[hikernurse]

Days. I like getting up early and I may as well get paid for it, LOL.

I much prefer the atmosphere at night, though. Things tend to be a little more peaceful and even with the extra night shift stuff (you know the patients all sleep at night, not requiring med passes or care) that gets added, it just seems calmer. I love not having so many people around and answering phone calls and trying to keep up with the new orders (new nurse here and if it weren't for all the new orders, I think I could do it, LOL). That said, I'm old enough to prefer sleeping at night.

Most nurses at my hospital (except the ones who've been there forever and in certain units) work half days/half nights. My unit is four weeks days then four weeks nights. That works as well as anything.

[NurseyBaby'05]

One thing to consider about nights as a new nurse is that while the pace may be a little slower (depending on the type of floor/unit you're on), you have fewer resources. There may only be one person working in pharmacy. There may only be one secretary to float for the whole house. (That's if you're lucky at my place of employment. It's an 800+ bed hospital to boot.) Some floors have their own night secretary or share one with another floor, but many do not. You may not be able to get ordered equipment, tests, etc. like you would during the day. There's just also less staff period. If there's three nurses on and someone codes, usually two are in the room and one is keeping an eye on the rest of the floor. What does all of this mean to you as a nurse? A lot of the stuff that the ancillary staff takes care of during the day falls on you.

Don't get me wrong, I love my nights and wouldn't work full time days unless that was the only way, but appearances can be deceiving.

[NurseyBaby'05]

One of the other reasons I like nights better is that usually everything is where I left it. (The charts, the patients, the Kardexes.) The pt's usually don't have to leave the floor unless it's urgent. When they do have to go for other things, they try to get them there before 10 or 11p or after 5a. You don't have ten sets of hands taking the chart. For me, that all adds up to being able to manage my time better. (And as someone who is time management challenged, I need all the help I can get.)

[General E. Speaking, RN]

Worked nights for about 6 mos to get my foot in the door. Night shift really messes up my body clock tho. I found myself on a vicious caffeine/benadryl cycle. I like the idea of charts being where you leave them, less docs, sup's, CM, therapists. I am working the weekend day program so I usually only have to worrry about total chaos on Fridays......usually.

[Alexsys]

Originally Posted by puglie

I work the graveyard shift . I dont like it for sleeping purposes because I work every other week. I work this shift because I dont want to work with the bosses, the people who want to be boss, the people who think they are the boss , the people who wish they were the boss, the doctors, the nurses who think they are doctors, the doctors who want to be any place else but where he/she is, the doctors that I cant understand because of heavy accents and then get angry because I cant understand them, the family members (no explination there) and all the people who are only there because they have terrible home lives, never leave the building and are miserable. Thats why I work nights and I LOVE IT !!!

AMEN!!

[delee99]

I like nights... NOT love. but it enabled me to go to school. and I never missed any family functions. now that I am on days I miss some things because of the rotating weekends, and holidays. but i have evenings with DH, (kids all grown up.)

[SmilingBluEyes]

I much prefer dayshift. Always have. The nightshift kills my body clock and ruins my days. Also our hospital is very inconsiderate of nightshift in so many ways----from having meetings and classes that at lousy times for nightshifters to calling nightshifters during their sleeptimes----to having zero food available for nightshift. I am continually amazed (why should I be) how anti-nightshift mgt and admin can be in many places.

Anyhow, working nights was not a matter of choice really, as I have done so due to family needs/childcare issues for 7 years. Also, someone really has to either die or retire in OB to get a day position where I work.

BUT all that is about to change for me. I am now going to all-dayshift work after Christmas. WOOHOOOO!

[Ruby Vee]

Now that I'm getting older, my body likes being up during daylight hours and sleeping when it's dark. Unfortunately, night shift is the much nicer shift for WORK.

[Elvish]

While I agree with most of the posters that nightshift takes years off your life because your body is so screwed up, that is the shift I work. However, I work 7p-7a Friday and Saturday (weekend option) so I can be home with my DS all week while DH works. It is nice because most of the people who work my same shifts work for them for the same reasons as me, so we have something in common. Also, night shifters tend to be a little off mentally so we get along better with each other than with the dayshifters. (at least at our hospital.)

The pace is a little slower (although on mother/baby by no means slow!) because there aren't a million docs around, the lactation consultants aren't around, management isn't there most of the time. The one thing I'm not nuts about is that some tasks get dumped on nightshift because people think we don't have anything else to do. Chart audits and the like I can deal with. It's other stuff like catching up other people's mess that they left behind because they think I'll be sitting on my hind parts all night while my patients sleep. How many parents of newborns do you know that sleep all night???

[TNTraumaTech]

I love nights, wouldn't trade it for anything in the world is *except* a monday-friday job 8-5 p.m. (yea I keep telling myself to keep dreaming lmao).

I hate the fact that dayshifts thinks that night shift doesn't have much more work to do at night. I have worked on every floor and every unit of this hospital I work at except peds and newborn intensive care. Them are the only two floors that I haven't worked and signed my john henry a million times in one night on. Every floor is the same when it comes to staffing and dumping work on the on coming shift... It's annoying, day shift is so well staffed at my hospital, but at nights, we do good to survive. Techs do good to have just 15 patients a piece.. some nights we have 30 patients a piece. Units are lucky to have one tech. ER is lucky to have 4 techs.. for RN's, they are lucky to have 4 nurses for a 30 bed floor... and units are lucky if they have 2 patients a piece. As for dayshift, u averagly see 4 techs on a 30 patient floor, 7 rn's for a 30 bed floor, 1 to 2 patients per a rn per condition of patient in the units, er has 7 techs. and it really ****** me off to see dayshift sitting back relaxed yakin a storm up with their coworkers and them to dump work on us.

night shift may not have much work to do, BUT we have to take on more patients, which gives us more work, more charting, and more responsibility. We take our lunch breaks sitting while we do our charting. and when we are really short staffed... we are lucky to see a bathroom that night that we can occupy for ourselves.