Night Shift or Evening Shift

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I am a new nurse and am fortunate enough to have been offered a positions, an option of two actually. The two positions available are a 32 hr Night (11-7 4 nights per week) or 32 hr Evening (3-11 4 evenings per week). I am so torn....I want to do nights because I will have time in the evening to see my FH, friends and family, but I am also concerned about my health and sleep deprivation. Evenings are tempting because I can sleep at night or at least from 2a- 830a but and concerned I will feel like I have no free time. I am just looking for some feedback from nurses that have worked either one or the other or both I would like to hear what you liked and disliked about the shift/s and if you had to make a decision between the night and evening which would you pick?

Any input would really help...Thanks!

Specializes in geriatrics.

I love nights and I hate days. Even when I worked days, I wanted to stay up at night. There is something inhuman about getting up at 0530a. For the people who don't like the dark....well even on days its dark when you wake up and dark when you leave work. I don't see the difference.

The only thing that works for me is maintaining a night schedule on nights off. Switching to days is pointless and that is ultimately what hurts people. I also eat healthy, exercise and take melatonin.

Specializes in ER.

7p-7a... Shift of champions!!! No administration! Less people milling about! Do your job and gimme my check baby! Lol!

And theres nothing wrong with drinking in the morning if you worked that night! ;)

I'm real confused by all the different terms used by everyone here :uhoh3:. At my hospital you work days (7a-3p or 7a-7p), afternoons (3p-11p), or nights (11p-7a). I orientated on days (7-3) and it was okay, but I was always tired by 10p and had to get up at 5a, so it felt like a drag. I then worked 7p-7a and that is fine, but I would miss some of my kid's sports or school activities. Now I work 11p-7a, contingent status. I like being able to attend all of my kids' activities, but I do feel pretty crappy most of the time, even with a good stretch of days off (I'm 40). The ideal shift for me doesn't exist right now (9-3!) so I am just dealing with it for a while. Afternoons is a hard shift, they get all the admits and discharges. Where I work the afternoon shift is hard to staff, and the staff we have seem to be our weakest nurses so the night shift has to play catch up with stuff they leave for us and then do our own tasks as well, it has to be the shift that passes on the most stuff! I think afternoons would just eat up most of your day.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

Hated 3-11 with a family (husband and kids). I never saw them.

Now I'm part-time 11-7, and it works out well for me. I have no issues at all switching back to days after working a few nights in a row. I do have difficulty switching back to nights, though. I have to force myself to bed, and I don't sleep well at all the first evening before a shift back on. (Almost like a six-hour doze...) While I like nights, I don't think I could do this shift full-time.

Specializes in Cardiac Care.

I have worked both. I felt like I was missing so much more of life when I was working evenings. By the time I got home it was sometimes after midnight, it would take at least an hour or two to wind down and get to bed around 2am. Then I would sleep until about 10 or 11. Have to get ready for work and head out the door by 2 to get to work. So the times I was home, people we either sleeping or still at work/school. If I was lucky and didn't have to work a weekend I would get to see the family on weekends. I also missed alot of functions because of this shift.

I work NOC right now. I work 8p-6a. I sleep while everyone is at work/school, I am up when they are home and can have dinner and even go out somewhere with them at least for a few hours before work. Not having to go in until 11 you would be better off.

It just takes some time to get used to the being awake all night thing. But after 8 months, I have it licked!

Specializes in ICU.

I work 3-11 and love it. I can sleep all I want to, stay up when I get off if I want to. Have the mornings free for other things. If you have kids at home, you would miss a lot, but my kid is grown and gone, so it is a great shift for me. We get a lot of admissions, especially direct admits, but at least most of the procedures/surgeries are already done by the time we come in. Most of the docs have already rounded, too.

Specializes in Family Medicine.

I prefer 3-11 to 11-7 but it's definitely put a damper on my social life. As AZMOMO2 said above, you miss out on so many social things. It's hard to go to bed right after work because it takes a while to wind down. I usually end up staying up until 3 am and waking up around noon (I require 9-10 hours of sleep like a high schooler). I've started hanging out with my coworkers after work so I don't become a complete loner but I miss my non-nursing friends very much.

Specializes in Geriatrics.

I'm torn. If you asked me a year ago, I would have said 11-7 shift is better, hands down. I work 11-7 part time (I'm in nursing school) and I hate not being able to sleep at night. I'm definitely more of a day person. When I had the summer off from school, I would sleep during the day until about 3 or 4 pm. It was nice to have evenings off with my fiance and family/friends, but I was tired ALL the time, even after sleeping 7 or 8 hours during the day. It really started to affect my mood, too.

When I worked 3-11, I would have a hard time falling asleep as soon as I got home, so I would stay up until 1 or 2, and gradually it became 3 am, and I would get up at 10 or 11 the next day. I felt like I had no life.. I was just sleeping and working.

Sorry, I'm probably no help but I feel they both have pros and cons and neither is better than the other. I think if you can sleep during the day though, 11-7 will be better for your social and family life.

Specializes in neurology, cardiology, ED.

I :redbeathe working nights. I would recommend the 11-7 with no hesitation. Having done both, the 3-11 means you are literally going to miss dinner with your loved ones every single night. 11-7, as long as it isn't every night, means that you have dinner, then go to work, work while everyone's asleep, then sleep while everyone's at work. While it's not a great option long term if your hubby works days, it's a great way to get started, and a great schedule if you have kids. And the shift differential is slightly more ( at least where I work it is).

Specializes in Pedi.

When I was in school, I worked 3-11 as an aide and I LOVED it. The hospital I was working at paid a decent evening differential and the shifts went by fast.

Now, as an RN, I would choose nights over evenings any day. The biggest problem I have with 3-11 is that my floor does a mix of 8 and 12 hour shifts so if you're working an evening, you're one of two nurses at the max doing this. If the sh&^ hits the fan at or around 7 (as it has for me MANY times... kids going into status epilepticus, stat CTs, emergent ORs, etc) good luck finding someone to help you... everyone else is either getting ready to leave or hasn't started working yet.

On nights you also don't have to deal with the Powers that Be. There's minimal involvement with them on eves, but that's only one of a few reasons I'd choose nights over eves. Practically, I rely on public transportation to get me to work because parking is very expensive (over 4x the cost of a subway/bus pass). I take 2 buses to get to work and doing that at 11PM makes me feel a little sketchy. Not to mention, if I don't catch the 2nd bus by 11:40, I'm SOL and have to wait at a sketchy subway station basically watching drug deals for 40 minutes until the next bus comes. So by that point, it would be close to 1am when I got home (and this is all assuming I've actually left ON time) and I probably wouldn't fall asleep until 3 at the earliest on to then sleep until early afternoon the next day, wake up and do it all over again? No thanks.

Evening shift is puurrfect~! :) at least IMO. Since I usually wake up at around 9-10 am and be active throughout the remaining hours of the day until 12mn. I also dont have to worry about missing family times since my uncle is usually asleep around the time of my shift for his 3am airport work, while my aunt usually stays up late til 1am anyway, Lol. Overall, Day would probably what most would prefer but evening is the best for me! :D

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