Free time for night shifts for CNA and Nurse

[flod]

I heard that if you work the night shift at assisted living places or Home Health Agency you can have a ton of free time.

How true is that? Would it be easy to find a job where you work less than an hour each night as long as you complete your few weeks of CNA training?

[TurtleCat]

Depends on where you work as a CNA.

In the hospital or LTC, things can be pretty busy even on the night shift. When I worked LTC, although the pace of the night shift was a bit relaxed and slower compared to days or evenings, there was still plenty of do. Rounds to do on 12-14 residents every 2 hours, plus charting, cleaning to do on the side, and around 5 am, getting everyone up and dressed for the day shift.

Now if you work home health, it might be a bit of a different story. Or in the sort of environment I'm working in now, which is a bit different from the typical LTC or assisted living facility. I work at a kind of unusual setting for CNAs, it's a small group home for the elderly which houses only 3 residents at this present time. I work the night shift and I actually do have a lot of down-time. My routine goes like this:

7p - 10p: Come in, get report. By time I come in, the residents are usually already dressed for bed. Around 8, I toilet them and help them to bed. After that, I do any laundry that needs to be done, sweep and mop the floors, clean the bathrooms and do anything else that needs to be done around the house.

10p - 5a: During this time, there's not much to do other than check on the residents every few hours and toilet/change them as needed, and considering there's only 3 of them, this takes about 20-30 minutes tops. For this reason, I bring a book with me every shift I work and get some reading done, sometimes I'll knit or write, etc.

5a - 7a: I start getting the residents up. Toilet them, bathe/shower them, brush their teeth and hair, apply lotion and powder. Dress them in their day clothes and set them up in the living room. I make their beds, do laundry, take out the trash, and make sure the house is tidy and in order before day shift arrives. Document, give report, leave.

All in all I like this job a lot, the atmosphere is very relaxed and peaceful. I could see it being a bit boring for someone who's more used to the hustle and bustle of the hospital or LTC, but the upside, I think, is the fact that I get more time to spend with the residents and give them really quality care. I've only been there a little over a month and already I feel like I really know my residents and their family members, whereas in LTC a lot of times it seemed like I was constantly pressured to rush, rush, rush and be in and out of a resident's room as fast as possible.

[studentbear, CNA]

When I worked in LTC, there was probably like 2-3 hours of downtime. That was back in 2007, though. If it's assisted living, you're basically a janitor and doing cleaning tasks all night. In home care is totally different though, there is almost always lots of down time, no matter what shift you work.

[flod]

What is the job market like for home care? Are there many jobs available?

[Mewsin]

What is the job market like for home care? Are there many jobs available?

Are you looking for a job that doesn't have a lot of work?

I like busier nights because they keep you awake.

[blwilliams10]

It really just depends on the night. At my facility our DON told us as long as our work is done and no call lights are going off we can relax and watch TV or read a book. But 90% of the time we our busy for most of the night we have water pass at 10pm, room checks at 12, room checks at 2, getting residents up and dressed starting at 4. Plus in between that we have to chart, handle wandering residents, brief and bed changes, call lights, linens, trash, and other random things that come up. Most of the time from about 245 to 400 we get time to eat and take a small break; other than that though there isn't much down time.

[mvm2]

I have had no problems having work with home health. Right now I work with 3 clients, and I feel I am working as much as I can right now. Our agency always seems to have an ad in the paper for needing aides/cnas. sometimes it takes a little time to get up to how many hours you want to work, and sometimes you have to be patient and slowly work your way up, but not all the time. Like I said some agencies are begging for 3rd shift help, so you might have all the work you want. What is nice is you can tell the agency how many hours you want to work, and even what shifts work best for you. They work around your schedules instead of you working around their schedule. Having 2 children this has been perfect for me. I still have to use my mom sometimes to drop or pick up the kids at school, and she will have then for the summer time. But if the kids have an activity for school, or it is their birthday I can simply tell them I need that day or evening off. There is as well times they might cal you for extra shifts because someone could not make their shift, and for any reason you loose a client it take time to maybe find you another client to fill in your schedule again. So I would say home health is not always a consistant paycheck, but the flexibility is worth it to me. We are using my income as a second income so I am not havig to be worried if I don't make a certain amount of money consistantly.

[Paws2people]

I have zero downtime on my 8 hour shift at a hospital. Not with 15-30 patients. Nope, not a single second to spare!

If you want downtime, don't work in healthcare! Lol

[kenyacka]

In a hospital you usually have a good one to two hours of downtime. As a cna I've worked all floors. Some nights of course are busier, but a lot of students work nights so they can study. (12 hour shifts)