Day shift vs. Night Shift

i work on a cardiology unit, and it is apparent there is conflict between the day shift and night shift. i currently work nights, and have no desire to go to day shift. my manager wants to implement a collaborative action team to have the two shifts communicate together. does anyone has something like this in place? or does any one have any ideas that would make this work? my biggest fear is that the two sides will get together and it will turn into a whine and complain feast, or a blame-game. i want to actually be apart of a group that is trying to make changes instead of just complaining about the situation of the floor. any help would be great.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

check out:

developing health care teams

implement organizational structures and processes that facilitate collaborative working practices

• take action toolkit

collaborative practice in healthcare focuses patient care issues

hope this helps!

[RheatherN, ASN, RN, EMT-P]

good luck with your task. that will be difficult, but try and stay neutral. i know that each shift is a different breed and does things different and has different ideas, but you should be able to come to a great conclusion! like i said gl!

-H-RN

[neurorn6]

I have worked both shifts and it is not unusually for there to be conflict between the 2 shifts. Don't be surprised if the first meeting is a "whine Session". Stay focused on the goal. Let everyone vent. Then have them come up with a positive way on fixing the problem.

Each shift has it's own difficulties, unique to that shift but they also have similiar difficulties.

It will take time but you can affect a positive change for your unit.

Good Luck:yeah:

[futrarmyCRNA]

Somewhere not too far from where I live this day vs night shift rivalry got carried a little too far. Some night shift nurses started placing laxative suppositories in the patients around change of shift to make the day nurses work more. They had no order and got caught and faced criminal issues as well as the nursing board.

[KalipsoRed]

I say that all of those who are on the commitee need to spend 1 month working the shift opposite of what they do now. This is what I think is the hughest issue with hospitals and the medical field! We form all these stupid commitees fixing problems that most of the members of the commitee can't see the opposite side of. I think most people try, but there is no replacing experence. Change shifts for a month and see what your counter parts do so that you can get the best idea of how to streamline things.

[racing-mom4, BSN, RN]

Somewhere not too far from where I live this day vs night shift rivalry got carried a little too far. Some night shift nurses started placing laxative suppositories in the patients around change of shift to make the day nurses work more. They had no order and got caught and faced criminal issues as well as the nursing board.

Wrong---but very funny!!!

back to the orginal OP. I think the day/night shift complaint is world wide...our unit it is not that bad as most of us swing both ways per say...I think all of us have traded or picked up on the opposite shift. We all have our favorites, I am a night person by choice but have worked days and know they have thier own set of problems and the day staff has picked up nights and know we also have our fair share of issues.

[keckRN5666]

On my floor we have staff meetings once a month around 2 or 3 pm where night and day shifts are present..night shift has the option of calling in on a meeting phone or just getting the notes at a later date. There is a lot of blame game but also good issues that come up and a solution agreed on. All in all it improves care on my floor and gets all the nurses on the same page.

[MJaneP, NP]

If we could figure out the conflicts between day and evening shifts - we would revolutionize nursing!

[nicurn001]

Frankly there is only one answer to this problem of our shift..... your shift....

But it is an answer nobody likes , ie. you rotate shifts it would enable there to be a better mix of skill levels on both shifts ( the present reality is most night shift positions are filled by junior nurses putting in time until a day shift position becomes available for them ), there would no longer be the day nurse or the night nurse .

[MJaneP, NP]

Nicurn - interesting idea - and it would illuminate many of the myths around the other shift....."they aren't as busy" blah blah blah

[nicurn001]

I have worked under the system I advocate . We worked 3 weeks days 1 week nights and as a staff we were cohesive and NEVER had the our shift your shift debates . We were all aware of the pros and cons of both shifts .

The other advantage was that nurses of various skill levels were working every shift so the junior nurses had multiple valuable resources to turn to when they needed help.