Does Preferring to Work Night Shift mean you're lazy?

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I prefer to work night shift. I prefer a little bit more seclusion to the hustle and bustle of the day shift experience. If I HAVE to work days, I would prefer for it to be weekends. I just can't take all the doctors, hospital rounds, discharge rounds, meetings, all of that. It's exhausting for me and it takes a toll on my health. I've been told that it just means you're lazy and don't want to do the work. But in the grand scheme, my life doesn't revolve around my job and there are other things I want to do and explore with my life.

I initially loved nursing, but after all that I've experienced while working on this particular unit, I've started to suffer continuous headaches and fatigue from work. This isn't good for me. I love night shift because I have some time to recuperate. I still get the headaches but the fatigue is less. I would really prefer to work solely nights.

Specializes in Critical Care/Vascular Access.
Night shifters are not lazy at all! Besides the feat of staying alert when your body naturally is programmed to sleep, it's also the time to catch up on things the day shifters were not able to finish. We admit a lot more sick kids at night because the urgent cares are closed. We operate with less doctors present in the hospital. And at least on our unit, the nurses have a lot of day prep work like changing out suction tubing, IV tubing, hanging TPN/lipids, changing out tube feeding bags, and restocking the rooms. Night shifters also probably have a little more time to sit and read the patient's chart and pass on useful info that day shift may not have time to read about themselves. I often am able to delve deep into the patient's history and give a much better report to ensure better care or a better understanding of the patient's condition.

I agree with everything this person said. ^

When I read the title of this post, I was just a little insulted because it's asinine for anyone to say that night shift nurses are lazy. There are potentially lazy nurses on both shifts, and in general I've seen more on day shift than nights. I will admit that over all the "vibe" is more calm on nights.......no doctors rounding, fewer family members in and out, few discharges, etc......but there is no less work to be done. For one thing, at least on my floor, the grid is different for night shift and we typically have 1 to 2 more patients per nurse. Nights usually have less staffing in general (IV therapy, doctors on call, etc), meaning we have to be more autonomous. Our decision making is different because we have to decide whether our situation is worth waking a surgeon up at 2 in the morning or not. We have a different set of responsibilities and ways of dealing with situations in general.

I personally love night shift where I work because I feel like our team is so much more tight and work together well. Day shift doesn't compare. I hate the schedule sometimes, but I love my team.

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reason I work nights - no transfers, doctors or families unless its an emergency situation...I also feel I learn better on nights.

Would love that to be the cause on my unit. Parents (up to 2) are allowed to stay at bedside all night. Sometimes this is great because they will feed the baby. Other times it's not so great as they never seem to be able to go to sleep. We sometimes play musical beds, transferring patients out in the middle of the night to make room for others. Probably because this is PICU/Stepdown. Nothing like moving a patient and their family at 3 in the morning.

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

I have a great team of docs and nurses with me on nights. Being as I am the only rapid response nurse in house having a good working relationship with the House MD's, and house managers , and ICU charge is a necessity. I know I can count on them for help. Rare times I can't get a doc to assist me with getting the pt to higher level of care or giving orders for what is needed. I don't do day shift well.

Day shift just is not practical for me and my family right now. My son is in preschool and starts at 12:30, and on days I work my dad can drop him off and I can pick him up after when he gets out at 3:30. My husband works M-F with the occasional Saturday thrown in and his hours can range from early to late. He is never home for pick up and drop off to school. I know I could bus my son to school, but then I would never be able to talk to his teacher every day. I am also not comfortable putting him on a bus. If I did bus him 2-3 days a week there wouldn't be anyone home when he gets home.

There is less resources at night, and we do more independent decision making which I like anyway.

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

Thankk you,night shifters! Whatever your reason for working that shift I,for one-am grateful.

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I wouldn't care what people think. Some people are morning people, some are night owls. I don't like nights because I have such terrible sleep issues, and night shift only exacerbates that. But I don't like the " standard business hours" either. But speaking from experience, night shift often means less staff. So you are not idly sitting somewhere flipping through a magazine.

I ,myself, am a morning person, and like the earlier hours. The earlier the better.I once worked in a setting where my start time was 4:30 AM, and my end time was 12:30 pm, which was really ideal for me. Honestly, if I could find something with similar hours , I would be ecstatic !

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Ive always been a Noc. I dont know how people wake up in the morning and survive all day. Plus our night crew is real close so it heps when the SHTF

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
I dont know how people wake up in the morning and survive all day.

Oh gosh yes, ^THIS^!!!!

Mornings suck soooooooooooo much!

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Specializes in Pedi.

When I worked in the hospital, nights was the preferred shift. The most senior nurses on the unit (25+ years) worked permanent nights and had for a million years. Once my manager had the brilliant idea to tell the night staff that they'd have to start working days (because the majority of the staff was rotaters and we all preferred to hide on nights) and they all either said that they wouldn't do it or they'd only do it on the weekends. Nobody wanted to work the supposedly widely preferred weekday day shifts, they were miserable. Now I work a Mon-Fri job and enjoy having the same schedule as all my friends... but were I ever to go back to the hospital, I wouldn't be vying for a day position.

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I prefer to work night shift. I prefer a little bit more seclusion to the hustle and bustle of the day shift experience. If I HAVE to work days, I would prefer for it to be weekends. I just can't take all the doctors, hospital rounds, discharge rounds, meetings, all of that. It's exhausting for me and it takes a toll on my health. I've been told that it just means you're lazy and don't want to do the work. But in the grand scheme, my life doesn't revolve around my job and there are other things I want to do and explore with my life.

I initially loved nursing, but after all that I've experienced while working on this particular unit, I've started to suffer continuous headaches and fatigue from work. This isn't good for me. I love night shift because I have some time to recuperate. I still get the headaches but the fatigue is less. I would really prefer to work solely nights.

I am not a psychiatric nurse not even a student. just an interest in it. and I don't feel you are lazy I think that you know your boundaries and are taking steps to take care of yourself.

You said that you get headaches and fatigue from work and recognize that. So you are taking a shift that better fits your needs to recuperate.

And that shows you have some good self awareness. Something needed in the field of nursing or other public/human service jobs.

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I did a long stretch of nights after my divorce. Two reasons. One, they were offering a 20% diff if you signed on for at least 6 months. The diff applied to any sick time, vacation, overtime, etc. Major money in my pocket!

The second reason is very unusual, I think. I noticed that I was making inappropriate decisions about my personal life, related to being lonely. I found it very hard to sleep alone at night. And that meant I didn't want to be alone at night. When I switched to working nights, I found that sleeping alone during the day didn't have that lonely feeling, as much. And my inappropriate, promiscuous behavior was greatly reduced.

So there are many reasons why people choose to do nights, and they are rarely due to laziness.

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I have never been lazy at night. I try to do extra which makes the dayshift run smoother. I doubt you are lazy either.

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I work 2nd shift in LTC as a CNA, and I completely prefer it that way. I work just as hard as anyone else, if not more so because I'm still brand new and trying to figure out the best routine. I never take a break, I don't eat, and the only time I sit down is when I'm feeding a resident.

I like the quiet (it seems quieter, anyway, than day shift), and it's more calm- assuming we have enough aides. I've just always been a night person. I hate getting up early, and seem to be most mentally clear in the evening hours. There are lazy people on every shift, but those working off hours probably get away with more.

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