Do the day nurses clash with the night nurses?

Tweety, BSN, RN · Aug 18, 2007

There is always some friction between shifts. Night shift gets angry at what the day shift didn't do "because we were too busy, you just don't understand how it is on days" and the night shift didn't do because "the patient was sleeping and patients needs their sleep, we should not be the one to have to do procedures".

A lot is dumped on night shift "becuase it's slower", so consequently night nurses must be quite strong. It's a myth that patients sleep at night. Night nurses must be strong enough to manage heavier patient loads, and patients crash on nights as often as they do on days.

I worked nights for 13 years and always seemed to enjoy a fairly good rapport with our day shift. Now that I'm on days it seems the same. We all understand that it's a 24 hour job. If we have a problem it's usually with an individual person and not an entire shift.

mom4josh · Aug 18, 2007

We don't usually have a problem with day shift saying we didn't do what we were supposed to do. More often than not there is one or two (specific) nurses on day shift that leave things undone, and nights has to play "catch up" for hours trying to figure out what was and was not done.

The worst part though is these young, grumpy, "I'm not a morning person" nurses who drag their butts in 15+ minutes late on a daily basis, have major attitudes, and then have the nerve to ask you to give some med that was due on their shift but wasn't given yet because they were late! They are also the same ones who will sit at the nurses' station waiting for night shift to come to them to give report, even though they came in late and night shift had already come and gone back to finish charting. :trout:

Sorry for the vent.............. I feel better now!

NPinWCH · Aug 18, 2007

I worked nights for 12 years and now I've been on days for 1 1/2 yrs and I've heard it both ways.

I loved working nights because I had more autonomy and I didn't have managment, docs and ancillary personal running around getting in my way the way I do now. BUT having management, docs and ancillary people around makes my job alot easier in an emergency.

Not to mention that night shift almost always has fewer staff scheduled which means you have more responsibility. Many of my post op pts, who were up and about feeling good during the day hit a wall and then we have to play catch up with pain meds, emotional breakdowns happen at the end of the day, depression is worse and a list of other stuff that eats into my time.

Days also fails to understand sometimes that humans were not meant to be up ALL NIGHT and no matter how well you slept your brain and body don't work so well at 4am. I tell dayshift that 7 hrs of sleep during the day isn't even as good as 4 hrs of sleep at night and I try to remind dayshift about this when they start to complain about nights from time to time.

I've also spoken to the night girls and told them that it really is different (I wouldn't necessarily say busier, but the routine is different). It is often harder to get things done because docs are in and out writing new orders, labs are being called back, meds changed, inductions being sent over from offices, scheduled outpt tests are done....so I think it's one of those things you never understand until you're there.

All_Smiles_RN · Aug 18, 2007

We all understand that it's a 24 hour job. If we have a problem it's usually with an individual person and not an entire shift.

I agree with Tweety!

Lorie P. · Aug 18, 2007

there ia always a clash with our night and day shifts. part of the reason is that day shift doesn't get ready for report till after 7am, suppose to be ready at 6:45.

day shift complains when they have 5-6 pts to care for verses 7-9 on night shift. it is a never ending cycle.

i love night shift because there are fewer big wigs around, but also i have a chance to read my pt's charts and know their hx.

there seems to be a big myth that pt's sleep all night! :uhoh3:

that is very far from true, pt's still code, have pain and can't relax .

i know that when i work, i double check every order, lab and mar just so that day shift will have one less thing to worry with. i do not like leaving anything undone.

if everyone would learn that nursing is 24/7 and would learn to work as a team, things would go so much easier.

i only know that i do the best i can and when others start to complain, i don't nick-pick, complain about what wasn't done, etc, i finish getting report and then make sure that while i am the nurse assigned to my patients, they get the best care possible from me.

ok, enough off to read some post!

pepperann35 · Aug 18, 2007

there ia always a clash with our night and day shifts. part of the reason is that day shift doesn't get ready for report till after 7am, suppose to be ready at 6:45.
day shift complains when they have 5-6 pts to care for verses 7-9 on night shift. it is a never ending cycle.
i love night shift because there are fewer big wigs around, but also i have a chance to read my pt's charts and know their hx.
there seems to be a big myth that pt's sleep all night!
that is very far from true, pt's still code, have pain and can't relax .
i know that when i work, i double check every order, lab and mar just so that day shift will have one less thing to worry with. i do not like leaving anything undone.
if everyone would learn that nursing is 24/7 and would learn to work as a team, things would go so much easier.
i only know that i do the best i can and when others start to complain, i don't nick-pick, complain about what wasn't done, etc, i finish getting report and then make sure that while i am the nurse assigned to my patients, they get the best care possible from me.
ok, enough off to read some post!

i think i have learned that the biggest cause of stress between the shifts is that we all have too much to do, we all want to take care of our residents instead of doing endless paperwork and we were told as students that the excuse " i did not have time to complete that or we were short staffed" is never an excuse. sorry, i am not robot and instead of taking it out on each other, we need to stick together and complain--until heard--to the management!

brissie · Aug 18, 2007

I think they are jealous of the shift differential!!!

Tweety, BSN, RN · Aug 18, 2007

I think they are jealous of the shift differential!!!

Actually I am. I miss it now that I'm on days. They just raised it by a dollar per hour for RNs (unfortunately not for LPNs, but we won't go there). There's always the "we're busier and we work harder, yet they make more money" whine. I'm sure you've heard it. LOL

MA Nurse · Aug 18, 2007

I notice that day nurses are often very annoyed with night nurses - they say their handoffs are very poor, nothing is done for the patient, nothing is verified, forms/ consents for proceedures are often missed, AM labs are left unaddressed, etc. I work nights and pick up a few day shifts here and there and overheard this one care coordinator say "day shift nurses are the strongest, then evenings, and our night nurses are by far the worse"
What is it like at your facility?

This must be a universal thing. We had that problem in my former place of employment. A lot of day nurses think because it's night time, the night nurses do nothing. Well, we all know that's B.S.

Some day nurses need to be nicer!

nursej22, MSN, RN · Aug 18, 2007

I have worked all 3 shifts, and each is just as challenging, but for different reasons. Any time I hear that line about "we work harder, they get paid more" I say ,"well there are always positions open on nocs":devil:.

I think the leadership of the floor has a lot to do with shift to shift friction, whether that is offical leaders like charge nurses or managers, or the de facto leaders--the veterans whom everyone listens to. If the charge is carping about other shifts, then that gives staff the impression that beyotching about others is acceptable.

Got somebody who always comes in grouchy or late? Try greeting them pleasantly and sincerely say how glad you are to see them. Maybe even a compliment. There can only be friction is both sides are rough!

fergus51 · Aug 18, 2007

If one shift were so much easier, all the nurses would be begging to work it. I notice that doesn't happen... I just ignore it. I don't care what a day shift nurse thinks about night shifters. I do my job and go home. I refuse to get caught up in some who works harder debate.