Difference between night and day nurses

[Joe V]

Are there any differences between night and day nurses? What do you notice that stands out the most to you? eg. patients, age, energy, etc

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[Kidrn911]

I just came from working days in a PICU to nocs in an ER. I so love nights even though the day people were awesome

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

I used to work a 1500-2300 shift. I loved it except I never got to eat dinner with my family. Now I am rotating days/nights and I hate it. I like the night people, they do seem, for the most part, to have bonded better than day. I am just USELESS for 2 days after a stretch of nights. Also, when something happens around 0430, I don't feel mentally sharp enough to nurse properly.

Days are hectic. admissions, discharges, etc. Not so much nights.

I think it depends on the person. If I wasn't married with kids, I wouldn't mind nights, but it is just too hard. For me. .

[amygarside]

I think teamwork really depends on the people you are working with not on the time or the shifts you are in..

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

I think teamwork really depends on the people you are working with not on the time or the shifts you are in..

Individual experiences vary, of course, but I'd bet anything if a real study were done on this, it would show a measurable difference between the level of team work of nights vs days. It's simply a fact that the skeleton crew staffing of nights forces nurses to rely on each other in order to survive.

[RevYY]

I work both nights and days on a rotation, as do all my co workers (with very few working only nights or days due to health/childcare issues). I have to say it comes down to who you have on your team (night or day). We are a busy unit, so if one person is not pulling their weight, we all feel it. That goes for night or day. I personally prefer nights, as the pace is easier and I can get everything done, but I find the lazy people do as little as they can at night because there is less oversight and more possible excuses (patient sleeping, didn't want to disturb them to check x, y, z so I left it for day staff etc). Good help is hard to: FIND.Of course, lazy and hard working people exists on all shifts in all units and departments around the world.

Good help is hard to find.

[SNB1014, RN]

well, this is from my experience with my first (and only) RN job...i work days.

i strongly encourage my pts in ICU step down to get into a chair, unplug them from monitors so they can walk to the bathroom ( i give them the riot act about they must hit the call button for assistance, etc) rather than wear a diaper or use a urinal. those who are physically unstable and very confused, obv i am strict re: fall precuations and whatnot.

however, what i hear from the RNs at night shift (and pt reports) that they give sleeping RX early, dont let them get up with assistance to the chair nor help them use a walker to the bathroom, and some of these are pts who have orders/permission to do so.

what i think is that a lot of pts (older ones anyways) have sundowners and start acting up. i think the night people have more fall and behavioral issues. and pts can get needy, anxious at night or feel their pain is stronger when they are alone and trying to sleep so they are medicated more. they also are more judicious on when to call the MD or if a fall issue happens they might not have a as fast response from xray, ct, mri, MD call back, etc that for instance, i would have. night nurses are suuuuper strong on prevention haha

ive noticed that on our neighboring tele unit there are a lot of new grads with preceptors or

[Do-over, ASN, RN]

Where I am, days gets the vast majority of discharges, nights gets most of the admissions.

[GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Vampire Syndrome... Aloha~

[CrazierThanYou]

At my hospital, the main difference I can see is attitude. Many of the day shift nurses are really foul in report, be it morning or evening. Straight up hateful.

[judihh]

Night nurses need very critical thinking skills---as many emergency's happen in the wee hours. They need a third sense and in many cases a third eye to sense when things may happen before they do. And might I add they have to love being a night owl. I usually always worked a day/night rotation --and I must say there is more bureaucracy during the day. You are not as exposed to this at night. However since retired I love sleeping nights---just sayin-----

[GaRN1952]

You hit the nail on the head. Nights is a close knit group by default. Not just the nurses, but all night folks in the hospital pull together. It is hard to come back for inservices and meetings, especially the "Mandatory" ones.

[GaRN1952]

Youare right about critical thinking skills. But that's part of the charm, you really get to think about what you are doing for the patient. Not having the same resources forces you to think outside the box!