What if you could drop off your children at school, work a shift at the hospital, then be back to greet your kids after classes?

Such parent work shifts are ideal for nurses who want to keep a toe in the working world without sacrificing time with their kids. They're becoming more common as hospitals get creative to fill staffing gaps.

Mary Strong, BSN, RN, works 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. two or three days a week in the vascular surgery unit at The Cleveland Clinic, which instituted a parent-shift program in August 2004. "It's a dual benefit," says Strong, a mother of two who left nursing for 10 years before finding her current position. "It benefits the floors, but it also benefits a lot of people like me who want to get back into nursing."

The Cleveland Clinic's parent-shift program was the brainchild of chief nursing officer Claire Young, MBA, RN. "It's for people who want the best of both worlds," she says. "They want to get their kids on and off the bus but want to spend some time working in between."

‘Mini-Job' Comes with Trade-Offs

Nurses don't have to be parents to participate in the clinic's program, Young says. Any RN whose lifestyle cannot accommodate a traditional nursing schedule is eligible.

While parent-shift nurses don't receive benefits, they aren't subjected to traditional rotations either, so working nights and weekends aren't required. They are also exempt from working holidays.

The 64 nurses participating in the Cleveland Clinic's parent-shift program can choose their own start and end times, but they must work in two- to six-hour increments at least eight hours a month. They can accumulate their hours on weekdays, evenings or weekends.

Strong initially worried that "it sounded too good to be true," and that the regular nursing staff would resent RNs who could dictate their own hours and who may have been out of the profession for a while. Strong's trepidation was unfounded, however. Full-time staff nurses "will take whatever help they can get, whenever they can get it," says Strong, who went through the clinic's refresher orientation program. When full-timers joke about wanting to leave at 2:30 p.m. too, Strong reminds them of the part-time paycheck and lack of benefits that accompany what she calls her "mini-job."

Filling Staffing Gaps

Many nurses in the clinic's program find themselves working more hours than they originally intended, Young says. During the program's first 14 months, parent-shift employees covered 15,000 patient-care hours, she says, exceeding the clinic's initial expectations.

Nurses hoping to convince their managers of the value of parent shifts should present the concept as a potential staffing solution, Young advises. "Encourage them to look at the holes in their schedules and just imagine those holes being filled with four-hour chunks here and there," she says. "That will give employers the motivation to want to do this type of program."

Cathy Hunt, BSN, RN, works 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. four weekdays a week in the admissions center at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She found her job over the Internet when she found out she was moving from Minnesota, where she already worked part-time.

The predictable routine appeals to Hunt, who has two daughters in elementary school. "I chose my position primarily because of the hours," Hunt says. She can plan her one weekday off a week to coincide with the days when her children are out of school or have half-days.

Hunt likes her daily responsibilities -- performing physical assessments and admitting new patients -- but what keeps her in the position is the freedom her job affords her to focus on her children. "Right now the girls are truly my priority," Hunt says. "This is a job I can go to and be done at the end of four hours."