Do Day Nurses Really Feel that Night Nurses Do Nothing All Night?

[Brita01]

Having worked the 12 hour night shift in many hospitals I find the same things. Day shift nurses leave us so much work to do that we're playing catch up all night. We start off 2 hours behind because we're finishing things left over from the day shift. I've had times when I'm still giving 9pm meds at almost midnite because things were so screwed up starting out. Then we have to do our night shift paperwork and deal with the patients who do NOT "sleep all night". Part of the night shift paperwork involves getting things proper and ready for the day shift to use. And I swear if something gets missed by us we WILL hear about it. It really burns my butt when they come in in the morning complaining about what the night shift didn't do because we ask their secretary to make a call or two for a consult. BUT it's ok for the day shift to pass things to us because it's a "24 hour care hospital". I'm just curious. How many day nurses out there believe that the night nurses should be able to do it all because we have nothing to do anyway?

[NocturneNrse]

Well...as a night nurse for just about a year now...I am sick and tired of the attitudes I get in the morning., and I'm going to be giving it right back to those who give it to me. Not every day nurse, but most of them are disrespectful and expect us to know each and every detail of our 7-10 patients medical history inside and out... and when we "fail the final exam" given by them, we get the eye rolling and comments. It is a team, but the only teamwork I find is w/my other night staffers. It's terrible.,

[AMarie85]

I hate shift wars.... At night we have more patients. There is some quiet time from about 0000 until 0330 when lab comes in a wakes everyone up.

And there are nights when I don't sit down. Last night I had a patient pull out his NG tube three times (the last time was while he was in restraints--the MD wouldn't allow me to leave it out--I HATE putting restraints on people) That's another thing if you call the MD at night they are angry and frustrated that you are waking them up.

However I will say that day shift scares the heck out of me.... They have doctors and families to deal with on top of a heavier med pass and increased admits and discharges.

The point is it's a 24 hour job.... If it doesn't get done on your shift it gets passed on the next shift... We're all busy. I had a friend tell me one time that each shift complains about the other because it's a damn hard job and we all are busting our butts to take care of our patients.

[aloevera]

AMarie85---valid & fair assessment of the situation........yes, it also depends on what setting you are working in.........an ER in Chicago may be a little busier at night than a nursing home in the south........but on the whole, on average, things do tend to be busier during the day.......factor in the visitors and the Dr's and everyone else coming in .....in itself, is enough to validate that fact.

We have more admissions during the day also.........discharges, too....tests ordered...etc.........But I admire and respect our night staff as well.......they can have a busy night, too.........and those hours !!! I don't know how you do it!!!!!!!!! Kudos to all night nurses.......

[DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP]

I think both shifts work equally hard, at least at my facility.

What I like best about being a night shift nurse: MUCH LESS ADMINISTRATIVE (MANAGEMENT) "NONSENSE"

Cheers,

Diane

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I don't think it's so much a problem with the actual shift than it is with the actual nurses working it. I've known some night nurses that kick ass at their job...and others that do nothing all shift but sit on theirs. At the same time, I also know day nurses that are powerhouses who get it all done...and others who don't do much except get just the bare minimum done.

[blamejoe]

I have never worked with a day shift nurse who has volunteered to come in and work extra on nights, except a manager. I have worked with several night shift nurses who get flexed to dayshift during a scheduling crunch. I have never worked with a day nurse who switched her position to night shift permanently. I have quite a few colleagues who have switched from nights to permanent days. I see more dayshift RNs frequently staying 2 hours onto my shift to "finish up". Fewer night nurses need to do that, and when they do it is often for less than 2 hours, and the frequency is less. A lot of times I come in and the only charting done on the patient is from nightshift. We rarely go nights without documenting our assessments, especially if dayshift didn't get around to it. Night nurses are rarely late for their start of shift, even during inclement weather. Day nurses have excuses like snow in the morning, unplowed roads, kids being sick or having to get on the bus, etc etc. Either way, they're late more than we are. The only day nurses I've ever seen review a care plan are nurses who used to work nights.

Days and nights have different things we look at. We have different tasks and different ways of working. But we have only 1 job, and we get 24 hours to do that in. If we're lucky and we work together, we may get everything done as a team. But I don't tolerate the complaining, and I don't take "final exams" from dayshift. If it would ever come down to nitpicking or criticizing, I have lots that I keep to myself that I could use to ruin the start of the morning. So instead I leave it at "I think you're going to have a better day than I had of a night." And then I start report.

[lvnjden4ever, R.N.]

I just started working Days at an LTC facility. Management is always saying..."oh, we will add that responsibility to nights" or "nights workload is much less, just paperwork". So of course day shift nurses have learned to resent them! Days have 24 patients (each unit is split into A & B during days/evenings) and we have 2 treatment nurses, 4 CNAs and a ward clerk. Nights have 48 patients, no treatment nurses, 2 CNAs, and no ward clerk. Wow! Days are crazy, it's a never ending med pass, complaining family members who think they are doctors, etc...but every morning I come in the night nurses who were hired the same time as me look just about dead, ready to pass out, or start crying. They always tell me how busy it is, how it was not what they expected it to be. They have to change all the tubing, make sure days have new peg syringes, they don't have cnas to check vitals for them...waking up patients to check early morning blood sugars...etc. Plus, management JUST had an in service for night nurses only entitled NIGHT NURSES AND ADDED SHIFT RESPONSIBILITIES. Crazy!!! So I just think night shift is given a bad rep, I kind of feel sorry for them. Also, I've never seen a night nurse leave on time because day nurses REFUSE to help them out! A night nurse couldn't get to doing discharge papers during his shift due to a heavy med pass...but the nurse I was shadowing down right refused to help out then told him he forgot to change all the 02 humidifiers...so he stayed doing paperwork and changing tubes and humidifiers all morning until 11! Pretty unfair.

[AmazonJaneRN]

I can't believe this is even a real question. I don't sit down at night, just like I didn't sit down during the day. Maybe there are less family obligations, BUT, on the other hand, there is less staffing in general, our hospital pharmacy closes at night (so we have to enter our own medications in the PYXIS, mix them, order them if we can using standing orders) because the MD's are not around and God forbid you have to wake one of them up for ANYTHING. Also, our day ratio for the stepdown unit I work on is 4:1, night shift ratio is minimum of 5:1 with a more common ration of 6 or even 7:1 ratio depending on the available staff. (someone call in? Well, you can each just take an extra patient or two, and we'll send over a 2nd CNA for the floor, that solves the problem!) Night shift easier? GET OVER YOURSELVES, DAY NURSES!

[BackfromRetirement]

Each shift has it's own dynamics. Graveyard shift has less help and has to make more independent decisions. People work different shifts for different reasons. Until new employees are required to rotate on the different shifts, they will never know what is expected on each shift.

[lvnjden4ever, R.N.]

I am a day nurse. But I've heard of night nurses getting written up by the DON for doing overtime...but not day nurses. Kind of crazy.

[BackfromRetirement]

Evening shift seems to require the most OT.

[Yosemite, RN, ASN, EMT-I]

I've worked noc shift, am shift, floated a few times to p.m. shift (when working at facilities that have 8 hour shifts). As previously mentioned, EACH shift has its rewards and challenges. Until you've worked EVERY shift multiple times at any given facility, you will NOT appreciate the truth. Every shift (secretly) thinks it has the toughest assignment... and they would be correct. There ARE NO EASY SHIFTS IN NURSING.

Currently I'm on the day shift, the p.m. shift, in taped report, all to often relates "didn't have time, day shift will have to get it" done. Noc shift is perpetually burdened with even worse staffing and has an ever growing list of responsibilities given to them by administration with the excuse of "the patients are sleeping" (WRONG!). As acuity raises, stays shorten, admissions and discharges come to a flurry, our physicians are staying later and more and more orders are being taken care of by the p.m. shift amongst things like "visiting hours" and lack of support staff the day shift has.

*SIGH* such is the way of things. Hang in there and support your peers, for in my experience, administration will not.