What is an average 12 hour shift like for a nurse

1 I don't know much about nursing and I'm really wondering what exactly a 12 hour shift would be like for a hospital nurse.

Thanks.
Once you are used to it, it doesn't seem like 12 hours. I would never go back to an 8 hr shift. Another 4 is no big deal and you get more days off.
That's a hard queation to answer.It would depend on the nurse and what area they worked in.Do you mean specifically what they do for 12 hours?
Anything would help. What exactly do you do? Is it usually super busy, is it usually sort of slow? What all do your duties entail... maybe run through an example of a day in the life of a nurse. The more detail the better. I know its different for every nurse so it can be specific or just in general.
I would have to say half of the time is charting/documenting in the computer. Ugh, it takes up so much time, but will come in handy to protect your butt. Shift starts off with a 30 min report. Claim med cart, briefly look at your patients. I prefer to check the charts in the beginning of the shift, just in case the dayshift nurse missed something or made a mistake. I don't know how many times I've come on shift, to find a Now order that was ordered 3 hours prior. Check the lab work, x-ray, etc for results, because one of the worst things to happen, is a patient or family member ask you a question, and you don't know. Check the scheduled medications and vital signs. Fully assess your patients. All this could take 2 hours, it depends. If you start your shift with a discharge and/or admission, that can push you back 3-4 hours, depending on how difficulty the discharge/admission is. Med pass can take between 1-2 hours. Once you give meds, start blood transfusions, do dressing and wound vac changes, insert a foley catheter or NGT, start IVs, you may be able to finally chart by midnight. (night shift perspective) Then you have PRN pain or BP meds to give and the reassessment of those. Not to mention the many MD calls you need to make, or back and forth with pharmacy. Dayshift kills me when they claim nightshift is easy because all the patients sleep. That's bs. Yeah, that dementia patient slept throughout the entire day, guess who is going to require a sitter for the night. That Sundowner's patient that is a fall risk, constantly trying to jump out the bed at night. There are less MDs rounding and less family at night, usually. But, they do still come, and there are still issues. Even if it is a slow night, we are the ones that have to pick up the slack from the previous shift.I could go on and on. Anywho, bottom line, it depends on the assignment/acuity level and organizational skills.
Oh yeah, love the 12 hour shifts, because you get the 4 days off. I have to admit, sometimes 4 days doesn't seem like enough. I was surprised when I found out in nursing school that we work 12 hour shifts. Most shifts, the 12 hours go by pretty fast.Are you doing some type of report or something? OP is such a random question
Quote from DeezKeyzI don't know much about nursing and I'm really wondering what exactly a 12 hour shift would be like for a hospital nurse. Thanks.
are you doing some type of report or something? op is such a random question
DeezKeyz, Not to be rude, but people on this site are nurses who discuss their careers and nursing issues. We try to help and nurture each other and do so by giving supportive advice to our colleagues on this site. Your request wasn't necessarily a breach of allnurses terms of service, it certainly was a time-waster for those who responded because they believed you were a student or new grad looking for career information.
Quote from DeezKeyzActually I'm writing a short story featuring a nurse. Great answers so far. I'm wondering how closely are nurses supervised? Someone mentioned having to pick up the slack of the nurse on the previous shift, so is it possible or common to slack and get away with it? (I know you guys wouldn't do that LOL).
Quote from Patti_RNDeezKeyz, Not to be rude, but people on this site are nurses who discuss their careers and nursing issues. We try to help and nurture each other and do so by giving supportive advice to our colleagues on this site. Your request wasn't necessarily a breach of allnurses terms of service, it certainly was a time-waster for those who responded because they believed you were a student or new grad looking for career information.
It probably would have been best if you were honest from the get go about why you were here Why don't you write bout an LTC nurse..we're more interesting *jk ladies and gents*
You know, the first rule of writing is to write what you know. I can assure you that your main character being a nurse, when you the writer, don't know much, if anything about nurses or nursing....is kind of a mistake. It will be hard for you to make the character realistic to those who know. The set up for supervision of nurses is as such:There is a Nurse Manager who essentially takes care of the paperwork end of the unit, hires, fires, disciplines, gives evaluations, deals with complaints, etc. (they do a lot more, I know, but lets keep this simple)During the day or night...there is a Charge Nurse. This nurse will usually assign the patients to the staff nurses. The Charge is there to ensure the shift goes along smoothly. They can jump in and help if you have a problem, handle complaints, assure that people get lunch, and that staff are actually following policies. If you are constantly being too slow, not careful, the charge should address it with you. But for the most part, we are professionals.