Orienting on NOC shift - disadvantage?

[GabesMommy2014]

Hello all,

I am very excited to finally be starting my first acute care RN job in a hospital. However, I am nervous because my first two weeks of training will be on the night shift. My manager has said that she will try to get me a preceptor on day shift after the first two weeks, but might not be able to because they hired another new RN before me and they are orienting her on days. It is a rural hospital and census has been low lately, so they don't want to orient us on the same shift in case there aren't enough opportunities for both of us to learn.

My question is: am I at a big disadvantage orienting on nights? They hired me for a full time NOC position, so at least I will be training for the shift I am eventually going to work...

I will be working on an OB floor, with the first month of training in PP/Nursery and the the remaining 3-4 months of training in L&D.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide!

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

OB is one of those areas where there's really not a huge difference between days and nights. Besides, all the cool kids work nights!

[serenity1]

Actually, I was hired (pp/nursery) for Noc and oriented on days. Although I was able to meet more of the docs working on days, when I went off orientation to nights, it was a completely different flow. We did things differently, had different/fewer resources and it was hard the first couple of weeks even though I felt fine with everything on days. I actually let management know that it was a disadvantage to orient to days when hired for nights. They have since divided the orientation between days and nights. Good luck!

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

OB is one of those areas where there's really not a huge difference between days and nights.

Considering that for both of my labors I was up all night to end up delivering my children by breakfast time, I can vouch for this.