How about a Poll on favorite shifts?

I voted for 7P-7A.

I agree with what I've read on a a few other posts-- night shift people just seem a lot more laid back, helpful, team-oriented and NICE. I trained on day shift, then started on night shift later. Can't say I much like staying up all freakin' night, but it sure beats getting up before sunrise to fight traffic to be at work by 7AM. There's almost never new orders to carry out and families rarely stay past 10PM. I NEVER have to drive in traffic. I get to work in 25 minutes versus 75 minutes. I don't have problems staying up all night if I keep busy (which I can't always do). It does get problematic though on your days off-- I can't fall asleep before 2 or 3AM and can't get up before 10 or 11AM without difficulty. Oh well, I've ALWAYS been a night person.

We have a $3 night shift differential.

I do 8-5's now and it is nice to be home with the family for dinner. But in a hospital or nursing home my only choice is 3-11. Too many bosses, too much commotion on day shift. On night shift I would never get enough rest. I also kind of liked the resolution of 3-11...ending the shift with everybody nestled down and tucked in for the night.

Actually, my favorite shift was 11a-7p. In my unit, this is the time all of the hearts come back from surgery, so we have a couple of nurses a day who work this shift. I would do 11a-7p Monday through Thursday and work 7p-7a every third weekend.

Unfortunately, when I took this temporary assignment (two shifts left, thank God!) I lost that plum position. So now I'll go back to 0.6 FTE 7p-7a and work 7a-3p 0.4 with a pool. FYI, 7a-3p would be the shift I would choose.

I love 7p-7A. We have a lot of teamwork, less family. We aren't always slower, but we help each other out, and I have learned a lot about prioritizing patient care. Some of our MD's even like working with us better. A few weeks ago we had a set of 33 week twins born at around 0200. One of the OBs was on the floor and commented to our neonatalogist that too bad babies didn't just come during office hours. He told the OB that he would rather admit preemies on night shift because our admissions normally went smoother.

Shift diff for 3p - 11p is $1.50 and from 11p - 7a is $1.85
I agree with KRVRN - less traffic, normally enough to do that I don't have a problem staying awake-- but it is not so fun on days off.

I recently switched from evening shift to night shift. Let me tell you, evening shift was hell. Day shift would discharge tons of people and we on evening shift would admit 6-7 patients each night. A lot of times each RN would have to do 2 full admits! I was getting fed up--plus the teamwork on evening shift on my unit sucks big time--yet another reason I wanted off 3-11's. Plus the night shift RN's don't get mandated nearly as much as day and evening shift RN's. No family members to contend with at 2 am or Doctors...there are a few MD's at my facility who START their daily rounds at 10pm and then write a full page of orders on each one!

I haven't exactly gotten my sleeping pattern worked out yet as it is now almost 10am and I should probably be in bed sleeping seeing as how I have to go back in to work at 11pm tonight.
My facility pays the off shifts(both evenings and Nights) a 5% shift differential. Then on weekends, there is an additional 5% differential.

So far though, I really enjoy working night shift!

Kelly

CAN WORK ANY SHIFT, BUT LOVE 3P-11P !!! DON'T LIKE GETTING UP EARLY, DON'T LIKE FIGHTING RUSH HOUR, AND DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH THE CHAOS OF 7A-3P. YOU CAN SLEEP LATE, TAKE CARE OF ANY PERSONAL BUSINESS AND PREPARE YOURSELF MENTALLY FOR YOUR SHIFT.MAYBE THIS IS MY IMAGINATION BUT DOES IT SEEM LIKE THE LATER THE SHIFT, THE FATTER THE NURSES!!!!!LOL PLEASE VISIT MY WEBSITE

As an almost-nurse, I am PRAYING to the good lord that I can get an evening or night shift position. I'm a total night owl, I get a huge surge of energy around seven o'clock, and I absolutely have to slap myself in the face to get up and to class or work for 6am or 7am. Heaven help me, I need those weekend night diffs or I can't feed my husband. ;>) Here's hoping!!