Does any other night shifters feel like days has no idea how nights works?

[thomask]

does anyone else on night feel like days thinks we do nothing? Often when I give report I end up feeling like I've done nothing all night when I didn't even have time to eat my lunch. No I don't know what time the pt is going down to IR. IR isn't here at night. umm. No I didn't get the admission questionaire done. The pt looked pretty tired after that 10 hour surgery. UHh.. I have no idea if the docs want such and such. they don't like to be woken up unless its an emergency and i don't think such and such would be considered an emergency. and so on and so forth. I realize that these things are all important. I get that. But I just can't call a doc or a dept that isn't here whenever I want. I have to figure out if it can wait. and if they are breathing okay rhythm looks good and they aren't about to code. it can probably wait.

Nevermind the fact that i have had 3 transfers in and out, I had to call the pharmacy 3 time to get a med. i had to enter orders for all those new pts(no secretary) and check the chart and call pharmacy a fourth time because they sent the med I called about earlier to the floor the pt used to be on.( only one pharmacist on noc vs 4 on days) then I have to call that floor and ask them to send it to me. I had to call for the IV pumps.i had to draw 30 ml of blood from a pt that only wanted to give me 2. the pt down the hall won't stop pooping and thought itd be a good idea to pull out the ng tube and I am pretty sure thats not chocolate on my shoe. I had to get all your paperwork ready and make sure all my ducks were in a row before the drs come in 30 mins mins before the end of my shift and write another ten orders that I have to get done before I leave, and I will probably have to call pharmacy again becaus the nurse on the other floor where they sent the med sent it to a dept that wont open til 8. so yeah, I couldn't get to that. sorry. Oh and i did it all in the dark!

I always feel horrible when this happens. I am doing the best I can. But does anyone else feel like day shift thinks we can do everything they can at night??? these people they use all day long are not there at night. No one puts in my orders for me no one lifts pts for me and dr don't just stroll by all the time so I can ask them things.

why do I leave without feeling like I have done nothing when I haven't had time to pee in 7 hours??? I have more pts at nite too!! geez!! I guess you don;t know til you work nights

[sharlynn]

Definitely! Always have and probably always will!

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

I have always felt this way.

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

I'm pretty lucky I think. Most of our dayshifters worked nights on our unit before going to days.

[htrn]

I agree with OP - you forgot the five people on bedchecks that try to crawl out of bed every 15 minutes. And not only do we not have a secretary/ward clerk - no admitting, no pharmacy, no housekeeping, no x-ray (on call at home) and we sometimes have problems staffing well enough for a code team.

BUT, the one thing that really sent me over the edge was when a day/pm nurse had the balls to tell me - "You just have no idea how busy it is on day shift - maybe you should work a few so you have a clue":angryfire

Oh well, I'll keep my noc shifts thank you very much. No admin, fewer hastles, more flexibility and I get the bed all to myself when I get home;)

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Pretty much standard, I think. Many of our day-shifters have pulled a night shift here and there, but all they remember about those nights is that they felt like crap the next day! They have an amazingly short-term memory about what it is we DO (or maybe on those rare shifts they did, they DIDN'T do much, as the "regulars" covered what the "fillers" didn't know how to do).

And there are many who have never worked a night shift, and think that the patients pretty much sleep through the night. LOL!

Like you, I find myself saying "No, I have no idea what Doc wants to do with this patient; he wasn't HERE at three am to clue me in" or "Yes, you're going to have to make a call to Doc about Patient X who wants a laxative; it wasn't something I was going to wake up the MD for in the wee hours". How about "NO, the patient didn't pee last night and NO, I didn't call the doctor; he's a healthy fella with a minor surgery, and no renal issues; how many times a night do YOU get up to pee??"

Sigh.

[anonymurse]

I like both nights and days. There does seem to be resentment over things perceived to be left "undone" by the other shift.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

my only resentment is when I find those thing that HAVE been left for nights by days...I come in to families looking for water...which they asked for 2 hrs ago, and I just got here....vs on post ops nowhere to be found and I have NO idea what the baseline is supposed to be....Icebags, trash, stupid things left undone and linen in the bathtub at 9am....what a difference.....

We are a TEAM on nights...I think days operates as every rat...whoops, member....for themselves....and screw you if I have to do something for you.....

[Roseyposey]

My favorite is when they say they couldn't get reach of Dr. So-n-so and would we mind doing it? Let me get this straight, you couldn't get ahold of him during office hours, so now you are setting me up to call them at home in the middle of the night or call their partner on-call who has no idea what's going on with this particular patient? And you think I'm going to have time to sit down and make phone calls before 0100? Or, my 2nd favorite is that they, with their four patients a piece and two aids to help, were unable to ambulate a post-op bariatric patient, teehee, and would we mind doing it? Okay, let's see, by the time I've gotten to all 6-7 patients of mine to ensure they're breathing and gotten vital signs entered (because, you see, we have no aids), it's around 10 o'clock....not the time most people are up for a workout. I apologize for my vent, it's just the last two shifts I've worked, I've had patients that I was told were "doing fine" in report, only to walk in the room to a trainwreck and me calling rapid response immediately.

[ohmeowzer RN, RN]

i think it goes both ways, i had a pt wih 20 beats of v-tach and night shift nurse didn't want to wake the doc for it (she told me this)... doc comes to the floor at 0700( before i had a chance to call him) and sees the strip from tele and asks why he wasn't notifed? and the pt's cardiac enzymes were abnormal since 0300 .. doc had a cow and the nurse was fired ... needless to say i was the nurse on day shift that got raked through the coals ... but ya know .. i get along well with the night shift crew we have now.. we all work together.. i have no complaints about our night shift..

[mmutk, BSN, RN, EMT-I]

Well I would tend to agree with you, but I work 11a-11p and see that most night shift nurses have no clue to the rampant craziness that goes on in our ER in the day also.

[elizabells, BSN, RN]

I got snotted at this morning because we were transferring a pt out, scheduled for an hour after shift change, the EMTs weren't even there yet (but had called to say they were on their way), and I hadn't called report in to the receiving hospital. Erm, I'm not calling report when the kid hasn't left, isn't going to be leaving in the immediate future, and I have no idea what might happen in the interim.