There’s much to think about when deciding to take on the weekend shift. Whether you change your regular schedule to include weekends or you’re approached by management to cover for the occasional weekend, if your weekends are your time with family and friends, and to get things done, you want to consider a few things before jumping to a “yes” or “no” answer.
Making a deliberate decision to add weekends to your schedule long-term impacts your life in many ways, both positive and negative. Taking on a weekend shift now and again requires you to establish firm boundaries so you don’t end up being the go-to because management knows you’re easy prey. You can say yes, no, or negotiate something in between. Ultimately, it’s up to you to make an informed decision. Here, we offer you some points to ponder and consider before answering.
What’s the Real Cost to You?
Beyond the hours you’ll need to put in, what is the weekend shift going to cost you? Nursing, in itself, can be extremely taxing physically and emotionally. Recovery from your regular shifts isn’t negotiable and should never be sidelined in favor of taking on a weekend shift. Even to help fill in a gap. That’s a fast track to burnout.
If you’ve already worked three twelve-hour shifts that week, a fourth isn’t simply “a few more hours”. Those additional hours can easily lead to fatigue, which affects your judgment and reaction time. It also messes with your mood. Here are some factors to consider before you automatically say yes to weekend shifts:
- Your Sleep: Is a weekend schedule apt to upend your sleep? Do you rest best on your weekends off? If the shift you’re considering is temporary, to fill a gap, or to cover for a coworker, is it at the same time as your regular shifts? Taking on a night shift after working day shifts can have serious sleep repercussions that may impact your sleep schedule for days.
- Your Physical Comfort and Health: After a regular shift, many nurses experience physical fatigue and aches and pains. That’s why your time off is so important to your physical well-being. Without time to recover from the grueling work of being a nurse, you can easily injure yourself. Also, the taxing physical work can lower your immune response if you don’t take time to rest and recover.
- Your Emotional Reserves: Just as nursing is physically taxing, it’s emotionally draining as well. A heavy week may include the loss of a patient, difficult families, violent or confrontational patients, or simply a far busier week than usual. If you feel emotionally drained, attempting to push through that exhaustion can easily add to the stresses that cause compassion fatigue.
- Your Down Time: When you’re a nurse, your time away from work is nearly sacred. Pushing through to cover a shift every once in a while is fine, but if you haven’t had a break and your next day off isn’t for a few more days, you may want to reconsider saying yes to that weekend shift.
How Does Your Response Affect Patient Safety?
As a nurse, first and foremost, you are called to provide quality patient care. The question of whether you should say yes to that weekend shift or not shouldn’t simply come from a personal preference. Research has determined that nurses who work extended consecutive shifts (more than 40 hours per week) pose a greater risk to patient care than those who work a standard shift schedule. That’s because fatigue can cause medication errors, patient injuries, and near misses. And fatigued nurses also risk injury to themselves, such as needle sticks.
The American Nurses Association stands firm in its recommendation that nurses weigh their fatigue before taking on extra shifts. After all, a nurse’s first responsibility is not to practice their vocation when impaired. Fatigue and exhaustion definitely impair those who experience them.
Does that mean every extra shift you take on poses a danger to patients? Not necessarily. Only you can gauge how you feel. Ask yourself if you feel rested and alert enough to take on the next 12-hour shift. If you’re uncertain, you should probably turn it down. Your professional safety and your personal safety, as well as your patients’ safety, matter too much.
Consider the Impact on Your Team
Of course, you want to help your coworkers out by saying yes to that weekend shift. You know only too well what it’s like when you’re short-staffed, and you don’t want the patients or your colleagues to suffer. Your impulse to say an immediate yes to the weekend shift reflects a team player and goodwill. But remember, saying yes without having guardrails in place can become a trap.
When management or even your coworkers come to you regularly to take on weekend shifts, it becomes a chronic issue. By that, we mean the problem of staffing gaps doesn’t need to be addressed because it gets resolved through personal sacrifice: yours.
Saying yes to that weekend shift in a real emergency is one thing, but if you find you’re regularly called upon to fill the gaps, management has zero incentive to address recruitment, consult a staffing agency, fix retention, or be more proactive when scheduling nursing staff.
Being the one who always bails them out of a jam leads to resentment, burnout, and ultimately their unspoken expectation that you will handle it.
Understand What’s In It for You
Hopefully, the offer of a weekend shift comes with incentives. After all, your time does matter. Before you think about saying yes to that weekend shift, work out the details and find out the following:
- Your Pay: Does the weekend shift you’re considering come with time-and-a-half, or is it straight time? Is there a bonus? A premium? If your healthcare organization incentivizes saying yes to a weekend shift, it can change up the math pretty quickly.
- Overtime: Find out if the weekend shift will put you over your threshold and into overtime. Don’t assume you’ll receive overtime pay. Be clear on your organization’s overtime policies as well as any state law that may influence overtime for nurses.
- Your Assigned Area: Is the weekend shift in your regular area of the facility, or will you be in a different unit? If you’re outside of your usual area and working with a different patient population or an unfamiliar team, it could cause more stress than it’s worth. Or, you may find you enjoy the challenge and the opportunity to explore new skills.
- Terms of Cancellation: If you say yes to that weekend shift and the patient load drops, can you be sent home? Will you lose any pay incentives you were offered? This is important information when weighing your response.
- Added Flexibility for Scheduling: If you say yes, can you trade a future shift or day off with a coworker? Does saying yes to that weekend shift give you preferential scheduling options?
Don’t feel pressured to give your response without knowing and understanding how you will benefit.
Does Saying Yes to That Weekend Shift Impact Your Work-Life Balance?
As a nurse, you’re all too familiar with working holidays and special occasions, missing out on family time, kids’ sporting events, weddings, or simply a lazy Saturday morning. Before you say yes, consider how that weekend shift would affect you, and ask yourself what you would need to give up and how much you would regret it.
Does taking on that shift provide you with the money you need, or extra spending money you’d like? If you have an expense that you could use the extra pay for, like student loans, repairs on your car, or any other legitimate reason, go ahead and say yes. But if doing so means saying no to personal time to rest or spend with loved ones, take a moment to consider what you’re giving up.
Also, please consider the repercussions of saying yes when your heart truly isn’t in it. One of the top reasons nurses leave their profession is burnout. While you may feel as though the extra shifts are manageable, in the long run, your career may be upended due to regularly overextending yourself. Protect your nursing career, your license, and ultimately, your peace, if you don’t want to say yes to that weekend shift.
Know the Rules of The Healthcare Organization
Before you say yes, check your employee handbook or check with your employer to make sure you won’t be breaking any rules or going against policies. Some healthcare organizations have specific rules regarding downtime between shifts and when you can extend your regular shift schedule. Mandatory overtime may be limited.
Also, you need to understand the difference between a request and a requirement. Voluntary shift pick-up is a request to which you are entitled to say no. If you feel pressured into saying yes to an optional shift, you may want to make a note of that for any future situation you need to address with management or HR.
Saying No Gracefully
If you decide to turn down that weekend shift, you can do so with grace. A simple “I’m sorry I can’t, but thank you for thinking of me” is all you need to say. You don’t owe anyone an explanation, and doing so may lead to negotiating on their side.
If you feel the need to soften your response, you can always say something like “ I have an obligation at that particular time, but I can help out next week if you need me”. Then deliver on your promise. Doing so goes a very long way in goodwill and shows that you are a dedicated member of the team.
How to Say Yes While Protecting Your Peace
If you decide to say yes to that weekend shift, do so with intention and make sure you protect your peace. Here’s how:
- Get it in Writing: Confirm the terms of the rate or pay, any bonuses, hours, and unit so there is no confusion.
- Plan for Your Wellbeing: Plan your sleep ahead of time. Plan your meals, your breaks, and how you will get to and from work. If you feel drowsy after your shift, arrange for transportation home and do not try to drive.
- Boundaries are Crucial: Set your limits as far as the shift, especially if it’s outside your usual area. If you feel the tasks are beyond your competency, speak up. Certainly, if you feel at all unsafe, let someone in charge know.
- Schedule Your Next Day Off: As the saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty vessel. Schedule the next rest day as soon as possible.
- Don’t Be Afraid to Speak Up: Alert someone to your concerns, especially if they involve patient care or your own fatigue.
How to Assess the Request
When you’re asked to take on a weekend shift, and you need to think quickly, ask yourself these five questions.
- Do I feel physically and emotionally rested and safe to do my job?
- Is the compensation fair?
- Will I regret what I need to give up to take on the shift?
- Will I feel secure in my answer tomorrow?
- Is this a one-time ask on their part, or is this a pattern?
If your answers to these questions satisfy you, then you can feel confident in your answer.
Saying Yes to That Weekend Shift Requires Consideration
Nursing is a self-sacrificing career in many cases. But an exhausted nurse, a nurse who feels unsafe, is resentful, or is taken advantage of, is not serving their patients. The risk of burnout in a nursing career is a very real threat. Saying yes to that weekend shift requires thoughtful consideration.
For more information on handling extra shifts, please contact BOS Medical Staffing.
