Nursing, Second Edition
33 minutes ago
Reply 1
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Hi Solomon,
I am one of those nurses that enjoys the 12 hour shift precisely because it gives me 4 days off to take care of things. This type of schedule is good also for coordinating vacation time without actually having to dip into my PTO. Like many others, when I want to do a quick getaway, I just work the first part of the week and then the last in the second week. It is very draining though to work 12 hour shifts, especially when you do them in a row. I honestly don’t see myself going back to working a regular week, there are great opportunities that I have passed up just because of the traditional hours. I agree with you that 12 hour shifts can put patients at risk, when we are exhausted it is hard to focus and details could be missed. According to the research you provided done on 26 nurses and aides following 12 hour shifts by Thompson, fatigue and lapses of attention are evident after just one 12 hour shift (Thompson, 2019). In addition, the ” investigation showed that fatigue-based impairments in various performance tasks were observed after a single 12 hour work shift, and that for some tasks, these impairments were more exacerbated following multiple (three successive) work shifts “(Thomspson, 2019). It makes sense that we are not at out best when we have been working all day. I don’t see how other nurses can work more than their 3 days, for me, I work them straight and the 4th day when I’m off I am practically useless until the afternoon.
References
Elaine Sorensen Marshall, R., & Marion E. Broome, R. (2016). Transformational Leadership in Nursing, Second Edition: From Expert Clinician to Influential Leader. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Thompson, B. J. (2019). Does work-induced fatigue accumulate across three compressed 12 hour shifts in hospital nurses and aides? PLoS ONE, 14(2), 1–15. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211715
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