An all time low for a new night shifter

royhanosn · Jun 6, 2012

your a nurse! study up on the effects on working the grave yard shift. Some people cope, some cant! The body is designed not to do night shifts, BUT if thats the only shift you can get, honey, live with it. Study the internet on how to cope. One thing: if your working with someone, take naps! The most dangerous part is 3am arena. Its pure biology.

billyboblewis · Jun 6, 2012

You are honest and for some of us it is never easy. Many hang on for the extra money and make themselves miserable. Some times your doctor will prescribe medicine but unless national security depends on you I do not recomend that. Strive for day or evening openings and your life will improve eventuallly. Nature rules our lives and that may be a good thing. I pray that you will get help in getting a schedule that fits your body's clock and move on to a wonderful career

I am a new to the night shift and not adjusting well. I have been on night shift since February. The other day after a very long shift, followed by a staff meeting, followed by a traffic filled commute home it happened. I woke up with a slice of pizza stuck to my face. I literally fell asleep at the kitchen table. In my pizza. I am thankful I was too tired to warm it up or the outcome may have been bad.
I am really trying to make this shift work. I am trying to stick to the night schedule on my days off. But I feel like all I do is work and try to sleep. And if I ever get a few days off in a row, all I do is sleep. I was off this weekend, I slept 12 hours each day. On work days, I rarely get more than 4-5 hours of sleep between shifts. On days off, I can't do anything with my family. I am tired all the time.
I have never been a coffee drinker, or soda drinker. Now I am drinking coffee on my days off in an attempt to stay awake to interact with my family. Nothing helps.
Please tell me this will get better. I really like my job, but I am not sure how long I can keep this up. And to make matters worse, I was told when hired that whenever a day shift opens they offer it to us night shifters first, but they just hired 2 new grads that are going to be on days. Now a bunch of coworkers are giving their notice and I am feeling hopeless of ever getting off of nights.

RNMarykay · Jun 6, 2012

I went on nights at the beginning of this year and have to say I am grateful for a relatively easy adjustment. I have three teenagers at home.

I can say I did research and developed a plan for working nights. Like another poster, I often stay up very late (1-3 am) the night before my first night shift, then sleep in late. If I don't sleep late I make time for a 1-2 hour nap late afternoon before getting ready for work.

When I get off work I come home to a cold room, a fan on, ear plugs and turn my phone off. I take a shower and climb into bed for 6-7 hours. If I am too wired to sleep I take a bath and 2 valerian root (a natural muscle relaxer; it doesn't leave me feeling sluggish like tylenol pm or others do) and go to sleep. The kids know to not wake me unless someone is bleeding. If I wake up in the middle to pee I still go back to bed the same as I would in the middle of the night.

I try to work my days in a row. On my last night/morning I sleep til I wake up or at least four hours then do whatever I need to do in the day and go to bed with my family that night. Sometimes I'm not ready and will watch some tv, but usually can be in bed by 11 and sleep all night.

Food -- At work I pack a lunchbox with 4 healthy, protein filled snacks (boiled egg, piece of cheese with turkey, an apple and peanut butter, a salad with turkey or egg) that I eat about every 3 hours during the shift. I don't get hungry and have enough energy. I also drink water. If I get really tired someone has made coffee or I allow myself some tea or coke zero around 2 am, BUT NEVER later than 3 am. I won't be able to sleep when I get home.

Good luck to you. I hope tweaking your routine helps make it tolerable. I appreciate the quieter hours and solitude on nights too much to give it up, not to mention a shift differential. :)

G

royhanosn · Jun 7, 2012

if you gonna take drugs..space & pace yourself. Caffeine 200mg in pill form is good. Sometimes all you need is a nap! The quiet of the night,,and about 5am is so peaceful. Depends a lot on your co-worker. If your on a constant vigil ward, use common sense. That is something not practised much these days, but it worth a try.

JZ_RN · Jun 7, 2012

I can sooo relate to this. I am starting at a day shift job cause I can't take it anymore, along with terrible staffing, abusive management, rude and disrespectful coworkers, and patients who are abusive to staff.

Either way, nights are rough. I sleep all my days off and have no normal life. I need to be up during the day to function in my life but I am always tired. IT IS MISERABLE TO BE TIRED ALL THE TIME. I can't stay up all night and sleep all day when I am off. Plus they break up my days off in this stupid schedule so I sometimes only get 2 days off in a row, first one is just straight sleep, then the 2nd playing catchup with everything else in my life (bills, school, etc) and I never see my friends or family. Health is suffering. I can't wait to be up when the sun is up and sleep at night. On top of that I work exhausted which is dangerous, since between shifts I can only sleep 4 or 5 hours.

Good luck.

paddlelady, BSN, RN · Jun 7, 2012

Oh , I remember the night shift well. I was tired all the time. I never adjusted. That was years ago and after that I always gave a big thanks when I got to work the day shift and never looked back. I do know that I had to excercise and make time for that and eat good and try to have a positive attitude. I too liked my job. It is hard to adjust to working all night and sleeping during the day. Some people do well but that is only a handful as far as I have meant along my nursing journey.

Hang in there, stay healthy and keep your eyes open for the day or evening shift as your turn will come if that is what you want. Set some goals that you will only stay on this shift for x amount of time and work toward getting off that shift.

Best of luck

Alice D Smith · Jun 7, 2012

I am a new to the night shift and not adjusting well. I have been on night shift since February. The other day after a very long shift, followed by a staff meeting, followed by a traffic filled commute home it happened. I woke up with a slice of pizza stuck to my face. I literally fell asleep at the kitchen table. In my pizza. I am thankful I was too tired to warm it up or the outcome may have been bad.
I am really trying to make this shift work. I am trying to stick to the night schedule on my days off. But I feel like all I do is work and try to sleep. And if I ever get a few days off in a row, all I do is sleep. I was off this weekend, I slept 12 hours each day. On work days, I rarely get more than 4-5 hours of sleep between shifts. On days off, I can't do anything with my family. I am tired all the time.
I have never been a coffee drinker, or soda drinker. Now I am drinking coffee on my days off in an attempt to stay awake to interact with my family. Nothing helps.
Please tell me this will get better. I really like my job, but I am not sure how long I can keep this up. And to make matters worse, I was told when hired that whenever a day shift opens they offer it to us night shifters first, but they just hired 2 new grads that are going to be on days. Now a bunch of coworkers are giving their notice and I am feeling hopeless of ever getting off of nights.

Change takes time. It works for me to stay up the day of the first night and the rest falls in line.

SinikRN101 · Jun 7, 2012

No, it never does get better, you always miss time with friends family etc. The best you can hope for is well adjusting, a balanced home life and a supportive partner/family. The biggest help I've noticed is NOT to try to sleep when I'm not tired ( I wake up more tired) and try to keep a schedule if possible (my kids are school age, I sleep while their at school and wake up shortly after). If not for the little extra $$ it would not be worth it.

mexicolindo · Jun 7, 2012

Does your job offer a PM shift (3-11 pm) position? Most of the new grads that we hire start on nights because the day shifts go to people with more seniority. Our new grads that couldn't handle nights ended up going to PM shift then to days if a position opened up. I would definitely have a talk with your manager and ask that you be put on days and the new grads on nights. That's how it's always been since the beginning of time.

allnurses Guide · Jun 7, 2012

I can definitely relate. Love the people I work with and the pace of night shift, but it has taken a huge toll on my family, my enjoyment of life and my health. I have only been on nights for three months, but I wrote my manager and told her my predicament. I knew several people on days who are moving on to other opportunities and asked if I could get a shot at one of those slots. Told her I realized it was harder to find people to hire on nights and that I was willing to be patient, but that I would not be able to stay on nights forever and would like to set a time goal to put me on a day shift. She responded very positively and I start days on July 1st. I am relieved.

I hope it gets better for you. It really is hard for us sunshine people to adjust to being a moonlight person.

Dalzac, LPN, LVN, RN · Jun 7, 2012

I have woked night since I was a baby more or less. I retired in 2005 and have not been able to go back to days. I do everything at night ccleaning, shopping, and making dinner for tomorrow. I even tape tv shows to watch when I am awake. I took a aprt time job watching monitors just to pass time. I do feel for people that can't work nights because I can't work days I tried and I was miserable. Getting up at 5am wrecked me. I couldn't wake up until noon. The last nursing job I had every one that worked night wanted to be there at that time We all would go play pool and have breakfast after work

jorjasmith · Jun 8, 2012

I'm sorry to hear that you are not adjusting. Since starting my nursing career two years ago, I've always worked nights. I chose nights initially due to childcare issues, but have grown to love nights because I have more time to spend with my patients, review their charts (in depth) and overall have more time than the day shift to pay attention to the small details day shift tend not to be able to get to. My hats off to the day shift nurses who seem to be on the go from the time they start their shift until they leave. I'm currently at a facility that encourages the staff to take a 30 minute lunch - during that time I take a 20 minute nap - be it in the breakroom or in my car. I know, I know, not all nurses are able to do this, but I have found that this works for me so that I'm not falling asleep behind the wheel. I also try to only do 2 nights in a row, as I'm not able to get a full 8 hours of sleep during the day. I always go back to my regular sleep pattern i.e. sleep 7-8hrs at night on the nights that I don't work. So say I work Thursday night, I get home Friday AM sleep until about noon, then I'm up until 8 or 9 p.m. then I go to sleep until Saturday AM. I hope this helps.