Fed up of nights!

[MadJackie]

Sorry, this is a moan, and It'll go on for a while!

I work in Neuro ICU (in the UK), where obviously we have one to one nursing, plus a nurse in charge, day and night. Due to this, we have to work a lot of nights.

Full time staff work 40 hours a week, and we have to work 11 nights per 8 weeks, which I worked out to about 40% of our hours. Our night shifts are 8pm to 8am.

Thankfully, we self-roster for nights, so I try to spread them as much as possible. I hate doing more than 3 night shifts in a row, but will do 4 sometimes as I get depressed with it. So as a consequence, I am nights virtually every other week, sometimes 2 weeks in a row, with day shifts in between.

The trouble is, I am finding it harder and harder. When I finish my last night of a set in the morning at 8am, luckily I work not far from home, so home quickly and bed. I then get up about 1 - 1.30pm to try and turn myself around.

For the rest of the day, I am extremley tired, often have a headache that won't go and often nauseas - like having a hangover that lasts ALL day! Plus, I am a nasty, grumpy cow, who snaps at everything. My poor husband has to put up with me being so horrible and it isn't fair to him as he's so kind to me.

By bed time, I am utterly exhausted and fall in bed, and usually sleep for 11 to 12 hours and still have to drag myself out of bed. I am often tired for this day too. The day after that I am often back on days (lates 1230pm to 830pm or ealy shift 7.30am to 3.30pm or sometimes a long day 7.30am to 8.30pm). Either way, I am sometimes still tired. My days off after nights are just spent feeling ill and sleeping.

I wouldn't mind if this was once a month, but because this is so often, I am getting really down about feeling so ill, so often.

Now, don't get me wrong, I knew when I starting at University, I knew I would have to work nights when I qualified, but I didn't realise I'd be doing so many and how I would feel. I'm 34 next month, and can't see myself working so many nights in years to come.

I know I have a choice, I could work somewhere where I do less nights. But I like my job (mostly), it is interesting and stimulating. I have worked in a few different areas, I don't want to go back and work on the wards, and like the people I work with, as well as the job.

According to the EU Working Times Directive, amongst other things, night workers are entitled, by law, to free health checks. Now, we have an occupational health department, where I could go and have a medical. I know my mental and physical health is suffering.

The other problem is money. Nurses are not well paid in the UK (another issue), my take-home pay is about £1650 a month, which is about $3300-$3400 or so. Now a lot of this pay is made up by working unsocial hours. My nights earn me about £200 to £250-ish a month ($400-$550). So, as you can appreciate, I would be losing a lot! Something we could just about afford, but not easily and only just. But I would probably be working more weekends, so might make up a little of that.

End of the day, what price is my health?

I just don't know what to do. I know you probably won't be able to come up with a solution, but it's nice to have a moan to other people who truly know what it is like working nights.

Thanks for reading my moan!

[psalm, RN]

Would it be possible to work nights always? Hear me out, okay?!

All the flopping and switching back and forth of day and night shift is very wearing on the body and mental health and relationships, as you have found out. I work 8 hour shifts, 11p-7a. By choice. It is an adjustment...but I can deal with it if I keep my normal night-shift sleep schedule. I work part-time, but most of my co-workers work the 12 hour night shift, 7p-7a.

Hoping it works out for you. Hugs.

[snowfreeze, BSN, RN]

Try working all your night requirements in a row, that way you can sleep daytime and work nights. Yes your social life will be non-existant but you will get your hours in and be back to normal for the next week.

I could never do the switch back and forth with days and nights like you are trying to do.

[pugluvr310]

While I don't have any suggestions I can sympathize with you. I just started working nights, and it totally kills your routine. I'm just a tech/CNA and I'm still in nursing school so that makes it hard going from work to school to bed then back to work. I completely understand what you said about the hungover feeling too. It totally ruins your day! You're lazy and feel crummy so all you do is hang around the house when you should be cleaning or grocery shopping or doing laundry or anything more productive than being a bum. I just started a few weeks ago, and it is already putting a strain on my relationships too. never get to see my husband, then the few days i do have off i have to try to get all the housework, and errands done that i hadn't finished during the week, plus make time for friends and family. Everyone told me that it was going to be tough and be an adjustment, and I'm willing to deal with it for a few years, but I don't know how long I'll truthfully be able to last.

*sigh*

Okay, I feel better.

Sorry I couldn't offer any suggestions, just wanted to join in the moaning. :) I hope everything works out well for you. :heartbeat

[joolia]

You are putting unnecessary strain on your body and your mind by trying to force yourself to switch back and forth between working days and nights in the same week! No wonder you are feeling horrible! I think a much better idea would be to ask about working all nights. As one of the other poster's mentioned, it will allow your body to readjust its circadian rhythm to sleeping during the day and working at night. Once your body gets in the grove, you wil;l feel 1000x better!!! Or, if you do have to work some days during the month, try to set up your schedule so you work all nights for 2 weeks, then all days for two weeks.

I don't know your situation, but I have a feeling you might be trying to alternate your nights/days so that your schedule will coincide more with your hubby's. But, if you are sleeping and/or feeling hungover and grouchy whenever you two are together, that's not really a quality of relationship. Better to see each other less often, but be feeling 100% during that time.

I'm working nights/weekends right now as a CNA, while DBF works M-F 9-5. I means we have to get a little creative about scheduling time to see each other, but we make it work. Getting together between the time he gets home from work and I have to leave to make me 11-7 shift seems to work the best for us.

[MadJackie]

I have thought of many different ways around doing nights. I can appreciate what you are saying about going from nights to days and back, and trying to do them all at once. That would mean me doing 7 nights (7 days off we then get), then doing another 4 another time. Yes, there would be less day to night switching, but I don't think I could face doing 7 nights all at once. I find doing 4 a killer and depressing, but I can manage it. It IS something I am considering, but I wouldn't see hubby (or anyone) for 7 days and I would get very lonely and very tired as our nights are 12 hours. He does shifts (no nights) and on some weeks, I would not see him at all. Incidentally, I don't really work my nights/days around him. Plus, "they" don't like more than one person doing 7 nights at once, for reasons I cannot fathom.

I have also considered doing permanent nights, but the management don't like it unless you have child care issues. Also, I think my social life would suffer more, plus I would still have to switch to days each week in order to live a normal life.

Thanks for the suggestions anyway, it is much appreciated. Also thanks for listening to me moan. Half of me wanted just to moan! The other half was wanting someone to think of a miracle cure for it! :nuke:

[MadJackie]

I have literally JUST thought of an idea when I submitted the last reply!

It is a sort of adaption to your idea, Joolia of doing two weeks of nights, then two weeks of days. I suppose I could have a couple of days rest between the two sets of the two weeks of nights - not enough to try and turn around too much, but just enough to have a bit of a rest. I might try that one!

Say four nights tues, weds, thurs, fri. Have Sat Sun off, sleep all day Saturday, go to bed late, then three or even four nights mond, tues weds, maybe thurs! That would get 7 or 8 out of the way in 2 weeks, with only 3 or 4 left to take another time!

I am going to try that one in the next schedule!!! Thanks for the inspiration. xx

[RN1989]

Good luck! I had to give up nights. Was tired of being sick all the time and not being able to sleep no matter what.

[MadJackie]

Thanks RN. xx

[MB37]

I can't wait to get start working (I graduate in a few weeks), and I'm looking forward to finally getting my normal schedule back of working nights - I've never had to be anywhere before 10 am before nursing school (and I'm 29), and almost all of my previous job history has involved getting off work at some point in the am. Days make me crazy, I get no sleep, and I've been a miserable zombie for the last year and a half of NS. But that's just me. I can't believe your hospital forces people to alternate shifts - is that standard in the UK? It makes so much more sense to me to simply hire people for either day or night positions, to allow them to achieve some sense of normalcy in their lives.

Your last suggestion is the closest to what I would recommend. Don't try to work all of your nights shifts actually in a row, but do schedule them all at once - i.e. work your 11 nights, with as many days off mixed in as you need, all together at the beginning of each 8 week cycle. Then take a few days off and work your days for the remainder of the period. Do something like nights MTW, off TF, night SaSu, off MTW, night TFSa, off SuM, night TWT, off til next M, then back on days. All 11 night shifts are over in 3 weeks, with several days off for you to recuperate. You can run necessary errands on your way home from work, then crash until mid-afternoon on days you have to come back again that night. Get up, eat, go back to work. After your 2-3 in a row, go right to bed when you get home. Sleep for 4-6 hours, then get up, allow yourself a recuperation day, and go to bed when you're tired. Don't try to get up at 7 am on your off days, it's too much of a switch. It's not to hard to get up at 11 or 12 though when you're on the night part of your cycle. My night shift experience isn't in nursing yet, but I'm looking forward to getting back on them. It actually gives me more time with my husband than days - he works 11a-7p, so if I have to be at work at 7a, I go to bed a couple hours after he comes home from work.

[MadJackie]

Think that is what I'm going to try, thanks MB.

Switching from nights to days is not standard as such, but we self-roster and I have been trying to find the easiest way around doing nights. Also, we only have a couple of nights workers, not enough to cover many really. I think I am going to try doing 3 weeks in a row, with a few days off in-between. Thinking of doing something like:

Week One: Mo, Tu, We, Th

Week Two: Fri, Sat, Sun (gives me a week off between).

Week Three: Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat

Or Something like that anyway.

Thanks for listening to me moan!

[Sandwitch883RN]

I can sympathize with you. I absolutely HATE night shift. I too feel sick from working nights. I have that hung over headache, nauseaous feel....and my poor family. I feel like I'm doing okay after working a few nights then I become a miserable human being. I hate life, cant stand anyone and have no tolerance for anything. The money isnt worth it. BTW...the cost of living in the UK must be much higher than where I am in the states because if you dont think you make much money, you would cry if you saw my paycheck. I make almost half of what you make full time!