I am a nursing student and i come from a family of nurses. Currently I am taking a medical anthropology class and we are studying all aspects of the medical system, I want to know from both day and night nurses why they work the shifts they do, how long, what types of biases they have noticed between the two shifts and how one shifts sees the other and why. my mother is a night shift nurse, and has been for most of my life, she has on occation worked both day and swing but she seems to prefer the night shift. i would appreciate any insight you can give me. this will help me deceide what to do when i get my RN.
i work nights because i've always been a night owl. i hate getting up in the morning and am much happier to get up in the evening. i worked days for 3 months after i became an lpn. i was exhausted all the time. i was scraping by on 2 hours a sleep a night. i had a hard time falling asleep despite being exhausted. i never felt like doing anything on my days off. other reasons are that my mom works nights and i was able to get on her shift. i like having less "big bosses" there to get in the way even if it also means less ancillary staff. the night shift has a 4-3 schedule. the day shift has 3-2. i love having 3 or 4 days off each week. it gives me more time to recover and actually do things. our shift works together very well. the day shift doesn't seem to do that for the most part.
Specializes in Surgery in HepatoPancreatobiliaryGastro.
I currently am contracted to rotate between day & night.
I don't like nights much as there are less nurses and can be a nightmare. Then again, there are days when you feel the same way about day shifts.
I am properly awful in the mornings but function well and also do the same for night shifts. For me, both shifts have their own advantages + disadvantages. Day shifts can serve as revision for dealing with the social side of nursing ie. making all those referrals which you don't really get to do on nights.
My body functions better on day shifts.
Perhaps try to rotate between the day & nights? See which one works better for you.
It definitely depends on the person. I'm a night person as well. We always used to laugh because days would come in and all the women would be perfectly manicured, hair done, makeup on..... on nights we were lucky if we got a shower before coming to work. Yep.... that's the difference.
I am retired now but I still sleep days and up all night. I just don't sleep good at night, never have. The best sleep for me is 10am-5pm. I never felt like I had to hurry hurry rush rush at night My husband now, retired as well, used to drive a cab at night and he is on the same schedule I am. We eat breakfast around 7-8pm and dinner around midnight or one. The kids hate it,but then they are grown and gone. I think it has something to do about us not babysitting during daylight hours.
We tried to swicth our days and nights around but it was a profound mess. We just couldn't do it.
hi to all of the community peepz...... i'm a newbie here. hope I could have a productive & essential chat in here. wishin' that by joining here i'll be guided in my chosen nursing field and you, people, will lead me in going through.
Yep.... that's the difference. 
TrudyRN
1,343 Posts
The only ideal hours are about 0830 - 1430, i.e., Mother's hours. And then only about 2 or 3 days per week.