[jelorde37]

ive worked pms and nocs. when i worked pms i found out that i was running most of the things that the am shift didnt get to finish. when i work noc, i would run the things that the pms didnt finish as well as getting things ready for the ams.

[SeanSean]

At my previous employment at an HCA facility as a 12-hr nightshift nurse we had an ave. 8-10 patients at night (several times 12 pts) on a Med-Surg tele floor (and the night where I floated to Trauma with 11 pts) (that's HCA for you), sometimes with only 1-2 aides for a 36-pt unit, and I did so much walking I developed constant burning aching feet. I worked my tail off. (Always a few who seem to be down at the nursing station much of the time.) Often didn't get a break.

Now working at a different facility as a dayshift nurse with 4-6 patients often with total care pts it seems just as busy. But I'd like to try nightshift here because they get no more than 6 pts each, which might be breeze compared to 8-10 ave. before.

[chibear55]

We Rotate Every 2 Weeks Between Nights And Days. No One Can Grip That Way.

[akcarmean]

I have worked both day and noc shifts
I prefer nocs b/c you don't have to deal with the politics to much
but I do and have worked very hard at night
i worked in a LTC facility there were 2 nurses and 2 cna for 174 pts. talk about being busy!! you had your work to do plus help the cna with there work. I never got out of work on time and was always getting in trouble for that but what can you do. This LTC facility always put the full weekly skin assessments on the noc nurses.

[BearyPrivate]

I have worked noc shift for the past 15 years. I agree that each shift has their own duties. However, noc shift is the shift with less staff, more paper work, and Residents up all hours. I have worked at LTC facilities through all my career. Noc shift is left to basically CLEAN UP the crap that the shifts before couldn't get done. Our facility just did away with all med techs. So now day shift has 4 lpn's, 4 rn's, and 6 cna's for the 79 patients we have. Evening shift has 4 lpn's, 6 cna's. Noc shift gets 1 lpn (me) and 3-4 cna's if no one calls in. If they do call in most generally the evening shift lpn's (4 of them) just simply didn't have time to pick up a phone and call anyone. Now you tell me who is going to want to come in after 10 pm. The lpn's on days pass meds on the hall that rn's are in charge of, evening shift lpn's have to pass their own meds, charge their own floor do their own tx's and chart..
Noc shift has to pass all meds ( scheduled and prn), charge the whole building, make sure cna's are doing what their suppose to do, fill out census sheets, calibrate accu check machine, perform any tx evening shift couldn't get to, flushing 5 g-tubes, bolus feed 3 of the 5, perform 2 trach cares, suction as many as 5-6 times on each trach, and this is just an average noc.
Then day shift comes in and c/o having to do all this with just 4 rn's, 4 lpns and 6 cna's on the floor. It makes me sick. Sorry to all you rn's out there but just like lpn's there are the bad apples in the bunch and I think they all have jobs at the facility I work at.

[newdawn_45]

Always get a chuckle when I hear the day shift talk about the night shift not doing anything. Speaking as a Charge for the ER we both work equally hard. We come in and usually have to hit the floor running. As the night progresses we lose all but one of the techs and a nurse or two. By morning we are worn out and have the ER down to a few rooms filled.. if my nurses are standing around when day shift comes rolling in, its because they have earned it.

[jessPICURN]

I'm not a big commentor, but I had to throw my $.02 in on this one.

I work in a 20-bed pediatric ICU. we get everything you can imagine, and stuff you'd probably rather not. In the beginning of my career, I worked straight nights (7p-7.30a), But for the last eight months or so, I've been working a rotating shift (2 mo's days, 2mo's nights). I can honestly say, it's about the same. There are lots more people around on days, and lots of rearranging, but nights sees the "trainwreck" admits and is more frequently short staffed. On days, you can get by with asking docs and pa's- and you are much, MUCH more likely to sit in the break room for a 30-min lunch. On nights, you have your brain, your charge nurse, and your neighbor. On nights, your extremely unstable pt in multi-system organ failure is ALL YOURS. When something goes wrong, yeah, you can call the resident over to the bedside, but more frequently than not, they'll look at you like "now what do i do?" And yes, there's a fellow in-house... except he's sound asleep and really needs some caffeine to get that brain going.

I guess what I'm saying is that days has a lot more hustle and bustle, but nights is what separates the mice from the men. it's all about finding your niche in the mix.

[redefinition]

I'm on nights and I rarely get to sit down..I'm a new nurse, but it's still very busy because we do additional stuff at night.

[SteveRN21]

Having worked both days and nights, ("Bi-shiftual") I honestly believe that at least in critical care, days and nights has equal amounts of work, it's just that on days you have rounds, many new orders, families, meals, etc taking you away from your patients. On nights you have less distractions from your work, but have less staff, less experience, rarely have NAs or secretaries. Pharmacy and Lab are running on barebones staff, the kitchen's closed, and the equipment depot is cleaned out of equipment.

Same work, different resources.

This topic has been discussed to death. It all comes down to nurses realizing that nursing is a 24-hour job, and that sometimes, no matter how good a shift we had, stuff didn't get done.

[Brita01]

Originally Posted by SteveRN21

This topic has been discussed to death. It all comes down to nurses realizing that nursing is a 24-hour job, and that sometimes, no matter how good a shift we had, stuff didn't get done.

It's hard to believe that this thread was started way back in 2002 and people are still finding it. Not much has changed in six years, it seems.