Hours

RE: Hours

jojofruits — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 13:10:50 GMT

Yes I'm, not sure that that is legal!!

fruit bats are so sweet though, I have hand reared one myself too! cute little buggars

RE: Hours

Sal the 1st — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 19:05:49 GMT

[quote user="Alison Clare Hickman"]

[quote user="Frances Bell"]12 hour shifts are a minimum in the places I've been. Recently I was working in a clinic that deals only with orphaned fruit bats and I was working 17 hours a day plus round the clock feeds with tiny, compromised and frequent medication babies. Max 3 hours sleep a night (accommodation onsite). I've been doing it for 10 weeks. I'm the only qualified nurse.[/quote]

Cor! That's total commitment!! I have to say that on 3 hours sleep (max?!?!?!) each night I'd be reduced to a huge grease-spot by the end of one week let alone 10. Big respect. On the other hand, you are making the rest of us look bad, hahahahaha! Seriously though, you can't maintain that pace for ever for your good health, surely?

Ali h

[/quote]

definitely not good for health - be careful you don't crash and burn

RE: Hours

Alison Clare Hickman — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 13:45:04 GMT

Ali h

RE: Hours

Gizmo — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 04:17:18 GMT

12 hour shifts are a minimum in the places I've been. Recently I was working in a clinic that deals only with orphaned fruit bats and I was working 17 hours a day plus round the clock feeds with tiny, compromised and frequent medication babies. Max 3 hours sleep a night (accommodation onsite). I've been doing it for 10 weeks. I'm the only qualified nurse.

RE: Hours

agunson — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 18:31:04 GMT

I work 40 hours over 4 days by choice. I love this and am blessed that even when short staffed and having to cover and do 50+hours I can just adapt. I make sure i don't give up too many things in ny own time and ensure others know when I have to leave on time. My boss is great, she appreciates staff and will regular thank all the staff after a busy day. If you feel like you are not appreciated make this clear, if your job role isn't defined ensure it is and if you are doing more hours and it doesn't suit your situation make this heard as if you don't then employers will just carry on as it's the easiest option for them.

RE: Hours

melanie lavender — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 16:48:13 GMT

When I first started nursing over 16 years ago I was working up to 70 hours a week but now im old I have choosen to cut down, and now do 44.5 hours a week, still a lot but my ex husband left me in lot to debt!

Working silly hours in this job is the norm unfortunately so just lay your ideas down to you boss and if need be start looking else where.

I haven't got a family so those hours are ok for me and I have worked my clubs and social life into my working life.

Good luck.

RE: Hours

Alison Clare Hickman — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 09:33:42 GMT

yup, been there and burned out. It's as Ben says tho... Boundaries need to be set and we should be paid for the overtime. Imminently sensible for health and, dare I say it, safety of decision making? I've put myself on the line time and time again only to be told there's no money to pay for overtime let alone extra nursing staff when I've questioned why this was necessary; why pull on my professional heart strings and guilt me into slave labour? That's a harsh statement, but, nonetheless true. My old dad used to say "a fair days pay for a fair days labour". How right he was.

On the flip side, I have worked at a practice where they got it perfectly right: Right number of staff, fair distribution of duties, good resources management of those last minute emergencies and, guess what? I left on time almost every day for 4 years.

RE: Hours

Robyn — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 08:42:21 GMT

I would love to get out of the building on time, it's rare that that happens It's normally because I help close on the late shift, and it's just typical that that last appointment of the night will take half an hour instead of 10mins and have a hundred questions about everything. I don't mind that too much though, it's just the last-minute end of day stuff that we need to deal with after that and it's not normally too bad - I'm lucky that I only live around the corner! IMO even getting overtime for emergencies would be great - the number of times we've all been working for free for 3 hours bc we had an exlap after hours is ridiculous.

RE: Hours

Ben Ogden — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 16:38:44 GMT

[quote user="jojofruits"]

An emergency is an emergency .. I'm talking about being late out every day because practices are taking the mick!

[/quote]

I'm quite fortunate where I am. When I took the job (2yrs in now), I was clear that I am a Scout Leader and leaving Wednesday's is non negotiable, also weekends need to be flexible, particularly around camping season ;)

It's give and take. Sounds like boundaries need setting. We have a culture here where you may need to do overtime when things get outside your control, but I have always looked at it as "I'll do overtime when necessary, but you will be billed for my time because my time (as in me time) is worth more than you would be willing to pay otherwise".

RE: Hours

jojofruits — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:10:58 GMT

An emergency is an emergency .. I'm talking about being late out every day because practices are taking the mick!

RE: Hours

Dove — Sun, 19 Feb 2017 18:33:53 GMT

I do 37.5 hours a week and more or less stick to that. I also do 1 Saturday a month, 8.30am-12pm.

We are a larger practice though and tend to have shifts covered.

I went for an interview a couple of years ago and he couldn't be upfront about the hours, it was 'some long shifts some short shifts, I don't know the hours yet.' I turned it down on this basis, I don't think there would have been any work/life balance at that practice.

RE: Hours

Sal the 1st — Sun, 19 Feb 2017 12:14:00 GMT

[quote user="WelshyNurse"]

[quote user="jojofruits"]

The way I manage my work/ life balance is to make sure I leave on time and book things to do in the evenings so I HAVE to leave on time.

I honestly cant believe how many bosses expect and nurses allow essentially free labour in the form of unpaid overtime!

[/quote]

What if you have an emergency come through the door though.

Its easy to say you "have" to leave but it isn't always possible

[/quote]

thats true - I have to catch a bus (the very last bus at 6.30) but sometimes you just have to forget your plans and knuckle down. We have an odd 'sort of' rota in that two of us work 10.30 - 6.30 - always the same two and two work 8.30 - 2.30. I have never once called back one of the 2.30 finishes when they are on call to deal with a 6.30 emergency (Yet! - this may well change in the future ) but have dealt with it myself as I am already in the building, and by virtue of the fact it is and emergency it isnt going to wait the 30 minutes it will take them to get there. Once I am out of the building however the on call rota applies

RE: Hours

WelshyNurse — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 18:11:45 GMT

[quote user="jojofruits"]

The way I manage my work/ life balance is to make sure I leave on time and book things to do in the evenings so I HAVE to leave on time.

I honestly cant believe how many bosses expect and nurses allow essentially free labour in the form of unpaid overtime!

[/quote]

What if you have an emergency come through the door though.

Its easy to say you "have" to leave but it isn't always possible

RE: Hours

enigmaticat-uk — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 16:27:39 GMT

I would say that I'm relatively lucky on my work/life balance as I work approx 4/5ths of full time hours (32-33pw), and I don't have to do weekends. I do have to do extra hours to cover holidays or sickness but that's usually only 6 weeks a year and thankfully my opposite number is rarely off sick. If I could afford it, I would reduce those hours even further - still hoping for a lottery win! My main issue currently is I generally commute a couple of hours a day which I would like to reduce as it's a pretty stressful drive during rush hour.

RE: Hours

jojofruits — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 10:40:07 GMT

The way I manage my work/ life balance is to make sure I leave on time and book things to do in the evenings so I HAVE to leave on time.

I honestly cant believe how many bosses expect and nurses allow essentially free labour in the form of unpaid overtime!

RE: Hours

Wildlife Nurse — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 21:17:55 GMT

Thanks everybody so much for you replies. One last question, how do you organise your work/life balance? This is another thing I really struggle with and have become incredibly isolated in my private life as my job and tiredness has just taken over it.

RE: Hours

Sam Tidey — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 10:57:48 GMT

I work in a small, relatively new practice. Contracted to 40hours a week with a 30 min break. But usually work up to 50 as there's only one other nurse and a busy workload. Honestly, I'd love to actually work the 40 hours and be able to plan a life around work. But the practice manager appreciates her staff and lets us know we're doing a good job. Everyone who works there is SO NICE it's a totally bitching free practice(!!) this massively makes a difference. So while I'd love to work my contracted hours, loving where I work makes it bearable.

RE: Hours

Kirsty RVN — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 19:17:58 GMT

Hiya

I work between 10-12 hours on different shifts and if doing the full weekend will work long 12 days straight before a day off.

We also do nights at 12 hour shifts 7 nights every six weeks than go back to long day shifts

RE: Hours

Alison Clare Hickman — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 19:02:39 GMT

Hey there.

Speak to your boss and detail how your workload has increased since expansion and you are working far longer hours which is having an adverse effect on your health. He/she won't want you to be ill (I would hope!). I imagine if your hours reverted back to what they were before expansion you would be okay? It's to your credit you are trying to keep the ship afloat. However, that's ultimately your boss's responsibility and, good nurse that you are to pitch in and help, what you are actually doing is effectively enabling him/her to be inconsiderate of your welfare!

Stop before you drop

Hth

Ali h

RE: Hours

Robyn — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 12:58:33 GMT

I work ~10-11hr days (about 50-56hrs a week) and am officially contracted 8am-8pm, but I think that's probably just a get-out clause to avoid having to pay overtime...but we're tiny and I'm the only nurse so my mad hours exactly surprising. I think that unless you're working somewhere with a lot of nurses and have a shift pattern, it seems to be the way of things right now.

It is really tough having to work such long hours, eventually I think everyone doing it will just fucking burn out. I would definitely check your contract, and maybe see if you can work out some kind of a rota? Me and the ACA here have about 30min-1hr offset between our start and finish times, the idea being that we're still here for the full day, but one person opens and finishes slightly earlier (when we're not manic), and the other starts a little later in the morning and stays until we leave. For all that I open for 8.30 on my early weeks, having that almost-guaranteed 6pm finish makes a weird amount of difference.

RE: Hours

therainyj — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 10:27:43 GMT

Hey,

You should check your contract, it should state how many hours you are expected to work. You shouldn't regularly be working a lot longer than that.

Stand up for yourself; your health is important, and a wrecked nurse is no good to the practice either!

I really hope you get the rest you deserve x

RE: Hours

Emmacampbell — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 07:53:38 GMT

I suffer insomnia too, its not easy at all. I work longer shifts, 10 hours and have an hour of driving either side. I chose those hours as working further away i at least get a longer weekend and one less day to have to drive up to work. I find the longer weekend helps but it is hard during the week.