Do you like day or night shift better and why?

Nurses General Nursing

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Do you prefer day or night shift and why?

Is it more difficult for a GN to get hired for night shift?

I work 3 12 hr night shifts and much prefer it. I couldn't wait to get off days, I felt so tired after working. Sure it was hard the first few months to get used to nights but once I got used to it, I feel less tired after a night shift (even if I didn't sleep before) than I did after a 12 hr day shift.

But I agree meetings and such are planned at ridiculous times. Why aren't there ever midnight meetings for us? Oh, we're supposed to stay until 9am for a meeting (why don't they just stay until 9pm instead of leaving at 7pm if it's so easy?) or worse yet come in at 3pm or some ungodly hour. That's like 3am to us. I've been called at 10am, 1pm, 3pm, doesn't matter, they always expect you to be awake and ready to answer the phone.

I have read the studies about night shift workers having a higher rate of breast and other cancers and this concerns me since my bio mom died of breast cancer. I take melatonin supplements, not just when working but every time I lie down to sleep. I get some sunlight every day, get at least 6 hrs minimum of sleep every day (or night), try to stay up late-ish on my nights off (12am-8am-ish usually) have piles of earplugs, sleep masks, blackout curtains, aromatherapy, sweet smelling candles and microwaveable lavendar pillows. I make an investment in my sleeping because I think it's important. I'm surprised at how many nurses sleep 2-3 hours in a light room with their kids shrieking outside the the phones ringing. Years of that cannot be healthy for anyone.

I think if you work nights you have to take your sleeptime and your health seriously. The hours between 9am-5pm are just like the hours of 9pm-5am to everyone else. If not actually asleep all of those hours, you should be doing a quiet activity in your home, that is your rest period.

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:roll

i love nights!!

i work on a 45 bedded, elderly unit. the ward its huge, consisting of 16 rooms! and all the rooms are spred all over. (bring back the nightingale style wards!) if you hear a noise, you cant pin point the area, and have to check every room, its that big. a lot of these patients are falls risks, recent fractures strokes etc. 90% of these need assistance 24hr. we have 6 members of staff a night consisting 2 trained staff and 4 auxilarys. it is very busyand heavy, but i wouldnt trade it in for anything, i love it!! :rotfl:

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Specializes in ER, Hospice, CCU, PCU.

night shift

. :lol2: :lol2:

i don't deal well with people who wear suits.:bowingpur

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Specializes in Ambulatory Infusion Center.

Did 3 - 11 for years but now that my kids are grown and gone love my 7p -7a shift. No baths, few visitors, few doctors, no managers or administration. I get every other week off and have no trouble sleeping or switching when I am off. Better pay. Oh yah, give me nights anytime.

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After being on days 6a-6p for a couple of years, but it was only weekends.

I am changing jobs, and will be on 10p-6a Monday thru Friday. It will be easier for my school schedule, and now, with Mom to take care of, the night shift will be easier there too. Hubby gets home at noon, so he can take over there, and I can sleep.

I used to work nights, and loved it. Hope I love it just as much now!

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Specializes in psych, geriatric, foot care.

Nights if there is just enough to keep me busy on the quiet ones and not too much to do when things get crazy. Also it depends on the staffing, I find night shift is the one time management doesn't mind being short on and it is usually a skeleton crew to start. On the flip side b/c there are fewer staff it is usually a tighter crew who work hard and keep a united front when things do get crazy.

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I like everything about the night shift except that it is at night. For all the same reasons everyone posted already-calmer, better pay, less orders being written, no family members, patients not leaving for tests, and the night crew is great.

What I don't like is how tired I am, or how the night staff is treated. Anything that the day shift doesn't want to do gets pushed to the night staff. Day shift working short?-no way they get a float, not nights. The cafeteria closes at two am, so sometimes we are left to eat dinner out of a poorly stocked vending machine. And some nights I don't get a break. I don't understand how my patents are supposed to be asleep all night, but I and constantly going for the entire 12 hours. But, I like who I work with and that gets me through it.

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Specializes in medical, geri-psych.

I work both d's & n's. I am a bad sleeper at best, so I should like d's but i prefer nights.

1- less bs/mangement/other disciplines critiquing you.

2- i am a natural night hawk.

3- you don't have the rush on to have people washed before coffee break.

4- it is generally more laid back (can have hell shifts) ...but usually a slower pace.

5- more $$$ (not much $2.00 / h...but better than nothing)

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They both have thier good points as well as thier bad points. I am working nights again after working days for the last year. Prior to that I worked the night shift for 4 years. I thought nights were hard because my drive home after the night shift took forever and I was soooo sleepy I felt sick. I tried days and just hated it. I found that I really didn't like dealing with all the "attitudes" that the staff had, kinda a snob type. I noticed that the older nursing group wanted days as well as was not into new practice and seemed to always have a chip on thier shoulder. The good part of days was I was not tired after working 12 hours like I was when I worked nights--that is the only good point I was able to find (also the floor mngr was there during the days). So, back to nights where the families go home, the pt.'s are more relaxed and the flow of the floor is much less crazy. I find people die more at night and that is interesting as well. Sorry for going on and on. I guess I pick nights over days if I weigh it all out. :zzzzz

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.
Do you prefer day or night shift and why?

Is it more difficult for a GN to get hired for night shift?

There was a time when my preference was night shift because there were less "chief-wanna-bees" to deal with, more autonomy as a nurse, and a calmer nursing staff to work with. Fast forward into this decade.........no longer is night shift an option for me because it greatly affects my health when working night shift in ways that it never used to. Otherwise, I'd probably still work night shift.

I've been a nurse over nineteen years, and when I graduated...night shift was the shift new grads had the market on. Today, the hospital ads I am viewing are mostly for night shifts. Guess nurses on the average no longer want to work that shift.

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As a nurse who has spent three and a half years on nights waiting to get to days and am finally there, I am so glad! I have great sympathy for the nurse who took my shift and is so tired all of the time. Coming in 2-3 times a week at 2pm for mandatory meetings when you work 11pm to 7am is hell, particularly when you have children at home so that it is not like you get to go home and go back to bed after the meeting. Your weekends are also messed up and if you sleep normal hours on the weekend to be with your family then you are exhausted for the first 2-3 days of the work week. Days is better. It is hard and there are constantly a line of people: doctors, pt, ot, st, dietary, social services, and management that are standing in line to write orders for you to carry out or to tell you what to do all the while you have 5-6 patients on the toilet, IVs beeping, peg tubes beeping, another 5 patients begging for pain medication RIGHT NOW, CNA's disappearing from the floor, staff not showing up, it is hell, but it is still better than working nights.

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Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/ER.
As a nurse who has spent three and a half years on nights waiting to get to days and am finally there, I am so glad! I have great sympathy for the nurse who took my shift and is so tired all of the time. Coming in 2-3 times a week at 2pm for mandatory meetings when you work 11pm to 7am is hell, particularly when you have children at home so that it is not like you get to go home and go back to bed after the meeting. Your weekends are also messed up and if you sleep normal hours on the weekend to be with your family then you are exhausted for the first 2-3 days of the work week. Days is better. It is hard and there are constantly a line of people: doctors, pt, ot, st, dietary, social services, and management that are standing in line to write orders for you to carry out or to tell you what to do all the while you have 5-6 patients on the toilet, IVs beeping, peg tubes beeping, another 5 patients begging for pain medication RIGHT NOW, CNA's disappearing from the floor, staff not showing up, it is hell, but it is still better than working nights.

I totally agree....I cannot wait for my chance to go to days! I worked days for 3 months during orientation, & yes it was a little hectic as a new grad....hectic I can deal with....nights I can't! Congrats to you!:balloons:

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