NIGHT SHIFT CENTRAL!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I've been a night shift RN for a looong time. I also do research on issues related to night shift work/ sleep problems and the 'domestic inconvenience' of shift work in general.

I'm currently doing a massive project on how healthcare institutions impact the sleep of their night shift workers, and how they allocate certain resources differently between night and day shifts.

So, I'm putting it out there- share your shift adaptation tips and tricks, your vents and rants - all things night shift related.

Why? Because everybody knows- all the cool people work nights! :)

Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.
I worked night shift last night and payroll called me at 1pm. She stated " Is this crazyandcute, you don't sound the same, your voice is scratchy" ?

Your voice would be scratchy too if someone called you at freakin 1am!

Did you TELL her that it was the middle of the night for you?

Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

I tried days for 2 years. I just couldn't stand it. I was happy to go back to nights.

I work on a night shift as an RN. All the other departments in the hospital allow their night shift workers to work 7 days on/7 days off. Our boss believes that can cause workers to become too fatigued/cranky. She therefore restricts us to working a maximum of 5 days in a row before having to have a night off unless she needs us to work more days in a row for some reason. What is good for the goose is apparently not good for the gander.

All of us who work under such a schedule feel that all having that 1-2 day period does is temporarily get us off our night schedule and make us more fatigued when we come back to work.

Is there any research that can aid us in presenting our case to administration?

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

What other departments do this? If you work 7 nights on, do you just put everything on hold and hope you can sleep? And I would think it would be a staffing nightmare at some point. Also, that is 56 hours in a pay period so unless you agree not to incur overtime, that could be a budget nightmare.

Specializes in Cardiopulmonary Stepdown/Cath Lab, ICU.

Thought I was going to hate night shift when I started about 2 years ago. It is actually perfect for me. I've always been more of a night person anyway. Once I figured out my sleeping and got family to understand (for the most part) my schedule. I have no problems with that aspect.

Love the teamwork. Due to limited resources, we work together so much more closely on nights and have much stronger working relationships than days/pms. I like that due to there only being one PCA I am usually pretty involved in the basic patient care as far as cleaning, turning, etc. etc. Enjoy the fact I'm not constantly interrupted for meetings, rounding etc.

Rants: The few day shift people that think all we do is sit around all night because the patients are sleeping all night. Right... Having to yell at doctor's to get them to a semi-conscious state to give me orders for late night admissions/condition changes or being yelled at for waking them up (which I understand) lol.

I think it's wonderful that you take the time to do that. Taking the time out of your "day" to make sure everyone is taken care of is awesome!

Specializes in Addictions/Mental Health, Telemetry.

I never, ever worked night shift during my 14 yrs of nursing until this latest job. I hated my old job/boss and knew that nobody was going to hire me unless it was for nights in this healthcare economy! I'm single, live alone with my 2 cats. I got black out curtains for my bedroom. I turn my phones off. I found I was well-suited for nights even though I always considered myself to be a morning person! Now I split my time between day shift (7a-7p) and swing shift (11a-11p), with an occasional night shift (7p-7a). I have no problem sleeping anytime! I do the psych assessments and admissions in the ER. I love my job!

Specializes in L and D.

I hate how apparently there are never that many admissions, or women going into labor, or water's breaking, or babies being born to need staff. All that stuff only happens on the dayshift ya know.

And I'm a +1 on the daytime meetings and mandatory education. Every single month we have a meeting that is at 7am. Every quarter we have mandatory simulation offered at 7am, 10am, 1pm or 3pm. Nightshift either has to stay late after working 12 hours, or come early before their 12 hours.

On the contrary, I can't stand being here during the day with all the management sticking their noses into everything, and the "hey yous".

okay I'm done.

Specializes in Addictions/Mental Health, Telemetry.

I hear you about the mandatory meetings! At my facility we have mandatory things also scheduled for night shift...like at 0300. It's appreciated!

What other departments do this? If you work 7 nights on, do you just put everything on hold and hope you can sleep? And I would think it would be a staffing nightmare at some point. Also, that is 56 hours in a pay period so unless you agree not to incur overtime, that could be a budget nightmare.

I think it would depend on the contract. I just finished working 84 hours(7-12s) last week but I won't get paid ot unless I get called for it this week. And yes my life was pretty much on hold. Sleep work home sleep again.

What other departments do this? If you work 7 nights on, do you just put everything on hold and hope you can sleep? And I would think it would be a staffing nightmare at some point. Also, that is 56 hours in a pay period so unless you agree not to incur overtime, that could be a budget nightmare.

56 hours in a pay period of 2 weeks is actually on the low end; and this is assuming they're 8 hour shifts.

Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.

Who works 8 hour shifts?

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