*Night Shift Nurses... Please Help!* Starting RN Night Shift - telemetry

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello everyone,

Just got an offer for telemetry night shift. I'm a new nurse. My question is how can I adjust to start working a full-time night shift 7pm-7am. I start in august and I want to prepare my mind for this. Does anyone have any suggestions. I would like to be a day person on my days off... but not entirely because I don't want my schedule to be completely out of wack.

Any suggestions would help :)

Thank you!

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Your best first step is to use the search feature for the many, many threads about this very topic here on AN. After you've done that, come on back with some specific questions.

PS: All the cool kids work nights!

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Hi! Congrats on being a new nurse. Adjusting to working nights in easier for some than others. I've been working three tens for two years now and I still struggle some weeks with fatigue and losing time with family on days off when i just need to catch up on sleep. That being said there are some things you can do to make is easier on your body, here are my tips:

Have blackout curtains in your bedroom.

Have a fan or other source of white noise. You want to drown out all the noises and activity outside.

Go to the bathroom right before bedtime.

Turn off cell phone if possible.

Eat a light breakfast before bedtime. (No caffeine after 9pm for me.)

Wear sunglasses on your drive home in the am. This helps the body prepare for sleep.

Let friends and family know your schedule, and don't be surprised if they don't understand why you can't just go out whenever they want. Stick up for yourself...you need sleep to function.

On days off I take a quick nap when I get home then go do stuff with my husband. Hopefully that night I can get to sleep on a normal schedule but if I can't I just get up and go do my own thing in the living room.

Hope that helps...it's really not ideal but it's doable for a period of time. If all else fails and you just can't fall asleep..I take 1/2 tab of Unisom and that helps sometimes.

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I like to transition to days on my time off as well. The trick is to get up early on your first night in, then take an afternoon nap. Then on your last night, go home and sleep for 3-4 hours. Get up and try not to feel like crud all day. Then you'll be tired enough to sleep on a normal schedule. I am awake later usually but have no trouble sleeping by 11-12 pm. Good luck!

RN BSN

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What works for everyone may not work for you but I know that noise and light don't bother me. What I find helps is the first shift in a row, I sleep in. Then it makes it easier as the shifts go on...

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It really depends and how your schedule is going to be! Cause when I started in night shift I was working Avery other night so the day after my night shift I was keeping my mind busy doing stuffs all day long even going to the Gym then I was ready to sleep around 11 pm to 8 am then do what ever I had to do, after 4 nothing else happened cause I was on my way to work to get early and then try to sleep 30 min before start! But!! If is 3 straight nights is a little more complicated there you have to sleep during the day cause you don't want to make a mistake and could result in harming a pt. so good luck and enjoy you night shift cause I think is the best to start cause you are young and it is supposed that you have a lot of energy plus you will have the next morning to do what ever you need to do and then still have time to sleep so good luck

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