All the cool people work nights!

[meanmaryjean]

You know it's true!

What's the BEST thing about working nights (besides the differential)?

For me- it is the absolute sense of teamwork. Every job I've ever had on nights, those people became my friends. We depend on each other when the going gets tough. And I think all night shift health care people share a common bond- you can meet one in an airport and instantly have something to talk about.

How 'bout you??

[starlisa14]

I recently took a position as RN Supervisor for night shift. Unfortunately I'm not seeing the teamwork. For example, one night an LPN calls me on the other unit and says, "Just giving you a heads up but we may get a complaint tomorrow because a resident needs cleaned but the CNA is making her rounds and is half way down the hall." He continues to tell me, "I let the patient know we were short handed and that her CNA is in the middle of her rounds." I thought to myself, -You are calling me and not cleaning the resident up yourself? If you have two hands that can call me to tell me this crap, then we are not short handed. I had another LPN to call off so I was having to take up that position for the night or I would have went down there myself to do it. I do not know how to work any other way than to do what needs to be done regardless. Unfortunately, I'm suspecting the attitude of this crew is quite different.

[Baubo516, RN]

starlisa14 - That is very sad to hear. I am an aide, and when I work the night shift I am often the only CNA working with RN's and LPN's and up to 19 patients. (We work in a hospital rehab/skilled unit.) It probably helps that I am no slacker - if I see a call light, I jump! - but all of the nurses I work with on nights are good at teamwork. As one of the RN's put it - and she is a charge nurse, as well - "You wipe butt, I wipe butt - we all wipe butt together!" I hope you are able to change the culture of where you are working for the better! Sadly, sometimes the only way to do that is to step up and do the work others won't, then they may feel a bit embarrassed and get off of their butts and start helping.

I think that is a record for number of times I have typed the word "butt" in one post!

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

I worked nights and days in the same unit at the same hospital. I saw zero difference in the quality of teamwork on days and nights. I attribute that to our outstanding nurse manager, who was the most wonderful manager I've ever had to pleasure to work with. She treated us with respect, gave us autonomy, backed us up with administration. In return, she expected us to meet a very high standard of care, work together as a team, and be and act like grown ups. People who were not team oriented, who were passive aggressive, or didn't have high standards for their practice didn't last long there.

I had to switch to the day shift because my body just could not hack night shift. Even as a teen, I was always an early to bed person. I would get up to study at 4:30 am because I just couldn't think as clearly late at night. I was not a safe nurse on night shift, and I was a scary driver after my shift ended.

There are pros and cons to night shift and day shift. People need to find what works best for them and not assume that they are superior in any way to the other shift. To each his own. Our unit for the most part really respected what the other shift had to go through and were glad that they were working the shift that most fit their lifestyle.

[Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN]

... People need to find what works best for them and not assume that they are superior in any way to the other shift...

Think you're just being politically correct and trying to come off as nice here, Horse.

The research bears out that in 88.7% of the studies conducted, day and evening staff were way better than night shift folks.

There's just no need to quibble about this.