kt_and_kris

so nursing in queensland - is it 12hr shifts or does it depend where u work??

Mrs JFW

most of the nurses that I work with or have met through the agency do 12 hour shifts - where I work we can do 8 hour shifts or 12 hours. I think they are generally quite flexible.

kt_and_kris

ok great thanks

cheshiremark

Hi Jackie,
Are you still enjoying life in Queensland? So when you say most of the nurses you've worked with do 12 hour shifts is that public sector as well as the private and agency nurses? Additionally, from what I can tell the Aussie nurses working week is 38 hours long how does that work out if you do 12 hour shifts?

Hope you are still enjoying working on CCU.

Mark

Mrs JFW

Hi Mark,

CCU was a bit too quiet for me so I have now transferred over to the ICU. Its more my cup of tea.

We get paid fortnightly here so our hours are worked over 2 weeks so full time would be 76 hours per fortnight sometimes staff do a mixture of 8 and 12 hours and some nights are 10 hours so they just adjust it as they go along. I do 2 x10 hour nights and 5 x8 hour shifts per fortnight to make up my part time hours of 60 per fortnight. Here at the mater is seems if you work over your hours you automatically get paid overtime instead of getting your time back. I had a few shifts on CCU where I was working anything between 2 - 4 hours over my contracted fortnightly hours and they paid me overtime for that. Not sure if that is the same in other hospitals though and I'm not sure if the mater may change it to getting your time back in the future.

Jackie

Bernieboy

Hey jackie,how are you finding things at the mater and the agency nursing in general,lots of work ??? Im itu paeds trained and looking to work agency for a few months(Brisbane)when im over before deciding where to work.

Mrs JFW

They will be glad to have you, I doubt you will be short of work! I really like the Mater I feel I have made a good choice coming here to Mater. We get alot of agency who work at Royal Brisbane coming to work on our unit, they like it too. Lots of agency work around too. I like the way they seem to value the agency nurses too. I felt some agency nurses were treated appaullingly in the UK. How long before you come over????

Bernieboy

Coming over next month for my wedding in march in Brisbane then back here to sort out the visa etc then hopefully back in oz in sept.My OH has a place in teneriffe/fortitude valley but we will be looking around Redland/cleveland,i like to be near the water,not a city boy.