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?

[nurs4kids]

Originally posted by Brownms46

Yes....and I have worked ALL shifts also! And guess what...If I was a day person I would still being working days! Why? Because I have worked days when....most of my pts were D/C'd...went to procedures...rehab....out of the facility for txs...and by the time they came back it was time to go home!!!

Next...right now on the unit I work on...I have stayed over on days...to watch nurse after nurse come in and sit down and eat BREAKFAST !!!

Our shift:... many pts are awake. and Sundowner's is alive and well! ..TV's on...family members in the room..or calling the unit...to see if they can come up.....or at the desk...demanding someone come and get them a blanket...or answer their questions...get them coffee, or food for they're family member who has been in the ER ALL day......etc..etc..! We give med ALL nite long....get admissions .....up to 7 in 2 hours one nite...and with only 3 or 4 nurses...and one is the Charge Nurse...who also has pts...but NOT on the day or evening shift! Many times there is NO aide...and so the calls lights are going off constantly! There is no Secretary to answer the phones...no pts leaving the floor for anything...unless it's a trip to the unit...and rarely any time to sit and have so much as a potty break... let alone breakfast!!! We also do all the AM labs with sometimes on as many as 6-8 pts each...the chart checks..find all the orders not taken care of...expected to get the stools for OB/sputums...consents signed.. chg IV sites...TF bags...get pt's ready for OR/ procedures in AM...review the MARS...ALL the BS and SS in the AM..and the daily wts...which amount to about half the unit!!! On days they have an admissions nurse....WE DON'T!! Many times when the heart caths come back to the unit...it's about the time the 12hr nite shifts comes on duty...so we're the ones doing the Q30min Q 1 hr...etc..etc....not days..on at least two different pts.!!!

YESSSS I totally realize that there are hospitals where the work is distributed differently.. and that some days or nites are better or worse than others...BUTTTTTT.............

PLEASE ....... give me a break when you start to speak for everyone who works nites!!! If YOU have it better on nites than days...more power to ya...but speak for you Pleeze..and where YOU work

One good thing I can say about the day shift where I'm ...NO ONE has made any such statements!! Especially since the nurses on days.. don't do baths....their 4 CNA's do!!! And the ones they don't get too?? Guess what??

Brown,

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be speaking for nursing worldwide, as I don't have the experience to do so. I was speaking from within my institution and comparing one floor to another. This IS an issue on some floors within our pediatric facility, but it isn't on my floor. Your description of a typical night sounds almost exactly like mine. We don't have CA's or Unit Secretary's on nights. We do the am labs and weights(which is usually ALL the patients), we hang/change the TP feeds, we do dressing changes, we hang HAL, we give blood, we adm the ampotericin, we give meds all hours of the night, we deal with visitors, we pre op patients, we fluff pillows, we change diapers and attends, we admit all night long, we run codes, we turn patients q2h, we often have several babies that have to be fed q 1-2h...I thought all of this was nursing? We also don't have a charge nurse on nights. We do all this with 3-5 nurses, average 4, and 20 pts, which I'm aware is a nice ratio. I obviously hit a sensitive spot with you, but I hesitate to apologize. I thought the original question was intended to be subjective...guess I was wrong.

[kahann]

I work mainly 11p-7a and have had a day shift charge nurse tell me "I don't know why you get all the money, days does all the work". Best reply: You can work night shift too--come see what it's like to carry 8-10 med/surg patients a night, deal with cranky docs on the phone, have to be 1:1 with your dementia patients, and pass meds and monitor multiple post ops with PCA's and PCEA's. Our night crew thrives on teamwork, we have to work together because there are so few of us. I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Brownms46]

Originally posted by nurs4kids

Brown,

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be speaking for nursing worldwide, as I don't have the experience to do so. I was speaking from within my institution and comparing one floor to another. This IS an issue on some floors within our pediatric facility, but it isn't on my floor. Your description of a typical night sounds almost exactly like mine. We don't have CA's or Unit Secretary's on nights. We do the am labs and weights(which is usually ALL the patients), we hang/change the TP feeds, we do dressing changes, we hang HAL, we give blood, we adm the ampotericin, we give meds all hours of the night, we deal with visitors, we pre op patients, we fluff pillows, we change diapers and attends, we admit all night long, we run codes, we turn patients q2h, we often have several babies that have to be fed q 1-2h...I thought all of this was nursing? We also don't have a charge nurse on nights. We do all this with 3-5 nurses, average 4, and 20 pts, which I'm aware is a nice ratio. I obviously hit a sensitive spot with you, but I hesitate to apologize. I thought the original question was intended to be subjective...guess I was wrong.

Yes...nurs4kids..it is all nursing....but as you stated above... you an have avg of 4 with three to five nurses. We have 6-8 and up to nine mostly elderly cardiac pts on tele, who ring call bells for everything under the sun, who get up out of bed...pull out lines, fall, and whatever else.. which tends to keep us running all nite! If I had just 5-6...I would consider myself lucky...but most of the time I walk in and get 7 on evenings when everyone is trying to get your attention before you can finish getting report!

I'm not saying because you work with children...that you don't have a lot of to do's...that wasn't my point nor did I reference it. My point was that on nites on this unit....we're required to do more....than other shifts...and yes...this is a sore spot with not only me ....but as it seems most of the nites nurses who work on this unit. Hence the fact that they have NO staff! As agency(travelers and per diem) out number staff. The sore spot is that we play a game called "beat the clock" every nite...and then I watch days having time for Breakfast.

I also ....maybe mistakenly ....felt your post was saying that all nites shifts didn't work as hard as the day shift....and because the nite shift acknowledged that fact ....it was the reason the two shifts didn't have any conflicts. Maybe I got the wrong impression....and you were saying that where you work....nites has it easier. It this was the case...please except my apology also. I may have sincerely misunderstood what you were posting.

Warning...I may be having a meltdown here....buttttttt

8 more weeks to go...if I don't quit or get fired one..

[DMMRN]

I agree with everything FGR8out has said!! I am a 3-11 supervisor. I have been the one taking the hand off, and the one handing off!! I have heard all the complaints etc... The bottom line is this :

Nurses have to stop thinking that they are an entity or shift unto themselves!!! Nursing care is a 24/7 job. We cannot do it 24/7 so we must learn to work together. We are in a race most of the time...so grab the baton and run!! When someone else complains I usually say something like "I know there is so much work for all of us, and it is discouraging at times when you just feel like it is neve done! Such is the dilemna for all nurses!!" If I am coming off of night shift , I will say something like..."sorry I have to pass this off...if there is anything I can do when I come back in later let me know!!" It is truly all about team work....

Find a way to communicate in a supportive way that encourages teamwork. You may not like being the one who has to make the difference in how you work as a team...but it has to start somewhere!!!

There are alot of angry, discouraged, disenchanted, burned out, lonely, fed up nurses in the world. If you are one...you have a choice! Step up to the plate and make some changes , stay and join in their ranks, or move on!

Remember: When you try to please everyone...someone is going to get pissed off!! Do what makes you feel better about yourself...avoid creating regrets!!

Good Luck...

Donna

[KaraLea, LVN]

I have worked all shifts, 8 and 12 hrs. Right now I am working 3p-11p at a Psychiatric hospital and have to say that here there is not as much to do on evenings and nights as there is on days, but my last job was Med/Surg and nights sometimes worked harder than days. Both shifts got admissions and both had emergencies. Also, have you ever tried to get a doc to come in at 2am???? I have, and it is not fun.

:roll :roll :roll

[I1tobern]

I have to agree with Fgr8out; I don't work in the medical environment yet, but I have never seen it fail in any work environment that one shift believes the others don't do as much(in some cases this is true) or that the other shift leaves all the crap for those to follow (sometimes this is true, too).

[indeed]

In my limited experience with all this, I have found that the things that make nights difficult at times are things that are taken completely for granted on days. When we get admissions on nights, we not only deal with the patients, but tired (and a lot of times pissy) family members, waking up docs, starting the chart (which is why days have secretaries), running to the supervisor's office for meds when we don't have a house orderly (same for PRBCs and the like), doing all of the baths on complete patients, transporting to stat tests (and sometimes the morgue), and the list goes on. Gods forbid the sh*t hits the fan, at which point we have most of our nurses in that room, leaving whomever is left to make sure the rest are safe and sound. Recently had a situation where, no kidding, it was a double header...two patients (naturally at opposite ends of the unit), one a possible CVA in progress, the other in SVT. At the very least we are good at RUNNING! And then factor in all of the mandatory inservices and meetings that are NEVER held at a decent hour (by night shifts standards) and do not take into account the fact that if a meeting is at 0800 (which won't start until 0830) and you have to be back at work at 1900...well, no, we aren't delighted because you brought bagels...we are TIRED. I would dare management to mandate an inservice at 0300 and expect day shift to show. All of these things, and more, we accept and expect, it's part of the job and we know that going in. Most nights shifters have weighed the pros and cons and are doing it because it works for them, NOT because it is easy. I challenge anyone who says night shift is "easier" (a laughable concept, seeing as no part of my brain can accept the idea of nursing being EASY) to come on in some night and lend us a hand. We could certainly use it! I understand fully well that day shift is a whole different bag of oats, and I don't envy them in the least (what with all that sun shining through the windows...hehe). I just get burned when people assume that because THEY are asleep, everyone else must be and therefore we have nothing to do. We're all nurses, we all work our fingers and feet to the bone, and we all need support, not UNconstructive criticism and blabbing about "I do more than you blah blah blah." Just my .02 (and then some!).

Indeed.

[REDWOMANRN]

NIGHT OWL-RIGHT ON!!!!!!!!!!!

CANNOT AGREE MORE!!!!!!!

[Teshiee]

I think both shift works very hard. Perception is not reality. There are days when the dayshift can kick back and when night shift is running like crazy. When I get report from dayshift I can tell when they are busy simply because they didn't get all the work done. You can only do so much in 12 hours we shouldn't expect more than what we can do. I am not talking about the lazy ones but the true hard workers in nursing whether you are day shift or night. We work harrrrrrrrrd for our money! :-)

[live4today, RN]

DAYSHIFT--EVENING SHIFT--NIGHTSHIFT...WORKED HARD ALL THREE SHIFTS. WORKED 8 AND 12 HOUR SHIFTS, ROTATING SHIFTS, WEEKENDS ONLY, AND PRN. IF IT EXIST, I WORKED IT AND WORKED IT HARD! NO LAZY BONE HERE!!! :chuckle

[ARIOSRN]

NURSING IS 24/7. THAT IS A FRAISE THAT I HAVE TRUELY LEARNED TO HATE. WHY?, BECAUSE IT IS AN EXCUSE THAT ONLY SEEMS VALID WHEN USED BY DAY SHIFT. NIGHTS WORKS JUST AS HARD WITH NO SUPPORT STAFF. DAY SHIFT HAS TECHS, NIGHT SHIFT DOES NOT. DAY SHIFT RN'S DO NOT DO BATHS, NIGHT SHIFT RN'S HAVE TO DO ONE TO MAKE THE TECHS JOB ON DAYS EISIER. WE GET WRITTEN UP FOR FORGETING A WEIGHT, THEY CAN DUMP A 10 HOUR OLD TRANSFUSION ORDER OFF ON US, AND THE ANSWER WE GET WHEN WE COMPLAIN TO MNGMT IS NURSING IS 24/7. I DON'T MIND PICKING UP THE SLACK WHEN IT IS BUSY, BUT IT NEEDS TO GO BOTH WAYS. IF SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE LEFT BOTH SHIFTS SHOULD BE FLEXIBLE ENOUGH DO WAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. AND MGMT NEEDS TO SUPPORT THAT. WE WORK JUST AS HARD ON NIGHTS AND DESERVE THE RESPECT DAY SHIFT AWARDS THEMSEVES.

[mamabear]

Fraise? Truely? Eisier? No wonder we're treated like dirt.:imbar

PS: It's phrase, truly, and easier.:stone

PSS: I know I'll get a ton of hate mail; I have a thing about spelling, grammar and punctuation.