Embracing Night Shift

Nurses General Nursing

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Before having a child you couldn't pay me to do nights. I have done nights in the past and always despised them. Well, now I'm a new mommy and in order to avoid child care I went to nights part time. So instead if whimpering and complaining I've decided to embrace nights , since this is my new normal. Here are the pros I'm ever so grateful for:

- Not having to place my baby in daycare. Yes, I rarely get sleep but I have a peace of mind

-Shift diff . Enough said

-No visitors after 830pm

-No managers, or any other persons that typically pluck my nerves in day shift

-Working two 12 hour nights really isn't that bad. I spread my out.

-It goes by pretty fast most of the time

-Weekends are split. Which means I don't have to work sat and sunday like I did on days. I can work fri and sat but split up( friday one week and Saturday another week).

The list goes on. Its honestly not that bad.

Subbing, I'm a student coming to terms with the fact that I most likely will be working nights.

I'm not a night owl naturally, but the more I read stuff like this the more I think it will work out the best in the long run. I like autonomy and dislike crowds. Don't like feeling super rushed all the time. At first I thought it would make it so I'd never see my husband, but he is a teacher so like the people that sleep while the kids are at school, I can sleep while he is. So, I'm learning to look forward to it :)

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Specializes in LTC, med/surg, hospice.

Nights are awesome and have allowed me to be very present for my kiddies. I don't think I would have survived hospice, LTC med/surg or any other acute care nursing if not for night shift. That said it is starting to catch up with me and I'm looking for an 8-4:30 gig for a change of pace.

The one thing that never got better all the years of nights is the morning drive home.

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Have worked nights for most of my adult career and LOVE it! When I work days it is overwhelming how full the hospital is. Plus there are far too many indians competing for chief so, the atmosphere is "off" to me. Nights are much more relaxed and the shift is a more tight knit group (with the occasional sore thumb, but eh, nothing's perfect)!

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Specializes in hospice.

The one thing that never got better all the years of nights is the morning drive home.

Amen. The days I really worry are the ones when I end up slapping myself in the face!

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The one thing that never got better all the years of nights is the morning drive home.

I guess I'm the opposite. I can be fighting to stay awake all night, but the second I walk out the door and get in my car, I am wide awake!

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Specializes in ICU.

I worked full-time 12-hr days for about 9 years before I graduated nursing school and got my current job. At the time, I knew in the back of my mind that I was going to be working nights for a while, but I was POSITIVE that I would hate it. After a few months, I grew to love it, and in fact have passed up several opportunities recently to move to full-time days. As a result, many people with less experience/seniority than me have accepted day jobs, and they think I'm crazy for passing up the chances, but I don't care. I worked ONE day shift about a month ago as a favor to my manager, and by 0815, I thought my colleagues were going to find me hiding in the med room curled up in the fetal position and sucking my thumb. Too much noise, too much light, WAY too many people. It resulted in the worst migraine I've had in about 6 months. Thus, I am a devoted night shifter, at least for the time being.

Maybe when I have a job that I truly love (i.e. not the one I have now) I will consider moving back to days. I don't mean this to say that I don't love what I do, but my current patient population is very exhausting in more ways that one, and while my fellow night owls are amazing, the management is less than supportive.

I think that if I had human kids, I might feel a little differently about working nights all the time, but my husband is mostly supportive of my decision to stay on nights. My dogs are pretty much OK with whatever...Mom sleeping during the day and Dad sleeping at night means twice as much snuggle time for them! I feel like my extended family could be a little more supportive of my decision, but even if I was on days, I would still have to pull a fair number of weekend shifts, and many of them don't get that my job doesn't just exist Monday thru Friday. There's also the thing where I can't just "take a day off" because they decide to plan something next weekend. I've had to learn to let that go and accept that I'm going to miss a lot of family stuff because of my career choice.

Wow, I can get long-winded in the middle of the night!

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Specializes in Tele, OB, public health.

shhhhh!!! Don't let on how awesome nights are.....We'll start to have too much competition for these positions! ;)

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Specializes in Neonatal.

With a small child, one on the way, and a husband who's willing to stay at home/finish his education (I don't envy his job!), I couldn't imagine doing anything but nights. Fortunately, under normal circumstances I function best w/ 6 hours of sleep. This leaves me with plenty of family time before heading to work. Knowing I'm not missing much while I'm at work and the fact that if anything happens at home during the day, I'm upstairs sleeping is absolutely priceless. However, I'm fully aware of burnout and many of my colleagues of 5+ years are starting to say they've reached their limit. Of course there are plenty of veteran NOC nurses on my unit, and while I wont write off day shift completely once my youngest little is in school, for now nights is where it's at!

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Specializes in ICU.

LOVE LOVE LOVE. All of the above.

I, too, have a baby. 8 month old precious minion. I am 0.6 so I work three 8's, but transferring to ICU next month. I am a zombie most days, but I love spending time with my little one.

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The one thing that never got better all the years of nights is the morning drive home.

I'm the odd one..I don't ever have to fight to stay awake during the shift or the ride home..but man oh man! driving INTO work is a rough one for me.

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I worked Nights for many years. It was mostly very good, for the reasons others have stated. It did mess me up physically after a while, despite generally being great. Toward the end, I would find myself waking up at the desk, having had no intention of falling asleep. That was scary, so I had to go to a different shift.

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I am starting my first RN job on the night shift and am happy to read all these positives ! Thanks1

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