Night shift -- can you just take it easy, please?

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm a day shift nurse. I usually handle 5 patients on days on a busy cardiac tele unit. On any given day shift, there are usually ten different tasks on 5 different patients, many more demanding family members with zillions of questions and demands, interns who sit around dreaming up new stat orders to write, never enough techs or techs who want to help, endless lines of little old ladies who need to visit the bathroom 10 times a day . . . managers who seem to rove around, checking out paperwork and whether you've fufilled each and every educational requirement scheduled.

...If I don't get to that ONE urine test, or that ONE timed blood draw ...can you just stop rolling your eyes for once and just HELP me make up the slack? Surely you've got at least a few free minutes at night to do this ...

I've worked nights, too. I know how it is . ..you get busy, too ...but you DON'T, I repeat, you DO NOT have to deal with what we do on days ...diets, tests, procedures,, and many more meds to give. It's likely I am NOT going to get it all done ...not w/ 5 demanding patients, NOT with discharges and admissions ...no way, no how. I am also NOT going to reach every doctor and solve every single problem all day long so YOU can have a "quiet" night and not have to call a doctor once in a while ....

Sorry -- know I'm going to be flamed for this ...but I just can't stand it anymore. Nurses need to work together and stop putting down their co-workers constantly for not completing every single freaking task in one shift.

Specializes in geriatrics.

Tma0312, I find your post very insulting. "I know you don't do anything between 12 and 4 am." Excuse me, but since when are you the expert? I work my tail off at night, as I'm sure many others do. Perhaps where you work, it is quiet at night. However, generalizations need not be made.

Tma0312, I find your post very insulting. "I know you don't do anything between 12 and 4 am." Excuse me, but since when are you the expert? I work my tail off at night, as I'm sure many others do. Perhaps where you work, it is quiet at night. However, generalizations need not be made.

In the wee hours of 1200 to 0400 it is party time: we start mixing drinks, smoking weed, and blasting music over the intercom. Isn't that doing something?

:smokin:

I am kidding, so no one better start in on me. Those hours are usually when every disoriented resident decides that climbing out of bed is an awesome idea. Bed alarms are going off...pure madness. I love it!

In the wee hours of 1200 to 0400 it is party time: we start mixing drinks...

We have to do our liquor straight, the blender in the break room kept setting off the yakker trakker.:crying2:

Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
A lot of care is by necessity crammed in at the end of the shift-labs, baths, etc. vs. spread out through the night. If you have a patient (or several) who are really hard sticks, or huge code brown right after you've give baths, this can really throw a wrench into your plans to leave the day shift with a clean slate when they come on.

Word.

I have said it, and I'll repeat it - "Nothing good happens after 6 AM." Just when I think I have everything wrapped up neatly...the crapeth hitteth the faneth...

Maybe we should make a thread dedicated to the ways we help each other as a way to spread good morale. Happiness can be as infectious as misery. Today at change of shift we had a baby who became critically ill and had to be transferred to a tertiary care ICU. I stayed to help stabilize and prepare for transfer, and ended up there an extra 3 1/2 hours. I felt really guilty about leaving a mess for the next shift, and rather than stay up thinking about it all night it was just better to stay there and give the oncoming nurse a hand because she still had three patients to care for. Everything went smoothly, she felt better to have help and I left with a clear conscience. Anyone else have a team work moment to share for today?

Did you get reamed out by your NM for having 3 1/2 hours of incidental overtime?

Just curious.

Specializes in Pediatrics, ER.
Did you get reamed out by your NM for having 3 1/2 hours of incidental overtime?

Just curious.

Nope, I called her at change of shift and told her we had a kiddo crashing and I was going to stay to help and she said do whatever you have to do. It's not OT for me since I'm per diem there.

Specializes in Acute Mental Health.

Have to admit that I don't give a hoot if something did or didn't get done. I'm there to work and will get done as much as I can. Days gets crazy and so does pm's, I don't even want to think about the crap that noc's has to deal with. I like it best when the nurse passes on what needs to get started/finished from their shift. I hate when I find something out after hours and have to deal with less docs on, no manager, and a pharmacy that switches to some bizarre service that takes forever to call back. We're all in this crayz place together :bugeyes:

Specializes in Psychiatry.

"6. Orders non-stop. Most orders are put in on days ...docs don't like being called at night and we all know it. They do their orders early and you have to get most of not all of them done on your shift."

Maybe it's different on a psychiatric unit, and it's probably an anomoly specific to mine, but our in-house psychiatrist stays in his office all night calling out for charts and writing orders.

Why sh*t on another shift altogether? I'm not the type to get defensive, but it sounds like you have a problem with your specific work environment and the nurses who staff it. There are several reasons why I like working nights, one of which is being the lone RN, and not having to work with self-important, hypercritical nurses who act like martyrs. I love the downtime on nights, and zipped through an online RN-BSN program because of it while working full-time and having a Greek (i.e. demanding) wife and 2 wackjob boys under the age of 5 (and another kid cooking, thank you). I don't mind cleaning up after other shifts (entering missed orders, etc.), but I don't make a big production out of it or even mention it unless it's necessary. Also, if someone is in need, you call a doctor for orders regardless of what time it is, right? Not an issue. Sure, it's easier for me to be a team player: come in off-shift to chair unit council, fill out as much discharge paperwork as I can if I know it's imminent, clip a.m. meds together if it's a full census or whenever, fill out another nurse's assigned treatment plan notes if I feel like it, draw blood for at least half a dozen patients every morning; but, if I happen to get 3 admissions, and it's a full moon so everyone is out of their skulls, and the psychiatrist sends me orders on every single patient, and I don't have time to drink my coffee (!) while it's hot much less eat lunch, then you can maybe not be a c-word-rag for 2 seconds out of your life and cry about some truly insignificant thing that you perceive as being neglected or dumped on you even though it takes those same 2 seconds to get it done, please.

Of course I am using your post to vent my frustrations regarding certain nurses with whom I work. You really haven't made the distinction between your own personal circumstances and judgment/disdain for Nights en masse, your perceived opposition in the proverbial "shift war". It's your tone that is mildly offensive (the CAPS are a little MUCH). We get it, you're overburdened. But you also probably have some semblance of a life. Must be nice.

Even though I miss having more direct patient care opportunities, and even though a fair amount of my downtime is spent as the night unit clerk, I enjoy contributing as much as I can to my unit regardless of how my role is perceived by nurses on other shifts. Also, I make at least 35% more than nurses on day shift; so, whatever. Do you like apples?

Specializes in geriatrics.

The night differential is definitely a plus. I don't need to work as many shifts to make the money I need.

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