Why Can't Hospitals Offer Shifts Other Than 12 hr. 7 to 7?

Retired R.N. · May 8, 2006

Twelve hour shifts are great when your in your 20's, 30's and maybe even your 40's if your lucky, but 50's and 60's----gets alittle tricky!!! When I was in my 20's and 30's I could work 5-12 hour shifts in a row with NO problems, now I'm getting close to 50 and I'm in excellent health and believe me, IT DOES GET HARDER!!!! Three in a row kills me... Our hospital only offers 12 hour shifts, period. Does anyone feel we really are not showing respect to our older nurses? Think about yourself for a minute. You may be fine now, but what about when you get older? We expect the 60 year old nurse to act like the 20 year old nurse? Just aint gonna happen! And if you've worked somewhere for 20 or 30 years you don't want to leave so what about it? I would welcome 8 hr. shifts at this point in my career, but don't have a choice!

I don't think that employers of nurses really care very much what happens to older nurses. After all, there is a constant stream of new nurses graduating all the time who have the stamina that is required for long hours of working short-staffed units.

BBFRN, BSN, PhD · May 8, 2006

I worked 8 hr shifts and 11a-11p in the ED. I hated both. Who wants to spend 5 days a week at the hospital? I sure didn't. both shifts really sucked when it came to working a family life in there. 7p-7a works well with my family life, and while my DH is in school full time. I am also starting school again in June, so the 4 days off is a blessing.

MichaelLooney · May 8, 2006

Actually, I and most nurses I know love 12's, because of the extra time off, but I agree that it wreaks havoc with child care.

I think its wrecks havok period! The extra day off a week might be nice, but by the time a 12 is over, who has the energy to do anything. I hate 12's because because you work 12 hours a day, sleep 8 hours, then, with traveling and all those little things, you only really get maybe 3 hours to yourself to spend with your family. It sounds horrable to me, and having an extra day off doesn't make it sound okay in the end, not when I'm just going to spend that extra day off catching up on the shopping and the cleaning and everything that didn't get done durring the week (because heaven knows no one else is going to do the dishes or the cleaning around here if not me!).

fergus51 · May 8, 2006

It's actually 2 extra days off a week (if you work 3 12s rather than 5 8s which are the schedules around here).

Tweety, BSN, RN · May 8, 2006

Do the math over a year, and the nurses who have worked lots of overtime reach the point where neither they nor the employer are deducting Social Security taxes any more.

?????????????

I'm not following you.

Tweety, BSN, RN · May 8, 2006

I think its wrecks havok period! The extra day off a week might be nice, but by the time a 12 is over, who has the energy to do anything.

For most of us working 12 hour shifts gives us two extra days off, not one, for a total of four days off a week. My schedule is such that every other weekend is a four day weekend. You're right, by the time I work my 12 hours, I come home, cook supper, walk the dogs and go to bed, day is over, no engery or time to do anything else whatsoever. But it's nice to wake up the next day looking at four days off in a row instead of two. It's all a personal preference, but I'm willing to sacrifice 3 evenings for two whole extra days off. It's how I have the energy and time to pursue other things like my degree.

There is no "one size fits all", and it's disappointing that the 8-hour option is taken away from so many people who perfer it.

wooh, BSN, RN · May 8, 2006

I tend to see that people that complain about 12s tend to be the dayshifters, and the people that won't have anything other than 12s tend to be the nightshifters. Dayshifters like to come home from work to a life and they can. Us nightshifters have accepted that there's no way we'll have a life on our workdays anyway, so without the extra days off, we have NO life! Places that have both 8s and 12s seem to have the most trouble filling that 3p-7p spot for that very reason.

tntrn, ASN, RN · May 8, 2006

Where I work, the 8 hour shifts start at 0700, 1500 and 2300. The 12 hour shifts start at 7 and 7. Eight hour shifts are scheduled around the clock. Twelve hour positions MUST be matched with another 12 hour position. Anybody who is interested in doing a 12 hour position has to get some one else to work opposite them. And when a 12 hour person calls in sick, it's difficult to cover them.

We have one 12 hour shifter who is well-known for asking others to work her shifts on a fairly regular basis. She'll manage to get 1 8 hour person and then someone who is willing to do a 4 hour spot. Why she is allowed to do this is beyond me, but she is and she does.

We're probably about half and half now with 8 hour people and 12 hour people. Many of the 12 hour nurses have gone back to 8 hours because after a time, it's been too hard on their life, their marriages, their health. Someone else will usually trade with them and so it goes. Some of us aren't trading and as long as our contract is as it is, with 8 hours as the standard, we won't even be faced with it. Luckily, because of the contract, the administration cannot just change it at will to suit themselves.

penguin2 · May 8, 2006

The 12 hr shifts (both 7a-7p & 7p-7a) worked well for me when my kids were school age, mainly b/c I could sleep while they were at school, and then I had 4 other days off- my manager was nice enough to allow me the flexibility to change days/shifts to be there for the many field trips, etc. whenever viable. When I finally changed hospitals (we moved) and took an 8 hr day shift job w/call, my kids told me that they actually preferred my 12 hr shifts b/c of the days off in between! I couldn't believe it, but they weren't living in my tired body.... :monkeydance:

ZASHAGALKA, RN · May 8, 2006

Do the math over a year, and the nurses who have worked lots of overtime reach the point where neither they nor the employer are deducting Social Security taxes any more.

?????????????
I'm not following you.

Social Security taxes 'max out' in the 95k salary range. After you make that much salary, you don't have to pay SS taxes anymore that year. The exact dollar amount of salary changes slightly every year.

But, for the record, I doubt employers are interested in pushing some employees to 6 figure incomes in order to avoid a few dollars in SS taxes. The real reason they are willing to pay for that OT is that it avoids having to pay benefits to another F/T employee.

But it's not just benefits. It takes, on average, a year's salary to recruit, train, and bring up to speed a nurse on an average unit. By paying out the OT, employers not only avoid paying F/T benefits to someone; they avoid this SUBSTANTIAL cost in repeated recruitment

(short positions are short because of high turnover on the fringes; if two people work lots of OT, they can equal an extra FTE and those types of employees are more dependent on the work and more stable. This decreases the need to hire an FTE that might be subject to much higher turnover, so, encouraging OT reduces not only the cost of benefits, but the 'turnover' cost.)

Does that make sense?

In addition, if you max out FTEs (F/T equivalents aka # of avail positions), it affects your ability to 'flex down' during slow periods; everybody needs their hours. Using lots of OT aids in 'flexing up' AND 'flexing down'; you have people willing to work extra during 'flex up' periods but no corresponding obligation to grant them such hours (as would be the case with more FTEs) during 'flex down' periods.

In short, there are many advantages to having RNs work lots of OT, if they wish.

I know, I know, slightly off topic; but - this is WHY 12s work for me: it means I can work an OT shift every week and still have 3 days off.

~faith,

Timothy.

Gompers, BSN, RN · May 8, 2006

I tend to see that people that complain about 12s tend to be the dayshifters, and the people that won't have anything other than 12s tend to be the nightshifters. Dayshifters like to come home from work to a life and they can. Us nightshifters have accepted that there's no way we'll have a life on our workdays anyway, so without the extra days off, we have NO life! Places that have both 8s and 12s seem to have the most trouble filling that 3p-7p spot for that very reason.

Excellent post, and very true.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · May 9, 2006

I work two 16-hour shifts per week and wouldn't even dream of having it any other way.

I personally enjoy having 5 days off all in a row. Compressed work schedules are a good fit for me, since working 5 or 6 8-hour shifts does not appeal to me.