Why shift diff nights when days are so busy?

[Johnny Moo Man]

I've worked nights for 7 years and only recently switched to days. How many times at night had it gotten a little busy and the nurses complain about the day people : "they think all we do is sleep." The night diff at my hospital is 5 bucks an hour, plus the extra shift bonus is 50 dollars more--200 rather than my 150.

So I went to days. Now for less money I get families, nutritionists, case managers, social workers, doctors, multiple orders that need to be done now, CT and X-ray calling to tell me to change the order because they can't do the exam for reason #12; every manager in the hospital all over the staff, etc etc. Yesterday I had 3 discharges at the same time, and in walks my direct admit for chemo with a portocath that didn't work. A half hour before shift change, here comes my ER admit and a heavy ICU transfer at the same time. The thing is, this is a normal Monday.

And for working my butt off I get less money. I've worked hard at night, sure, but that was my choice. I will testify that the bulk of the night people at my facility put on the ipod at 11:00 and sit reading, or surf the internet, or sit around visiting. A lot of free time in between calls. Unheard of during the day. So my issue is, why should nights be more money? For staying up? I think it's crazy given the workload that nights are given so much more. Obviously I'm going back to nights after the holidays.

Just a consideration, to give money to those who work hardest.

[gerry79]

I often thought nights were easier than days until I started working nights. There are less resources at night and at my facility the bulk of the admission come in between 11pm and 3am. There is no unit coordinator to set up charts or answer the phones and call bells, reduced PCT help, we each have 6 or 7 patients when the day shift can only have 4, and as I found out, patients don't always sleep at night. I think both shifts are busy for different reasons, but working days you have a life once you get off. It seems I sleep the whole day after a night shift. There are no easy shifts in nursing.

[Lorie P.]

I often thought nights were easier than days until I started working nights. There are less resources at night and at my facility the bulk of the admission come in between 11pm and 3am. There is no unit coordinator to set up charts or answer the phones and call bells, reduced PCT help, we each have 6 or 7 patients when the day shift can only have 4, and as I found out, patients don't always sleep at night. I think both shifts are busy for different reasons, but working days you have a life once you get off. It seems I sleep whole day after a night shift. There are no easy shifts in nursing.

:yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat: you covered the basics!!

[fultzymom]

Less staff at night and second and last shift is less familiy friendly. I think it is an incentive to get people to work those hours that most people don't want to work.

I have worked both shifts and I say that I worked harder on day shift because of all the people in your face and taking your patients when you need them. But on night shift there are not a lot of resources to help you because there is less staff. It is a catch 22. But due to 3 kids, I need to work day shift.

[Lorie P.]

[ but on night shift there are not a lot of resources to help you because there is less staff. it is a catch 22. but due to 3 kids, i need to work day shift.

i only have one child and really need a day job!!

they are far and few in between in my neck of the woods!

[psalm, RN]

What part of the country are you in, getting $3-5/hour differential? We get less than $1.50 on 11-7, 3-11 gets $.90/hour. I am in SW Michigan.

[Midwest4me]

WOW Johnny! Base wage per hour PLUS $5.00 every hour for shift differential and then a bonus each month of $50 sounds pretty good.(Of course I know it's all relative.) The RNs at our hospital make $2.50/hr in shift differential; the LPNs make just under $2/hr. Shift differential applies to the hours of 6pm-6am so pm shift gets some too...which is nice. I believe that the main reasons for higher pay are#1) that night shift is not very attractive due to social situations, general sleep difficulty, and #2)the fact that there is at least the same---if not more---responsibility(at least at my hospital) required and fewer staff with which to accomplish the tasks.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

If I were working med-surg, I would opt for evening or night shift immediately. It is too much going on the day tour for me to catch up with. I do believe that there are less resources at night, however, it is a bit tamer, because there is less interference from transport aides, dietiticans, millions of residents, visitors, phone calls and managers.

[scattycarrot, BSN, RN]

I am not working right now but when I was I preferred to work nights because the ER I worked in was often busier at nights. Partly because during the day we were supposed to have 11 RN's on duty and this dropped to 6 at night. Why, I am not sure when we had 5 different areas to cover and when we came on at 20.00, the place was jammed and would stay that way till the late morning(or early depending on your view point!). But, I prefer to be busy and so it suited me. We used to get our 30 minute breaks in only because the department were absoutely insistant that we took regular breaks but they didn't usually start till the rush stopped. Which was in comparison to the floor nurses who were all getting 2 1/2 sleep breaks. S, I think that how busy you are at night totally depends on where you work and its not about how busy you are, its about the effects your work has on your life. Most people find it difficult to work at night, hence why the rest of the world work 9-5 or whatever. Someone else mentioned about the researched healthrisks associated with nightwork and in fact, the Cancer research body is going to be putting down nightshift work as a contributing factor towards cancer.

[ZippyGBR, BSN, RN]

i'm going to make you sick over differentials , the nasty evil socialised monolith that is the NHS pays 30% uplift after 2000 ( or if more than half your shift is after 2000 the whole shift - so 7-7 nights and 18- 02 twiglights are paid as nights) all day saturday and 60 % on sunday and bank holidays

[Johnny Moo Man]

WOW Johnny! Base wage per hour PLUS $5.00 every hour for shift differential and then a bonus each month of $50 sounds pretty good.

That is, 150.00 plus time and a half, for day shift, 200.00 plus time and a half, for nights. Plus the 5.00 an hour shift diff. I work in Anaheim CA in a medsurg/tele unit.

A side note: the health problems with staying up at night, versus the high stress of days. Someone said there are no easy shifts. True.

[actioncat]

Consider this day person, night folks spend their first day off sleeping, whereas you can go out and about enjoying your day off. Tired albeit, but even still able to function in daylight hours no problem. We spend our day off sleeping off a hang over of 3 nights straight.

I am very busy at night (most if not every night), sometimes I am not able even to take a lunch break ;-( And I agree with the poster who stated that night folks are difficult to come by. Agreed, your typical Monday sounds like hell on earth OP!

Perhaps we as nurses should be earning more period for the work we do and not have to lash out at others with shift differentials. Let us negotiate for higher wages when were negotiating for a posisition at another hospital, eh?

I have to say, when I am having a day like the original poster, the thought of more money would do little to alleviate my stress. Now using more money to hire more staff-- that is another story...

[suanna]

No doubt about it, there are more interuptions, visitors, and consults on days. On nights we have less support staff, fewer attending around, no managers to help problem solve plus we have to get a great deal of care done and still find time for our patients to sleep. The patients are crazier, the admissions are drunker, and the cafeteria if it's open at all serves whatever was left over from the real shift. Night workers die younger, disrupt thier families lives and are treated like second class citizens- if you want to have input to your hospitals practices the committee meetings are on days. As well as inservices are always on days.

All that aside, the reason night shift gets a shift diff ($1.00 at my hospital) is that NO ONE will work nights one minute longer than they have to (except a very select few like myself). The shift diff may keep someone on nights a few mos or a year longer until the base scale for thier seniority level is high enough to make up the difference. If shift diff is that great a perk I would invite any experienced day shifter to please feel free to bid back on nights, we could use some help other than new grads.