Working Part-time - how flexible?

In the hospital that I work in PRN nurses are required to work atleast one shift per month. They can pretty much choose when they want to work because someone is always wanting to be reduced or have a day off. As far as the partial shifts go it's almost impossible to work just a partial shift as a nurse, since we have so much documentation and if you took a patient half of the shift another nuse is going to have to pick up where you left off, most don't want to do that. On rare occasion some of the nurses are called in to fill in as CNA's because one of the CNA's have become ill, we can then leave early because we are not required to document anything or administer medication.If you want a flexible schedule try home health. You can choose your own hours most of the time.

I feel the same way you do. When I have little ones at home, I want to be there as much as possible. They grow up to quick and you end up regretting all of the time you should have been spending with them. Anyway, I work part-time right now. We do self-scheduling where I work in Post Coronary Critical Care. I usually work Thur and Fri from 7pm-7am. Sometimes I work half shifts like you were asking about or even for four hours. You just let them know your preference. If you want to be the first one called off if there are too many people working or you want to work the four hour shift just let your supervisor know. The nursing shortage right now is so great that most places will work with whatever you are willing to do.