Dilemma: night shift...critical care

leslie :-D · Jun 5, 2009

well, you are certainly not alone in not wanting to work nocs.

that is why there are openings. :coollook:

if you truly want critical care, i'm thinking you would grab any opening and bite the bullet.

i think you are denying yourself a tremendous opportunity, and, are not looking down the road...

where you will certainly have a chance at days/eves.

you would set up your own viable routine, when working nocs.

i guess it's all going to depend on how badly you really want it.

best of everything to you.

leslie

erin01 · Jun 5, 2009

i just accepted a job on a ccu on nights. I look at it as a great learning opportunity. I didnt want nights either and have the same concerns as you do but i feel like this is a great unit. I am willing to try nights and see just how bad it is, and its not forever! If i really hate it i will look for days from that point on. But i will give it a year and see what happens. I was not willing to let this job pass me by and i am really excited. If i never took it i would never know and i will have learned a lot from any experience i get. Maybe it wont be so bad...good luck.

moonischasingme1 · Jun 5, 2009

That is what I figured too, if I didn't take it (if I get it) then I would probably regret and always wonder what if. However, once I am in the program I have to give them a year or pay back money. What if a day position doesn't ever really open up and I am stuck in a miserable lifestyle that I don't want? I don't know. We can never just have everything we want!!

I am hoping once I interview with the managers that I can talk with them and maybe work something out lol

I just feel like I would be a much more effective nurse on days.

mama_d, BSN, RN · Jun 5, 2009

If you have to, you can make it work.

There are scads of us who work nights and still manage to eat, work out, and raise families. It can be more difficult, true, but where there's a will there's a way.

leslie :-D · Jun 5, 2009

What if a day position doesn't ever really open up and I am stuck in a miserable lifestyle that I don't want?

but you're not stuck.

your career is just beginning, and an opportunity to learn cc, is staring you in the face.

even if days doesn't open up where you work, you are still a cc nurse and will be desired in other workplaces.

never stuck...esp in nsg.

leslie

casi, ASN, RN · Jun 5, 2009

You don't know whether or not you'll be miserable until you try it. You may get on nights and just love it.

Be_Moore · Jun 5, 2009

In terms of finding time to do stuff...why wouldn't you have time? It's the same schedule, but off by 12 hours. If you normally go to the gym before you go to work in the AM...do it before you go to work in the PM! If you work out when you get off in the PM, work out when you get off in the AM. I get up at 5:30PM for work, at work at 1853, off at 0723. Then I get to the gym usually around 0745, work out until about 0845, go home, eat, in bed by 1000. Rinse and repeat. I work nocs by choice, however. The night differential more than makes it worth it to me.

But if you want critical care, you will bite the bullet and make it happen. Eventually you will have seniority and can move to a dayshift position. I guess the real question is...how much do you want to be a critical care nurse? You have to want it.

The other side is that you may love nights. The shifts tend to be calmer. The people working nocs also tend to be a lot more laid back. Management isn't around. And you make what I would consider a substantial amount of money extra...at my work it's $4.30/hr night diff (or $8k per full time year).

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Jun 5, 2009

Most anywhere you go, you won't start out on day shift. If you want to learn critical care, take the opportunity that is in front of you. Sometimes getting what you want takes compromises you had rather not make, but you do it for a gain down the road.

RNandRRT · Jun 5, 2009

I've been doing night shift since 1992. I couldn't do day shift. I mean, when would I work out? When would I have time to be with my wife and kids? How would I possibly stay healthy getting up so early in the morning?

I know I'm probably nuts, but nights just seems so much more healthy to me.

Nurse523 · Jun 5, 2009

It appears that is is a window of opportunity. Remember, work contracts aren't forever. I know how you feel. I am into health and during my 2nd year of nursing, one of my colleagues did her presentation on night nurses correlated to breast cancer.

rbs105, ADN, MSN, RN · Jun 6, 2009

Although I somewhat resent the fact that you are implying that as night nurses we don't care about our health, how we eat, exercise and must not be able to have a social life-at the same time, you make me laugh!!!

Every night, all around the world, when you are cozying up with your pillow, millions of nurses are starting their shift-and actually surviving!!!! How cute that this seems like the end of the world to you and yet how disappointing that it may actually cause you to change your entire line of work and prevent you from pursuing your dreams!!!

News flash....yes, it is hard on the body-research shows working a 12 hour night shift is equivalent to a 16 hr shift on the body. We are at higher risk for illness and other issues such as getting in an accident when driving home. However, we are a necessary entity in the workforce and frankly, you should thank your fellow nurses who are doing it and sacrificing. On the same note, we are not all walking around without eating, and living sedentary, unsocial lives. I have lost out on a few hours of sleep but I have been there for every daylight activity that goes on in my family and friend network. My kids barely know I work because I sleep while they are at school and go to work after they go to bed. Not to mention I make more than the daylight nurses...

If you manage to avoid nights because of all you'll be missing out on, just remind yourself of all this when you arrive fresh and rested at 7am and complain that "those people on nights didn't do anything". A-they are working under different conditions than you, B-there is less help around when something goes wrong, C- they are often playing more than one role (nurse=secretary, unit coordinator, transport, cna, etc) and D-we're almost always hiring;)

Seriously...don't give up before you try it. It 's really not the end of the world and you just MIGHT survive!!!