Working 12hr shifts 3 days on, 3 days off - advice needed please

[tirednhser]

I work in the NHS and do 12 hour shifts, 3 days on followed by 3 days off then 3 more days on. I thought having 3 days off would be great after working Mon-Fri 9-5 before this job but I'm actually finding this shift pattern very hard to adjust to. I do night shifts and day shifts, alternating between the two every month.

My job is very active and you can't just pop out for some water or the loo so I often leave work tired and dehydrated. As the months go by I find I don't do much on my days off. I feel like as soon as I've recovered from my work days and feel ready to do something with my time off I'm back at work. I feel like I spend my work days in a complete daze. There is no time in the evening to relax with a glass of wine, go for a walk or watch some TV, it's home, dinner and then straight to bed. Texts go unanswered, missed calls not returned; I feel like I'm in a complete work bubble for those three days.

Colleagues say they feel the same. I feel like I need to build better habits into my day to make this easier as I think it's not a bad shift pattern at all, I'm just struggling in knowing how to plan my time better.

Does anyone have any advice?

DH does 4 on/4 off - 2 x 12 hour days/2 x 12 hour nights. 365/year. It's a killer.

He's over 50 now and all the men his age (there are no women in his line of work) struggle with these shifts. Sorry, probably not what you want to hear!

I did 12hrs then swapped to the 8hr shift pattern which was available
Even that.. they had written it so it went late shift, day off, early. I rewrote the entire rota and got it approved so it changed for everyone. Meant instead of finishing at 1am, day off, start at 7am. You got to finish at 4pm, day off, then start at 7am which made a massive bloody difference

I used to work shifts (2 days, 2 nights and then 4 off), and I loved the job and gave it a good go to see if I adjusted, but absolutely hated it. I love working Monday to Friday, but appreciate that some people are the opposite. I was always tired, bloated, bored with missing birthdays etc. Also used to be hmm at those saying wow 4 days off, as the first was after a 14 hour night shift, and too exhausted to do much on the other days. I do far more now, and love having evenings and weekends.

That pattern sounds grim. It’s the swapping between nights and days which will be making you feel so bad. I’ve only just appreciated what 12 hour night shifts and dayshifts were doing to my body. I’ve not long left for a 12 hour dayshift only job, I feel human again. I have a sleep pattern, I can exercise, I feel well again. I maintain I would have been better always on nights or on days. The pattern you describe sounds awful as there is no gap for working mon, tues, wed and then not back till Friday the next week which always gave a much needed rest.

I used to do 4 on 4 off days/ nights, I found someone on the opposite block and arranged a swap do we would do all days then all nights month by month

DH used to do this shift pattern too but he would switch between days and nights on each 3 shifts. He was constantly exhausted, snappy and irritable. It was a nightmare. Especially after he turned 30.

Sorry not what you wanted to hear but he retrained in the end and works 9-5 in an office and our family life and his mental health have improved so much.

I work in care dementia care home, 12 1/2 hrs on nights. 3 in a row with 2 off, 1 in, 1 off, 1 in 2 off, 2 on, 2 off. Its a killer, but glad I don't have to swap from nights to days.
We only have 2 seniors, me and another and have been sharing the shifts. Not sure how much longer I can carry on with the shift pattern. Hardly get any sleep between night shifts, especially when next door stick their bloody music on.

My DH had a similar shift pattern - different industry and very physical.
He switched to permanent nights, that did make a huge difference for him and us as a family.

It’s exceedingly tough 12 hours is actually at least 13 as we used to get 3/4 unpaid break (but usually didn’t get it) and then by the time you’ve handed over etc it’s 13. Three days in a row is exhausting I like you spent my days of recovering to go back and start all over again. I’m middle aged and it was taking a serious toll on my physical health. I chucked it in last year and have never looked back. I meet with my ex colleagues all are stressed ill and exhausted.
There is loads of research saying that long shifts and night are detrimental to long term health and also have a higher incidence of short term sickness. Patient care must also decline as shifts come to an end as staff become more exhausted.
The NHS do it to save money as when we all worked 7 1/2 hours shifts and a 9 hour night you had a significant cross over period during the day when you had double the amount of staff on, the fact that this period was often used to catch up on things or shock horror talk to patients is irrelevant if you need to save money.
Also many trusts have very limited parking so again you don’t want a large cross over period during the day. A huge number of NHS staff are over 50 (something like 47%) and are struggling to work these shift patterns but when the chips are down and despite all they claim the NHS doesn’t care about its staff inevitability balancing the books take priority.

I worked this for years (3 on 4 off, 4 on, 3 off), I then did 2/3 time (2 on 5 off, 3 on 4 off)- that was lush. Finally gave up nights aged 37. I agree it's not for everyone, the first day off is a recovery day, I was pretty good at being kind to myself that day and often had an afternoon nap. From day 2 I was more ready to do things. One advantage was that when I was working DH had to be totally "on it" as I pretty much did nothing. We were also lucky enough to have more childcare than we needed and a cleaner for most of the time which definately helped. I think a lot depends on your age and the age of your DCs if any.

Should just add apart from my totally exhausted medical colleagues everyone is contracted to 37.5 hours a week so that’s 3 x 12 hours shifts in 7 and one extra every 8 weeks! You’re working too many hours of your doing 3 and n and 3 off all the time.

I couldn’t do long days, I find them too exhausting. Our ward tried to force everyone from early’s and late’s into long days a few years ago. It saves money because for us we would have about 4 or 5 on each shift with an 1hour handover time when there is both the lates and the earlies on the ward for handover. That’s 4-5 hours of pay each day they don’t have to pay if everyone does a long day. I much prefer normal earlies and lates but unfortunately it’s rare in the nhs now. I left and only do bank nights now as childcare was too hard to arrange with all these shift patterns I now work where I want when I want. Unfortunately the day time rate is too low to cover childcare costs so I stick to nights for now.

I really don't understand the logic of the NHS doing these swing shifts - especially as it causes ill health & probably leads to increased sickness &, I assume, people deciding they find this impossible to maintain & leaving
Years ago you worked days (varying shifts) or nights. Frequently the nurses who worked nights did so because they had children & childcare was easier to work around those hours.
Wouldn't it be better to go back to this? The only reason I can think that the powers that be want to continue this is to stop increased pay for nights - money
But I am cynical

Work 6 on, 6 off 12 hour shifts, a mix of days & nights, not NHS

I normally sleep well

However, I had times when I am awake at 3am when I'm supposed to be asleep on my days off

@IseeScottishhills

It’s exceedingly tough 12 hours is actually at least 13 as we used to get 3/4 unpaid break (but usually didn’t get it) and then by the time you’ve handed over etc it’s 13. Three days in a row is exhausting I like you spent my days of recovering to go back and start all over again. I’m middle aged and it was taking a serious toll on my physical health. I chucked it in last year and have never looked back. I meet with my ex colleagues all are stressed ill and exhausted. There is loads of research saying that long shifts and night are detrimental to long term health and also have a higher incidence of short term sickness. Patient care must also decline as shifts come to an end as staff become more exhausted. The NHS do it to save money as when we all worked 7 1/2 hours shifts and a 9 hour night you had a significant cross over period during the day when you had double the amount of staff on, the fact that this period was often used to catch up on things or shock horror talk to patients is irrelevant if you need to save money. Also many trusts have very limited parking so again you don’t want a large cross over period during the day. A huge number of NHS staff are over 50 (something like 47%) and are struggling to work these shift patterns but when the chips are down and despite all they claim the NHS doesn’t care about its staff inevitability balancing the books take priority.

Yes, I agree entirely. '12' hour shifts entirely suit the Trusts, young staff, and those only in it to make money.

'Amusingly' ours had to make an 11/13 split because the hospital minibuses that cart staff the 22 miles between the two big hospitals in the Trust (the hospital accommodation at the other site is bigger and better and the vast majority of our overseas staff never move out of it)- only runs for 11 hours. The canteen is only open 11 hours.

So they want these staff working 12/13 hours with one break but won't provide the amenities to support them.

Just finished my 3 night shifts. I feel so resentful that today is classed as one of my days off even though I was working today until 7am. Back onto days on Friday. :( It's just completely relentless with not enough time off to properly recover.

I have now decided not to pursue a career in the NHS because of this kind of shift pattern. I'm in my 20s and struggling, I don't want to be doing this as I get older. I love working for the NHS but I don't want this kind of lifestyle.

@IseeScottishhills

Should just add apart from my totally exhausted medical colleagues everyone is contracted to 37.5 hours a week so that’s 3 x 12 hours shifts in 7 and one extra every 8 weeks! You’re working too many hours of your doing 3 and n and 3 off all the time.

I never realised that.

Across a calendar week (Monday-Sunday) I work 3 shifts a week for 3 weeks and 4 shifts a week for 1 week. My contract is 37.5 hours a week. I get 1h 20 minutes break each day.

I'm too sleep deprived to work it out but I think you're right that I'm doing too many hours?

💐I don't blame you for wanting out.

It's a shame though if it's the hours & not the actual job, you hate.

How about looking at another trust, where you can choose your shift pattern a bit more?

I could do shifts, but I couldn't do alternate day/night shifts. My internal body clock is a finely tuned instrument, and is not easily reset!

I hope you have something nice planned for Thursday!!🍾🥂

When our trust started doing “12 hour” shifts, there was some confusion. But yes, it should work out as 3 shifts a week and one week with 4 shifts to make 37.5 hours work out over a month. So if you’re consistently doing 3 on, 3 off, it does sound like you’re doing too many hours?! I would definitely get that checked. It also sucks that they count your sleep day as a day off. Doctors get protected sleep days!

Honestly, I will say again, I have a much better quality of life since I changed to better hours - I work in Endoscopy and we cover 8-7 with some 6 finishes. Much nicer!

It's awful work when you do internal rotation, count your hours up for a month and see if you are working the right amount of hours. If you are full time then that might be 150hrs a month, look at your contract to see what it says about breaks being included. If you work
A night shift then yes you work 7hrs that day. I worked 3 days but got 4 days off afterwards and only had one week of 4 days. Can you speak to your manager about maybe splitting your days.

OP I worked 13 shifts in 4 weeks which was full time hours, so if you are doing three weeks of 3 shifts then one week of 4 shifts that is correct for FT hours.

Each shift was counted as 11.5 hours - so minus an hour beak even though you are physically there for 12.5 hours.

Many years ago I worked at the Royal Free in London and they "gave" you extra breaks and only counted shifts as 10.45 hours, do you used to have to do a whole extra shift per four weeks which was a killer. Left there pretty sharpish!

Look at going into endoscopy, outpatients, PCI suite or something like that, still hard work but hours much more normal - no nights!

Haven't read the whole thread, but another one here who did this pattern but running a night team in a high end care facility.
After 5 years of it, ending in my early 30s, I couldn't take it anymore and quit, I have no desire to go back and i am currently attempting to change career completely

No advice here, just lots of sympathy for you, it's absolutely soul destroying. In the end I lost any interest in the job, which is clearly not a healthy mindset for someone who takes responsibility for others, hence why one day I simply quit.

Across a calendar week (Monday-Sunday) I work 3 shifts a week for 3 weeks and 4 shifts a week for 1 week. My contract is 37.5 hours a week. I get 1h 20 minutes break each day.

I'm too sleep deprived to work it out but I think you're right that I'm doing too many hours?

Sounds like the right amount of hours. In my trust we work 7am - 7.30pm on days, and 7pm - 7.30am on nights, with two 30 minute unpaid breaks. So 12.5 hours at work but 11.5 count as paid hours. Sounds like you get extra time as unpaid breaks, which means extra hours to make up for, and therefore extra shifts.

I always advise any students to ask for slightly part time hours when they qualify, those 4 shift weeks are a killer!

So for example (in my trust):
34.5 hours = 3 long shifts per week.
30 hours = 3 long shifts one week, and 2 shifts the next.
23 hours = 2 long shifts per week.

In both April and May I have 15x 12 hour days each month which is 180 hours.

There is nothing in my contract about whether breaks are unpaid or not.

I'm full time and my contract says 37.5h/week.

There is nothing in my contract about whether breaks are unpaid or not.

Breaks are usually unpaid in the NHS.

www.nhsemployers.org/tchandbook/part-3-terms-and-conditions-of-service/section-10-hours-of-the-working-week