Who came up with the idea of 12 HOUR SHIFTS?

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Hello. I am a new nurse pulling 12 hour shifts. Let me say I LOVE my job and I LOVE being a RN. :p However, after about 8 hours, I start to feel TIRED. By the time I get home, heck, I can hardly type on the computer my eyes and fingers just don't want to work anymore. I am pretty much out of it by then.... like a zombie. :eek:

Who (when) did nurses have to start doing 12 hour shifts?? :igtsyt: Since we are nurses, handle meds and make life and death decisions.... WHY are we working over 8 hours?? Seems somewhat unsafe to me. We are human and get tired. :bugeyes: Most jobs are 8 hours. As medical professionals, we should work even less in my opinion, since we have to be 'on our game' all the time. Ugh. :sstrs:

I love it. Working in the ER, 12hrs. fly by real quick. Its nice to work 3 days out of 7. Beats working 5 days straight and having only 2 days off.

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I love working 12 hour shifts. I will be working a weekend alt program soon. I'm really looking forward to working two days a week and getting paid for three. I also like the idea of having M-F off.

I spent years working M-F 8-4:30 and only having the weekends off. God bless whoever started 12 hour shifts!

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

I HATE 12 hour shifts and I suspect they were invented by the same person who invented the underwire bra.

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Specializes in med/surg and Tele.

I think that the 12 hour shifts are great. Along with everyone else here, you have more time off and more time to finish your work. The medical field isnt the only profession that has 12 hour shifts. Police, and some EMS companies have them. Its not a new thing. Working 8's suck butthole. Just get used to them and then you will love them.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

I can remember these starting as sort of "flex-time" creative options to entice nurses back in the glory days when an entire section (like the car section) of the newspaper was devoted to nursing classified ads. They began to offer 4 10s or 3 12s as sort of an exotic option to the still entrenched 5 8s model.

They discovered nurses really liked the 12 hr shifts for all the reasons above. I suppose it's also easier for managers to schedule 2 shifts in 24 instead of 3. Then throw in full-time benefits for 36 hours and it was a keeper! I agree and as one of those crotchety ol' baby boomers, gimme my 12s! Working 5 days a week now seems so. . . grueling! :)

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Specializes in A myriad of specialties.
i love 12s. i use to hate working five 8s. however, oneday i did i an 8 hour shift and i was less stressed. i won't do 16s. we have some nurses that do 16s two days in a row, sometimes three and i think that's really dangerous.

two 16s is dangerous; i did that (16s on the weekends)for a few years on an altzheimers' ward in an ltc--got paid for 40 hours; dead-tired at the end of the weekend though. just as dangerous as getting "mandated"(like we are now at the hospital i'm at) to work an extra shift when people call in sick several times a month. it's abusive to us as staff but management won't help out on the floor.

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I think the change happened when trying to find staff for the 3-11 shift became to much.

Now a lot of people will say they love that shift, but in practice, there were never enough. The nurse manager spent a lot more time working on the schedule and finding staff for the holes when there were 3 shifts to staff.

I started with I thought was a dream schedule for a new grad: 7-3 days.

I would never go back to that. Five days in a row of med-surg and my life felt like something out of that movie "Groundhog Day". I dreamed of work at night, and weekends off never seemed long enough.

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I worked 12 hour nights for 3 years and it was a piece of cake compared to now. I've been on 8 hour nights (FT) for 3 months and oh my gosh--it's horrible. I am a lethargic slug all of the time, even on my nights off. I am missing a lot of time with my 2 1/2-year-old...

5 8's are not family friendly for me--I wish I could take my 12's back!!!!

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Specializes in Surgical, Psychiatric.

I worked for 4 years on a Surgical Floor working night shift 8 hours. When they decided 12 hour shifts were "Better" for us and our patients I had to leave. I am a mother of a 3 year old with a husband that is gone a lot because of his work. I do not like to throw my child into daycare or from family member to family member just so I can work. I feel I should be more involved with my child than bring home "the big bucks". I do not regret my decison to leave the surgical unit as now I enjoy spending my 8 hours working on a psychiatric unit within the hospital. Whoever thought about 12 hour shifts did not think about the working mother. I could not work 7pm-7am due to my husbands schedule. Even working the 7am-7pm shift would be difficult as the hospitals daycare only open from 6am-6pm (how strange!). I agree the days off would be wonderful if I was working a day job but as a night shift worker I would be a walking zombie or sleeping all the time. The people who think up these 12 hour days are the ones who already work dayshift and have older kids at home. They don't realize what its like to work when everyone is sleeping and try sleeping when everyone is awake wanting something from them.

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I worked for 4 years on a Surgical Floor working night shift 8 hours. When they decided 12 hour shifts were "Better" for us and our patients I had to leave. I am a mother of a 3 year old with a husband that is gone a lot because of his work. I do not like to throw my child into daycare or from family member to family member just so I can work. I feel I should be more involved with my child than bring home "the big bucks". I do not regret my decison to leave the surgical unit as now I enjoy spending my 8 hours working on a psychiatric unit within the hospital. Whoever thought about 12 hour shifts did not think about the working mother. I could not work 7pm-7am due to my husbands schedule. Even working the 7am-7pm shift would be difficult as the hospitals daycare only open from 6am-6pm (how strange!). I agree the days off would be wonderful if I was working a day job but as a night shift worker I would be a walking zombie or sleeping all the time. The people who think up these 12 hour days are the ones who already work dayshift and have older kids at home. They don't realize what its like to work when everyone is sleeping and try sleeping when everyone is awake wanting something from them.

I understand what you mean. 12 hour day shifts would not work for me--I would never see my daughter on days I worked. I'm lucky enough though that nights would be fine and my mother would babysit while my husband was at work. Heck, I wish I could get paid to stay at home with my daughter :D

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Specializes in LTC Family Practice.

In my youth I would have love 12 hour shifts, but at my age and health problems I don't think I could do 12's they'd wear my already fragile reserves down too much. My fav shift was 3-11 but when I switched to clinic nursing I didn't mind a 9 hour day because we had weekends off and I could participate in events with all my non-nursing friends.

My ideal schedule would be 8's, 3-11:30, every other weekend and one day off in the week, then over a 2 month period one of those weekends would be a 3day and one would be a 4day:D. Or working in a clinic again.

If I was 21 again:rolleyes: instead of looking at 60 I'm sure I'd love those 12's with lots of time off, but now - neyet, nada, no.

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according to a HR person i talked to years ago, the max for accuracy of work and effeicency (sp) is 10 hours....but scheduling that is the problem....so scheduling the 12's so you are not dealing with a med pass at the end would be good.....

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