Two Tallinn hospitals end 24-hour shifts, prompting staff to seek jobs

Two Tallinn hospitals’ decision to end 24-hour shifts for nurses and caregivers is prompting some staff to look for other jobs, ERR reports. The hospitals say the change is intended to improve patient safety.

The North Estonia Medical Centre and West Tallinn Central Hospital no longer allow nurses and caregivers to work 24-hour shifts. Katre Zirel, nursing director at the North Estonia Medical Centre, said studies show that employees become tired after eight hours of very intensive work and that longer shifts can lead to mistakes.

A caregiver at the North Estonia Medical Centre said the hospital had not considered how the new schedules would suit employees. As a single parent, she said, commuting to work four or five times a week would take more time and money. She also noted that doctors can still work 24-hour shifts.

A midwife at West Tallinn Central Hospital said she was looking for a new job because shorter shifts make it difficult to organise family life. If both parents work 12-hour shifts, one may be finishing work as the other starts, while no kindergarten is open late into the evening.

The nurses’ union supports moving away from 24-hour shifts but says the reasons hospitals use them also need to be addressed. Union head Kätlin Lillemaa said nurses find consecutive 12-hour shifts exhausting. Some also struggle to get home after late shifts when buses are no longer running.

Lillemaa said the main concern was that many nurses work at more than one workplace. She said one in five nurses does so, and shorter shifts at one hospital could leave other workplaces short of staff and increase the workload for those who remain. Smaller hospitals could then struggle to cover shifts.

East Tallinn Central Hospital will continue using 24-hour shifts, and interest among nurses in working there has risen slightly. Its nursing director, Kätlin Pallo, said hospitals have previously reduced or ended such shifts but later returned to them, often because of staff shortages. She said common rules across Estonia would require an agreement between hospitals.