Eves or Day/Night???

Momma1RN, MSN, RN, APRN · Apr 30, 2015

I started out on evenings, 32 hours/week when I went back to work after having my son. It was horrible. I was exhausted all the time, never saw my husband and we ended up in counseling because of it. He works M-F 8-5 so it definitely took away from family time. I work 7a-7p now and find it much easier to balance work/life. What is your childcare situation? Are there any available positions for days? I'm not familiar with the day/night rotation that you're speaking of.... what is it all about?

Mom2boysRN · Apr 30, 2015

I used to work 2-1030, it was also a .7. With school age kids it was awful, I felt like I never saw the kids and it was terrible. I of course missed my husband also, but it was not seeing my kids that KILLED me. With young kids if you can find a babysitter for a couple of hours per day it will save you on childcare, assuming your husband works a day job, plus you won't have to adjust back to a day schedule when you work nights. By the time your kids are in school you should be able to transfer to a day position (hopefully).

annag23 · Apr 30, 2015

it would be f/s/sun nights and then 4 day shifts during the week. everyone says its awful so im scared to do it but i can see my husbands point of view also

annag23 · Apr 30, 2015

my goal is to get onto day shift when the kids get into school but right now I would be home with them until 2ish and then my husband would get home around 6. im not sure i could function doing a day/night rotation but my husband is just not getting the logic behind it

DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN · May 1, 2015

I think everyone's situation is different. I work 1900-0630 three days a week. I am a wife and mother to three teenagers. Me working NOC shift works for us, partly because of the age of my kids. My teenagers (19,17,14) have their own lives, college/highschool classes and activities. The best part of me working is nights is that there is ALWAYS a parent home.

As far as my relationship with my husband goes, its great. He is an early to bed kind of guy anyway and is asleep by 2100. Sometimes if he is working on a project that has overtime he works 0600-1800 so I may go three days without seeing him, but then I have four days off to reconnect with my family.

Also, I am a trainer on my unit and nights is a great place to learn without managers, administration (too much) family around. It is invaluable experience. I would suggest maybe giving it a try?

MatrixRn · May 1, 2015

it would be f/s/sun nights and then 4 day shifts during the week. everyone says its awful so im scared to do it but i can see my husbands point of view also

A day/night rotation can be brutal. I am not understanding this rotation. Would you work 4 days per week....one week day and then Fri/Sat/Sun NOC and the Next week work 4 week days? If so that is very doable. You are only swapping every other week.

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · May 1, 2015

As a new grad, I worked 0.8, PM/noc rotation. The shift changed very week--1 week PMs, 1 week nocs, etc. It was HORRIBLE. I don't like rotating myself anyway--I'd rather work straight nocs. But changing shifts every week was so hard. Where I work now, rotating shifts change monthly. So if you did the rotation, you'd be on nights on your weekend and PMs during the week? So if it's your weekend to work, you'l work both shifts in the span of one week? It's absolute havoc on the body. I can't stress enough the importance of NOT switching shifts too often.

Straight evenings is tough for family life, if your husband works typical office hours. Personally I'd never do eves with kids in school if I had to work FT. Right now I'm half time straight PMs, and for us it's working better than nocs did becuase of sleeping at a somewhat normal time.

Clear as mud? Both options have their benefits and difficulties, and every family is different.