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?

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

I've worked both shifts at two different facilities, and I'll say this - I'd rather have seven patients on a night shift than five on a day shift (and believe me, I've done both - on an oncology and a bone marrow transplant floor, with chemo and blood and platelets and labs and reactions and the wrong kinds of MDs as crosscover who don't GET that so-and-so is GOING to have crappy counts because he just had myeloablative chemo and an allo transplant and we KNOW his Hgb is 8.1 and his platelets are 19 and that's just FINE right now, because he's got ten more platelets than he had LAST night and his parameters are to transfuse at ten!).

My night shift patients aren't trotting off to seventeen different tests with forty different family members in attendance. If they go anywhere they're going to the unit, you know? :)

And I certainly wouldn't tell the day nurses to "get over themselves" any more than I'd say that to the night RNs. What annoys me is when ANY person taking over your patient from whatever shift rolls their eyes because you didn't get to redraw a Mag level because you did a seven-bag bone marrow transplant that took almost two hours and the Mag went up late, and your 2 units PRBCs for your other guy were held in quarantine by the blood bank until 1600, so your second unit isn't even hung yet.

Crap happens, people. Quit complaining and do what you need to get done. I've done my twelve and I probably look it, so no matter what shift you're on, guess what - you've got a couple of things to handle for me.

We're a twenty four hour operation, folks - so EVERYONE needs to get over themselves....THAT'S what really cranks me up.

[caheidrick]

I work in a 25 bed CAH. I have worked both day and night shifts, although I am primarily on nights, I do "pick-up" day shifts because administration is constantly calling me in because they "are way too short". Then, I get here for said "way too short" day shift and I am busting my butt to get things done (just like I do on night shift) and there are still at least 5 people sitting at the desk doing NOTHING. I do not think that night shift is understaffed, I think that day shift is overstaffed.

Also, day shift nurses are COMPLETELY dependent on ancillary departments to do the work that night shift does consistently. For instance, if a patient needs a breath tx, that nurse will walk to the desk, find a phone, page RT and take them away from whatever they're doing (probably something actually productive) to come give a patient a breathing tx. RIDICULOUS. The SVNs are in the med pyxis anyway. By the time that nurse found an available phone, paged RT and RT made it to the floor to give said tx, the patient could have received the tx and been breathing easy. The times that I have worked a day shift and a pt asks for a tx, I JUST DO IT. Then, I simply inform RT whenever I see them so that they are aware, and always get a smile and "Thank You".

Our day shift has recently started walking to the desk to get their materials for report (paper, pens, drinks, etc.) and actually complained when there was no coffee made. Meanwhile, the skeleton staff that we have (compared to theirs) is running our hind ends off taking care of patients that DO NOT SLEEP!

Hasn't anyone heard of sundowners syndrome? We do not have a psych unit, so we get to have quality time with all of the alzheimer's, dementia and just plain crazy patients. Let me tell ya, from both sides of the track, they are MUCH less oriented at night.

I have had to start telling administration I can't come in when they call me because whenever I work a day shift I get SO frustrated working with people who work harder trying to get out of doing ANYTHING, than they do working. I just can't handle it and was afraid I was going to get myself in a situation where my mouth would get me in trouble. So I've limited myself.

This happens everywhere I'm sure, but until administration steps up and says "No, you will not talk that way about your teammates", it will continue.

[BackfromRetirement]

There is no viable end to the shift differences criticism. Let it go. Accept what you cannot change and just deal with it. It may not seem right and it may not seem fair. Just fix anything you find and take care of your people. As a Supervisor i listen with empathy about teammate complaints. We are responsible for our own reactions to any given situation. It is human nature to internalize stressful situations. Believe me, management discusses these issues in private. But many times complaints come out as frustration and venting. All echelons of nursing need to vent somewhere. What is toxic is a feeling of helplessness/futility to change a situation. None of us are immune to it.

Sundowner's has been around a long time. It's just part of the job.

It does not matter what day shift thinks of us. We have a unique set of issues that we deal with very well. We are specialist in our work. Not every nurse can handle the unique problems facing the time of day. Just do your best and make yourself happy.