and body; having said that, I used to work them and also loved when you get more time off in a row.
Have you considered, however, that for hospitals 12-hour shifts are great, reducing the work force (and overhead cost) by 1 nurse per day. If the support and breaks were there, 12-hour shifts would be great, but the savings that go to the hospital should carry over to the nurses doing those extra hours a day as, in the end, their health and licenses are on the line.

Exactly, and we don't at the hospital. You can be scheduled to work six days in a row, come in for one day in a stretch or get only one day off in a six day stretch. If you work nights, your first day off is spent in recovery. The older nurses are having an extremely difficult time with the long shifts and we have no nurses over the age of 60 working in our unit, because they had to retire early for REDUCED benefits, because they could not keep up....I too, feel that this is by design.

12 hour shifts virtually eliminates fractional overtime because nurses are only scheduled for 36 hours, this cuts your full-time pay (that you would otherwise receive) by thousands per year.

The only entity that benefits, is the facility...not the nurses, not the patients.

Aurora77 · Aug 18, 2013

Feel free to look them up yourself. That's how easy BOTH are to find. If you are a nurse, then I'm sure you have access.

I'm not the one making the claim, you are. Therefore, you need to support your argument. If you're a nurse, that will be simple for you.

Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM · Aug 19, 2013

I'm not the one making the claim, you are. Therefore, you need to support your argument. If you're a nurse, that will be simple for you.

Aurora...I take it your are either a brand new nurse or a nursing student. Because if you were actually a nurse, you would know that the information that I have stated is not only common knowledge, but countless articles have been written on it. If you have been in the profession any length of time, you would already know this.

TWO MILLION articles pulled up with a simple Google search. Here is how the Joint Commission feels about it.

http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/S2-JQPS-11-07S-lockley.pdf

Aurora77 · Aug 19, 2013

Aurora...I take it your are either a brand new nurse or a nursing student. Because if you were actually a nurse, you would know that the information that I have stated is not only common knowledge, but countless articles have been written on it. If you have been in the profession any length of time, you would already know this.
TWO MILLION articles pulled up with a simple Google search. Here is how the Joint Commission feels about it.
http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/S2-JQPS-11-07S-lockley.pdf

Wow, nice use of the ad hominem. I've been a nurse long enough to know that what you state is not common knowledge. Why get so defensive when all I asked is that you cite your sources? It's apparent from this discussion that there are a variety of opinions on the subject. When you state something as established fact, it's appropriate to include references, otherwise it is simply opinion.

The second sentence of the article you cite actually refutes your assertion. It states that working greater than12.5 to 13 hours can be dangerous, not that 12 hour shifts themselves are dangerous.

Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM · Aug 20, 2013

Wow, nice use of the ad hominem. I've been a nurse long enough to know that what you state is not common knowledge. Why get so defensive when all I asked is that you cite your sources? It's apparent from this discussion that there are a variety of opinions on the subject. When you state something as established fact, it's appropriate to include references, otherwise it is simply opinion.
The second sentence of the article you cite actually refutes your assertion. It states that working greater than12.5 to 13 hours can be dangerous, not that 12 hour shifts themselves are dangerous.

Aurora..yes, it is common knowledge...that is why you don't have 100 nurses jumping on this thread asking me to cite references, because this topic has been wrote about over and over again for TWENTY YEARS, ever since 12 hour shifts became the standard.

So, the issue is that it wasn't common knowledge...to you. As far as it being common knowledge to those of us currently working in the profession that choose to keep up with nursing research..it is.

Aurora...I have never, in my entire life, worked ONLY 12 hours since I became a nurse and lucky you if you have...very few on this board have. My shift starts at 7:00....I am REQUIRED to clock in by 6:45 pm and report is from 7:00 to 7:30...I may or may not get 15 minutes to eat, I don't get any breaks..and the next shift has to also be there at 6:45 am and report is from 7:00 to 7:30.

They deduct 30 minutes a night for my lunch....whether I take it or not.

So I put in 12 and 3/4 hours EVERY SHIFT THAT I WORK. If you worked 12 hour shifts, you'll find you are there actually longer than the 12 hours your shift is slated for.

You also didn't read the entire article...that that would be step 1.

Guests · Aug 21, 2013

I'm surprised that any of you would be complicit in the fraud perpetrated by an employer who denies you a meal break but still deducts that time from your time record.

At my first job, we hadn't the staff to permit breaks so we worked straight 12's with minimal overlap in report - it's amazing how brief an effective report can be if both people have brevity as a goal.

At my second job, we were in-house for 12.5 hours and also didn't receive breaks but we were paid 1 hour for that 1/2 hour of missed meal time (the actual 30 minutes plus a penalty).

At my present position, we're there for 12.5 hours of elapsed time and taking an assignment for 11.5 of those hours with the break coming somewhere between hour 5 and hour 8.

I believe that federal labor law mandates an unpaid meal break - during which you are unavailable to the employer - and provides for penalties if it's not provided. California law provides for paid rest breaks, something along the lines of 10 minutes for each 4-hr block worked. Our union contract is 3 paid 15 minute breaks during a 12-hr shift but we forego one of them in favor of a 1-hr block of time... I think it's actually a violation of the contract but it's what we all prefer.

To the point: 12-hr shifts are the single biggest perk of being a nurse... whether it's 12 continuous hours, 12.5 continuous hours, or 6/6 or some other permutation which includes breaks.

veggie530 · Jun 2, 2014

I hate both equally. But I'd rather have 4 days off than 2.

I think it's easier to manage if you're day shift, too. working nights throws everything off.

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Jun 2, 2014

I LOVE 12 hour shifts ... They go by fairly quickly with all the work I have to get done. I live 10 min from work, so i don't even have time to doze off on the way home, and I fall asleep quite quickly. I am also a night owl, so the shifts fit my lifestyle perfectly. The bonus? Overtime days are more available and I can pack days off together to get a week off to go away whenever I want without using vacation time. Doing that with vacation, I can get 2 weeks off and only use 36 hours PTO. Seriously, I hate working 8s ... I don't know if I could ever do those again. I actually feel the same after work with 12 as I do with 8. But all the time off I get is great!

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direis09 · Jun 2, 2014

The research I have read sites increased safety risks for both patients and staff with 12 hr shifts. Even if you think you feel great, the mental fatigue is there. Some hospitals limit 2 in a row with 24 to 48 hrs off between shifts. Add night shift to that and you really need to work to counter all the issues that come with going against your natural sleep cycles. I would love to go back to 8 hr shifts, but we all love the idea of 4 days off, no matter how bad we feel.