What tricks do you use to make your day more bearable?

StNeotser, ASN, RN · Mar 9, 2009

I work a Baylor weekend so there are two 16 hour days. When I first started it and thought it sucked, a wise older nurse told me;

If you base this weekend on a 8-5 M-F working week, By 2pm Saturday afternoon it's already halfway through Tuesday, by Sunday dinner time it's noon on Friday - see how quickly your workweek goes. This helps a lot and the times flies.

I imagine most floor nurses posting do three 12's so you can break it up like that too.

StNeotser, ASN, RN · Mar 9, 2009

I work a Baylor weekend so there are two 16 hour days. When I first started it and thought it sucked, a wise older nurse told me;

If you base this weekend on a 8-5 M-F working week, By 2pm Saturday afternoon it's already halfway through Tuesday, by Sunday dinner time it's noon on Friday - see how quickly your workweek goes. This helps a lot and the times flies.

I imagine most floor nurses posting do three 12's so you can break it up like that too.

StNeotser, ASN, RN · Mar 9, 2009

We pull little pranks on other nurses or joke (flicking a rubber band at them, an occasional flush squirt to the back side or even a flatus in the med room)...or accusing a coworker of something totally fabricated and acting serious... Sometimes if we have a patient that is at the counter (say, like the obnoxious one last night who had asked nurses to show him their boobs or other inappropriate sexual and rude comments) then we open up Microsoft Word on the computer (because they can't see it) and type in 'he wants to marry you' or other goofy things. We bring in food too, which helps. :-) If nights are hard, stuff like this makes us love our job still.

Smearing KY jelly on the door handle to the med room can be amusing. Getting a 60cc tube feed syringe and filling it with water and "shooting" someone when they're half asleep at 3am is hilarious. When I was a CNA and we had to wash wheelchairs on noc shift we used to have wheelchair races. :) Never have time for the pranks on the day shift though.

PICNICRN, BSN, RN · Mar 9, 2009

I've been scheduling myself for only one day on at a time(unless its my weekend)- I work 12s so for instance Mon/Wed/Fri. I NEVER thought I'd like it, but it has been really good for me.... I can just tell myself "I don't have to come back here in the morning!!" "It's only ONE day." Sometimes you just don't want continuity. :twocents:

Indy, LPN, LVN · Mar 9, 2009

Change focus throughout the night. First part of the night it's wanting to be "on top" of the assessments part of the work along with the meds. Getting through med pass and having something charted on everyone puts me in a good mood. The 3 or so hours after that, I focus on the things that must be done normally in the shift, and do the chart checks, MARs, baths if needed, etc. If I get any procedure right, there's the happy dance but it's more of a little jiggle than a dance and I don't care who sees it!

Food also helps me feel better, I've been on a trend to try new recipes lately in my cooking. It's nice to have something delicious and homemade for dinner, especially when the patients keep me running all night. Coffee is not a "trick' to make the day/night better, it is a necessity to keep it from getting any worse! Seriously though, I always make sure I don't include a carb overload in my cooler fulla food; there has to be enough protein.

Since doing nice things for other people makes me feel good, I try to bring good coffee on most nights and make it for my coworkers, and bring the good cream too. I share good lotion, help turn and clean patients, and reach deep down (sometimes it's real deep) for the ability to be cheerful when the next shift arrives. They just got outta bed; I know how I hate to be greeted with Miss Grumpy Face when I get there. Normally I'm ... not cheerful... so these lovely-sounding things have to be done to make the environment bearable!

buddiage · Mar 9, 2009

I don't know why this was so amusing, but if you like to play with tape, then you'd understand. We took tape and stretched it accross two counters (at, 2am in the morning. We took turns running through it like we had just finished a marathon.

The security guard's wife will bake cookies, and if my night is going slow, I volunteer to take cookies around to the other units (he knows who his #1 fan is- ME). I've dubbed myself the "cookie fairy" and, if my pt's are stable, it enables me to get to know the med surg and ob nurses, and everyone feels happy afterwards. I nice thank you note in the cookie box is appreciated by the security guards wife.

If I know I'm getting report from a particular gal, I can bring in a starbuck's coffee (because we love coffee) to her. It's small, but means more. Things like that builds great repoire with "the other shift."

It's nice to engage in conversation with housekeeping or dietary, sometimes I think nurses and doctors are too "snooty" with other people, and it feels good to be "nice to everyone" and engage them in conversation or even sometimes a little joke. Some people feel "ashamed" of their jobs if it isn't taking care of patients... I think that is terrible and unneccessary. If you are good to others, they are good to you. And making new "connections" with other personnel is like making another friend at work.

The practical jokes fly on night shift, but probably wouldn't be able to happen on day shift so much. I absolutely LOVE who I work with. Sometimes being disgusting about occasional unavoidable bathroom topics and what not (quote from another nurse: "I just had an anaconda come out of my butt" or "my patient's colace finally kicked in...I need to know if we can get a birth certificate over here"), tends to boost morale. And then there are those real hard nights... making a joke of a stressful situation for the most part, works. Like others have said, I am thankful to have a job, and I am glad to not be the one who the doctors just found a "mass" via xray on. I think being a nurse has made me appreciate the gift of life. I am in awe of it.

SoundofMusic · Mar 10, 2009

After a year in my job, I think I have just identified those I can laugh and joke with, be crazy around, and generally those who just don't take themselves or the job so seriously. I mean -- they take it as seriously as is necessary, but not overly so. Anyway, I have found the fun people and made it a point of joking with them throughout the day -- that is mostly what gets me through -- and just trying to GET to lunch at some point!

nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN · Mar 10, 2009

When I'm having a bad day, want to throw everything straight up in the air and tell the patients "vaya con Dios" and head out the door, I do the following:

1 -- Go in the bathroom. Pray. Curse. Whatever the situation calls for.

2 -- Think of one of those "sticks in your head songs." (Mine's "If I only had a brain" from the Wizard of Oz). And then I change the words to the most profane or obnoxious things I can think of. You'll walk around giggling as "if you only had a (naughty word)" plays in your head. Of course, you may get an little email from the mental health folks, asking if you need to come by for a visit....

3 -- I do one small treat for myself -- could be Skittles, could be volunteering to walk over to another unit for a needed item just to get off the unit for a few minutes, could just be taking a critically needed "pee" break.

4 -- And I start every shift with the same prayer. "Okay, God, I'd just like to point out that they were alive when I got here...."

RN NascarFan, RN · Mar 10, 2009

Lately, I've been reminding myself that I'm lucky to have a job to complain about!

:yeahthat:

Especially when I hear, just about every shift, what newest "money-saving" plans have emerged from administration.

Fiscal integrity is good...............

We still all have jobs :bow:

I also enjoy working with our staff and most have great senses' of humor, so we get through the nights alright :smokin:

olli975 · Mar 10, 2009

LilyBlue, you are hilarious! I was all smiles when reading your post! I will definitely try the percentages and movie scripts next time! I love 8hrs shifts: I love going to lunch and thinking yeay, I am half way done... 12 hrs shifts are harder, when we have a change of shifts at 3pm, I think again, yeay, 4 more hrs and I am out of here... I remember once back in NS I had my one day of a clinical experience at the department of health and somehow it was very boring and time was dragging... Finally at 3pm, I said good bye to everyone but could not find the exit... so I was just running from door to door, repeating "how do I get out of here?" and everyone just burst laughing... sometimes you just can't wait to go home

Roy Fokker, BSN, RN · Mar 10, 2009

* I sing all the time :) I'm usually humming a tune or two and occasionally, one of the ER docs will chime in and we'll croon together (last night it was "Horse With No Name" by America). The hallway patients usually think we're funny :)

* Talk with a ridiculous accent.

* Walk over to a different side of the department and call your co-worker on the phone. Or be more elaborate - have them paged and when they answer the call, tell them something ridiculous like "your shoes are tied"...

* Page yourself overhead - don't disguise your voice (my favourite!) "Will Roy please answer the call light in room 4. Roy to room 4 thank you!"

* Smile. Seriously, it works. "Attitude is the difference between an adventure and an ordeal".

cheers,

abbaking · Mar 10, 2009

the serenity prayer helps me

no matter how hectic the shift is, i will ALWAYS take a meal break....if i dont eat after 8+ hours, I turn into Regan Mcneal from The Exorcist.....If I have to be hospitalized and be npo, GOD SAVE THE STAFF!