The 12-hour Shift Is Injurious To Health

Discussion in 'Senior Employment' started by Corie Henson, Sep 25, 2016.

  1. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    I have seen an article in a magazine that says working for 12 hours regularly is not good for the health because it is a physical abuse to the body not to mention that it also affects the mind especially if the job is stressful. I am glad that I work in a bank because factory workers usually work in 12-hour shifts. Another job in that genre is the security guard although it is not stressful unlike factory workers because company guards are just there like a decoration although their life is endangered when there is a break-in or a commotion.

    For seniors, I guess 12 hours of daily work is not applicable.
     
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  2. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    I don't work in a factory, but I work a regular 12 hour day and almost the whole time on my feet and I'm over 60. I'm now thinking seriously of retiring in the very near future because it has affected my physical health quite badly... I don't want to leave work but I feel I have no choice !
     
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Although that isn't the case everywhere, many paramedics and EMTs work 24-hours shifts and yes, while we get to sleep in between calls, there are plenty of shifts where there is no time in between shifts. Then think of this. If your relief doesn't make it the following morning for some reason, you could be working an even longer shift, although generally you'd be last out, giving you some time for sleep.

    I have had some 24-hour shifts where I didn't take a single call, instead sitting around watching television, reading, and getting plenty of sleep, but I have also had plenty of them in which I would sleep on my way to the next call, not while I was driving of course.

    Before that, while I worked in paper bag plants, I worked eight-hour shifts but, since machine adjusters could work as much overtime as they wanted, I'd frequently work ten to twelve hours, and there were plenty of times in which I'd have to work double shifts.

    You can do that when you're young, but it gets harder when you're older. Then again, I was thirty before I began working EMS, and I was a paramedic for more than twenty years.
     
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  4. Ike Willis

    Ike Willis Supreme Member
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    For a couple years I drove a taxi, 12 hour shifts. I drove nights, so I got in some sleep time between runs. Had factory jobs where I often worked 10 hour days, 6-7 days a week.
     
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  5. Jeff Elohim

    Jeff Elohim Very Well-Known Member
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    In the military, we were working 24/7/365.... sort of --- always on call at a moments notice, whenever /whatever "orders" applied we obeyed... anytime, all the time, even when it was time off.... although it was rarely so strenuous... but they did tell us from the start , we are their property - they own us....

    On a totally different note, a few years ago my landlord turned 85. for a few months that summer, he was on the roof of a good size house repairing it after a tenant moved out - they had an obvious leak, and did not tell him in the previous two or three years before they moved..
    so there was also a lot of tile floor repair, and other wood repair besides the roof.

    He was up and down that ladder many times a day average, for months, until it was fixed, and
    on other days before or after that period of time, he was doing his own work on other properties... full time...
    the properties were his only source of income....

    It is worth noting, probably, that he and others like him, active and working through the later decades of their lives, did not take drugs, not even prescription medicine, except as a last resort when apparently (when they were told it was) medically needed.

    I've met and heard of many who did not take any at all .... and they were and stayed healthy until it was time to move on....
     
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  6. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Well, when I was in the Navy, stationed at 32nd St. in San Diego as well as Long Beach Naval Station, during part of Vietnam, we didn't have THAT many restrictions. When in-port, after a day of work onboard ship, if we didn't have the Duty that day/night, we could leave the ship for the night, but had to be back on board by 8AM for Quarters. If we didn't have Duty over a weekend, either Friday thru Sunday or Saturday and Sunday, we left the ship and didn't have to report back until the following Monday morning at 8AM.

    At Basic, were were told "the Navy will guarantee you 1 hour of sleep a night" and believe me, they weren't kidding. Sometimes it felt like I got less than an hour of sleep!

    In fact, when Admiral Zumwalt took over the Navy, as Chief of Naval Operations, we could have, and wear, civilian clothes off of the ship. Before he took over, we weren't allowed to do that. We were also allowed to have our hair and sideburns longer. Navy sailors loved it, but the upper command didn't.

    And, most definitely "yes" we were given orders and had to obey them or get written up and go before the Executive Officer and then, if recommended by the XO, the Captain of the ship.

    As far as meds, vitamins and vitamin supplements go, we both take all and are darn glad we do. I have spent some years in the medical field, that being an EMT for EMS and working for a Senior Healthcare Company.
     
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  7. Ed Wilson

    Ed Wilson Veteran Member
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    I once worked a 4x4 shift of 12 hours a day for 4 days in a row and have 4 days off. Day shift was bad enough but doing it at night sucked. The first of the 4 days off I felt like a zombie. I felt better days 2, 3 and 4 and then repeated the cycle. Six in the evening to 6AM and sometimes the boss wanted you to stay for a meeting.
     
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  8. Mary Robi

    Mary Robi Veteran Member
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    Medical personnel on 12 or 24-hour shifts scare me. Do you want someone making life-or-death decisions about you at the end of a long, tiring shift? When their thought processes might not be working on full capacity? I sure don't!
     
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  9. Jeff Elohim

    Jeff Elohim Very Well-Known Member
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    :) ..... that's what coffee's for !
     
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  10. Jeff Elohim

    Jeff Elohim Very Well-Known Member
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    (PDF) The 12-Hour Shift - ResearchGate
    www.researchgate.net/publication/283898586_The_12-Hour_Shift
    Hospitals began using the 12-hour shift in the 1970s during a national nursing shortage as a way to retain nurses.

    The Dilemma with the 12-Hour Nursing Shift
    www.emergingrnleader.com/12-hournursingshift/
    Nurses did not always work 12-hour tours. They were introduced in the 1980s during a serious nursing shortage as a strategy for improving working conditions for nurses. Initially, they were used only in specialty units such as critical care and the ER.

    Over time, use of 12-hour tours spread to most units in acute care facilities.
     
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  11. Terry Coywin

    Terry Coywin Veteran Member
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    Nurses often worked 15 hour shifts and went to school as well. Most lived long lives.
     
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  12. Jeff Elohim

    Jeff Elohim Very Well-Known Member
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    Do you want medical personnel making life and death and sickness/producing or reducing/ decisions

    who have a lower than 60% success rate , often inconclusive tests even with multi-million dollar machines,

    or would it be better to find (have to look for them)

    someone with a better than 95% success rate with almost zero risks ever, no matter how tired they are ?

    THAT is basically the biggest seen difference BETWEEN allopathic (regular) medicine/doctors/ vs the good ones.
     
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  13. Terry Coywin

    Terry Coywin Veteran Member
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    I've done many a shift of 12 hrs. or more and nary a mistake was ever made. We have great stamina or we'd never make it in the medical field.
     
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