Switching from nights to days

Career Columnist / Author · Jun 26, 2017

At my meeting with my manager for my 90-day-eval, I brought this up to her and told her how much I'm struggling. I shared with her everything I've tried to do to make this shift work (clump shifts together, melatonin, black out curtains, etc.), but it's just not working for me. She told me to give it a couple more months and then see what we can do.
I hate how much I dread going to work just because of the shift. I know 100% that all of my issues would disappear if I worked normal hours. What do you guys suggest that I do? I don't think I can wait 2 more months! Since I never really see my manager (she's in during the day, I'm not) should I email her to set up a time to talk about it more? Email her a detailed message? Should I drop in her office?

I feel your pain because I had a very hard time working nights. I did find a few things I liked about it, which helped- such as more time to read patient charts, and less coming and going.

I'll share from management experience that your manager's first responsibility is to staff the units evenly. She may be very sympathetic to your situation and also may not share all her reasons for denying you right now. There may be too many new grads in float pool days at this time; they could be short on nights; she may have wanted to give all of you days per your requests but had to use some method to choose; maybe charge nurses on nights wanted you- you just don't know.

Two more months is what she asked. If you work 12's, that's 24 shifts. Maybe you can do it. Plan on meeting with her at the 2 month mark. Best wishes

emaz29 · Jun 26, 2017

Thank you for your response!

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Jun 27, 2017

I guarantee that there are plenty of your coworkers that have been on nights waiting for enough seniority to move to days. If you were offered day position ahead of your coworkers your manager would have a mutiny on her hands. It took me 1 1/2 yrs working night shift until I was able to move to days. I chose to accept a Weekend Only position in order to get day shift. I am required to work 47/52 weekends otherwise it would have taken me at least 2 more yrs to get a regular day shift position. I am sorry, but I think you need to suck it up or find a different job. During nursing school, it was well known that when we graduated we would most likely start off on night shift and that you will have to pay your dues in order to get a day shift.

AvaRose · Jun 28, 2017

I wish I could have started on Night Shift. In both my jobs the night shifts were rarely given to new grads and no matter how much I asked I was put on days because it was "easier" since management and doctors would be in the building to help/give orders. They forgot to mention that it would also be insanely busy with meds, insane family members, and chaos which makes me want to quit pretty much every other shift. I'm hoping to make the change over to nights and try to get my confidence built up that I can be a proper nurse and not just a pill pusher and water dispenser who is there to get yelled at by management and families whenever they are frustrated with something. Good luck to you on getting days eventually, you can have the miserable 7a-7p shift.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jun 29, 2017

Hi everyone!
I've read quite a few posts on this same topic but looking for some additional advice...
I am a new nurse and started working at my current RN job about 5 months ago. I am in a nurse residency program with about 12 other new RNs. At the end of orientation, we were assigned to units -- I was assigned to float pool with 2 other RNs. One of them got day shift because she had worked as a PCA in the hospital for several years and the other got 11a-11p because she had spoken to the manager about her concerns with commuting. I was assigned 7p-7a even though I had spoken about my concerns with working night shift. I've been working solely nights for about 2 months now and unfortunately find it absolutely miserable I love the job and the work that I'm doing but I'm finding that this shift is affecting my sleep, mood, quality of life, etc. in a bad way.
At my meeting with my manager for my 90-day-eval, I brought this up to her and told her how much I'm struggling. I shared with her everything I've tried to do to make this shift work (clump shifts together, melatonin, black out curtains, etc.), but it's just not working for me. She told me to give it a couple more months and then see what we can do.
I hate how much I dread going to work just because of the shift. I know 100% that all of my issues would disappear if I worked normal hours. What do you guys suggest that I do? I don't think I can wait 2 more months! Since I never really see my manager (she's in during the day, I'm not) should I email her to set up a time to talk about it more? Email her a detailed message? Should I drop in her office?
I know I'm a new grad and I respect the whole seniority thing which is why I've really tried to give it a shot, but it's just affecting my life too much and if she was able to help the other nurses out with schedules to work with them I am hoping she can do the same for me.
Thanks for reading -- hope to get some insight from you all!

I suggest you keep working night shift as your manager requested. Your manager helped out the nurse who has seniority over you -- the one that worked there before. She helped out the nurse who was concerned about her commute . . . do you really know what happened there? Is it a particularly heinous commute or did she just put in a request before you did? Does she also have some seniority? (Even if "seniority" is just hire on the same day but higher than you in alphabetical order, it still counts if the institution's policies say it does.)

You don't really know 100% that all of your problems would vanish if you were placed on day shift.

The first year of nursing is rough. In the olden days, we called it "reality shock". Nursing isn't what you were led to believe when you were in nursing school. I don't blame your instructors for actively trying to mislead you; your instructors haven't been bedside nurses for awhile. They did the best they could, but the reality of being a nurse is pretty overwhelming. When you were in clinicals, you could always say "I'll ask the nurse." Now YOU are the nurse. It's an adjustment.

Read the posts in the First Year After Licensure forum. Almost everyone there is complaining that they dread going to work, hate their jobs, are convinced that their colleagues hate them, and that their lives are miserable. They're not all on night shift. Some of them got their preferred shift and they're still miserable. It's all an unfortunate part of the first year of nursing.

Most of us have done our share of night shift, and it's a difficult adjustment. A couple of months is not nearly long enough to make the adjustment. Give it more time. In the mean time, you may wish to quit whining about it because that WILL paint a target on your back. You're new, you will inevitably make mistakes. You don't want to be the nurse that gets let go after a relatively small mistake just because no one wants to work with you. (Or if you do want to be let go because you hate nights, perhaps consider the difficulty of finding another position.)