Nursing and the working day

According to a recent survey, Nurses from England and Wales comfort a patient by holding their hand 8 times in an average shift, are a shoulder to cry on 6 times in an average shift, and believe that they make a positive impact on 11 people’s lives each day that they are at work (although when you think about how a patient’s family and friends are also positively impacted by the work of nurses then this number increases significantly).

The survey also covers aspects of a nurse’s day which are more relatable to the general public. For example, a nurse from England or Wales manages to fit in 2 hot drinks into the average 12 hour shift, and will only have time to fit in a loo break every 4 hours. Compare this to your average office worker and that works

Nursing and the working day

out at 1 hot drink whilst in the office, and then 1 loo break at lunch time and one more just before you leave the office to go home. These two stats in particular are glaring indicators of how little time a nurse has to ‘take a breather’ whilst at work.

Finally, whilst the average office worker sits behind a desk for 7.5 hours, usually only standing for lunch, a loo break, or to move to a different work space a nurse will likely walk up to 3 miles in the same amount of time.

Taking all of the above in to account, it is nothing short of inspiring to think that a nurse finds something to smile about 160 times in a working week! (That’s once every 15 minutes!)

If you would like to compare how your working day might compare to that of a nurse, or if you are a nurse who would like to compare your working week to the national average then follow this link  and enter your average shift length or weekly working hours.