i work night shift and there are just things i dont understand.....
1. report is started exactly at 6:30am, why is it necessary for the day shift to run in late, then decide to still put on makeup, get their coffee, start talking....i'm ready to go home, i'm sleepy..please be considerate
2. i've heard the rumors that "night shift nurses are lazy". i'm sorry that you feel that way but we have different responsibilities in our shift, and i feel we make sacrifices with our family...besides if its so much easier, why dont you try it?
3. it's nice to smile in the mornings and say hello. its very rare to see a day nurse come, smiling, and saying "good morning". Even though i'm tired and sleepy i still know how to be polite.
4. Dont ask me details about every single thing about the patient...example, "what date was this test done?", although you know the patient has been there for weeks. I gave you the results of the test, and technically i'm responsible for giving you report for the previous 24 hours, or even 12 hours...
sorry these are just things that have been piling up on me. I am in no way putting down one shift over the other, instead of giving examples of things i experience. I am always early to work and make sure I give myself extra time if needed. Yet, i have only been a nurse for 6 months and see that nurses either are burnt out or appear to hate their job.
I've commented on many day vs. night shift posts before, being that I ahve worked both in the same unit.
About the tardiness. I was rarely ever late for a nightshift. I rought my daughter to my exH and went to work. Simple. No waking her up, no getting her cranky butt dressed and ready and off to school by a certain time.
Then I went dayshift. My daughter was not liking getting up at 5:45 to eat breakfast, get dressed and ready and in to preschool by 6:30. We were rushing around like animals (she just turned 3 when I switched to days). Ic ouldn't even get her to school any earlier because it opened at 6:30am.
I was late more than I would have liked to have been. no more than 10 min usually, and I am a very good report receiver, give me the important stuff, I can figure out the rest on my own. So whoever was giving me report was getting out at 7:30, either way.
But then I understood why dayshift was later than nightshift. I felt bad for any judgements I made.
I'm going to give a link to youtube that is hilarious and will put some humor on the sitch. Watch the other ones that you see on the side that has to do with this link. It's funny, and we can all get a good laugh
There is some cursing, just a warning. Definitely watch the one with ICU vs. ER and ICU vs. floor. Funny stuff.
I'm sorry you're having such a hard time, OP. There's no excuse for regular lateness. Your manager should be doing something about that.
I work nights, too, but I did some precepting on days. Nights is crazy in its own way--the horrible med pass at 2100, again at 2200, answering all those questions patients have been saving up all day, patients don't sleep all night, getting ED admits, then when they FINALLY get to sleep, lab comes in at 0400 and wakes them. Dressing changes, foley removals, the big 0600 med pass.
One thing I've noticed on my floor is that it's not a day vs night thing. It seems some nurses are worse about leaving tasks undone or giving incomplete report than others. I don't mind doing things for the last nurse, I know some days/nights you can't get everything done, but just tell me! I don't like setting up my meds to find a 1700 or 1800 dose is late, walking into a room to find IV fluids gone or almost gone.
Better communication could eliminate most of the shift wars.
I rotate. They are both bad/busy in different ways. I don't complain when "something from days/nights" isn't done, unless it was STAT etc. It is what it is and why shouldn't I have stuff to do. what i hate is comming onto the floor, seeing the nurse i will get report from doing nothing, than find out there is a ton that person "didn't have time for."...... yeah sure. but most of the time that is the truth
2. Done it. Did it. Know the difference. Seen it. Nights: Gaggles of RNs and Aides sitting at the station or the lounge while the call light blinks and blinks. RNs mad because they have so many "total cares" when they don't change them anyway. Instead of fighting off sleep, how about giving a bath and massage to one of those total cares, who doesn't know whether it's day, night or Christmas? And some oral care. Don't wait for your aide to do it. She won't. You're a nurse, so be one.
Days: PT, X-ray, MRI, MDs and consults writing new orders and you have to take them off. The bulk of admits and discharges. All the meals. All the family members. All the phone calls.
And you get more money for working nights.
3. Hello. What, are you kidding? When Press Ganey makes me say hello to everyone, I will. As it is, I do, and a third of the people don't look at me and keep walking.
4. Like they said, you do the same thing. Some nurses are like that, some are self-starters and only want the basics from you. I personally don't care much how the patient "slept all night." Because they're sure as heck not going to sleep all day.
Oh PS: recently a patient "slept all night" and "all day" for 3 shifts. On the 4th, someone figured out it was a COMA. Med reaction. Everyone was just happy she was sleeping and therefore an easy patient. Now she's an intubated ICU patient.
Remember, you chose nights. This is what it is. The day/night junk will always go on. Shifts blame each other, nurses blame each other, management blames everyone.
:eek:
Shift wars happen at place too. Every shift has it's pros and cons. I didn't mind at all finishing up the odds and ends of the shift before me....except when they decided to take advantage of my good nature. I'd come in to nurses sitting with their feet up, talking about their sex lives and bfs, with a list of all the stuff they didn't have time to do. After that happened a couple of times, I complained and it was fixed. And BTW, the reason for a shift differential is not because more work is done on midnights. It's because midnights screws up your life so much (thank you God that I'm switching shifts) that no one wants to work it. So it's basically a bribe to get people to work screwy hours.
Speak up for yourself if it keeps happening. And trust me, every shift complains about every shift. Let most of that stuff go and only get upset about big things. Or you are going to burn yourself out and really not look forward to going to work. Don't sweat the small stuff!!!!!
Specializes in Just starting out in a Nursing Home..
i work night shift and there are just things i dont understand.....
1. report is started exactly at 6:30am, why is it necessary for the day shift to run in late, then decide to still put on makeup, get their coffee, start talking....i'm ready to go home, i'm sleepy..please be considerate
2. i've heard the rumors that "night shift nurses are lazy". i'm sorry that you feel that way but we have different responsibilities in our shift, and i feel we make sacrifices with our family...besides if its so much easier, why dont you try it?
3. it's nice to smile in the mornings and say hello. its very rare to see a day nurse come, smiling, and saying "good morning". Even though i'm tired and sleepy i still know how to be polite.
4. Dont ask me details about every single thing about the patient...example, "what date was this test done?", although you know the patient has been there for weeks. I gave you the results of the test, and technically i'm responsible for giving you report for the previous 24 hours, or even 12 hours...
sorry these are just things that have been piling up on me. I am in no way putting down one shift over the other, instead of giving examples of things i experience. I am always early to work and make sure I give myself extra time if needed. Yet, i have only been a nurse for 6 months and see that nurses either are burnt out or appear to hate their job.
I'm was hired for third shift at a nursing home..what is this shift like? what are the norms for this shift..I am only familiar with first shift when doing clinicals and homecare which was sporatic...
The last shift I did, the night shift RN stalked past me & the carer I was chatting to, threw her bag over the other side of the room, wouldn't give me her name though I asked her twice, & was rude & dismissive the whole time I gave handover, cutting me off and saying she knew this & that. Well bully for you honeybun. She even ignored me when I gave her the keys & went home.
Then she had the audacity to complain about me! So I sent in a written complaint about her to my manager & she has dealt with it. Won't be going back there again.
Courtesy is something everyone should strive to emulate.
I feel completely burned out after 3 years as a RN. It has just not been worth all the hard slog.
If you're unhappy with the way some night staff do things, tell them.
:eek:.thumb.jpg.08933f6edc7e47f7212fcc1350e1031e.jpg){kind=small}
Poi Dog
1,134 Posts
Why can't we all just get along?
Shift wars happen at my place too.