First time working night shifts - advice?

[kubelkabondy, ADN, RN]

I just accepted a 0.6 FTE CNA float position at a local hospital. My shift will be 7:00 PM-7:00 AM. It will be my first time working in a hospital, working night shifts, working 12-hour shifts, and working while in nursing school full-time so it's a lot of firsts for me!

However my only major concern right now is how plan my sleep schedule so that it's not too crazy and erratic. I have classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so I've requested not to be scheduled on Monday and Tuesday nights. 

Other than that, I could be scheduled any day of the week. I don't mind sleeping during the day on the two days after I work night shifts but other than that, I want to be on a daytime schedule. I don't know how to make this work. Advice? Thank you.

[amoLucia]

***** Make sure 100% that your family is on-board with your sleep/activity schedule. They freq become a major block, esp in the beginning. They just don't understand your needs, altho they usually do come around eventually.

You are your PRIORITY, your health & school. Keep that focus.

Good luck to you.

[DavidFR, BSN, MSN, RN]

Lots of threads on night shift here if you search. 

Quick tips: no tea or coffee after 4am when you're on shift. Always empty your bladder before going to bed in the morning. No screen light in the bedroom (phone, computer, TV etc.) Dark blackout curtains or blinds. Eyeshield and earplugs if necessary. On that last morning coming off force yourself to get up at lunchtime so you'll sleep that night.

Melatonin works for many people, or a glass of wine before bed (it's YOUR evening even if it's actually morning, nothing wrong with that!) I would personally advise against getting into Xanax, Imovane etc. While Melatonin is natural and non-habit forming, real sleeping tablets have a short lived effect and people and up taking more and more.  

Good luck!

[Nunya, BSN]

On 12/26/2020 at 4:24 PM, amoLucia said:

***** Make sure 100% that your family is on-board with your sleep/activity schedule. They freq become a major block, esp in the beginning. They just don't understand your needs, altho they usually do come around eventually.

You are your PRIORITY, your health & school. Keep that focus.

Good luck to you.

And not just family but friends too. They'll forget you're working nights, or they just won't care.  My suggestion is to turn your phone off, including text notifications.  If there's somebody who you must keep in contact with, 1-2 people max,  I suggest you get a cheap tracphone or something similar, give the number ONLY to them, tell them not to give it to anyone else, and tell them it's only for emergencies....hospitalization that's life threatening or imminent death.  Cuz otherwise you're going to have people calling/texting all the time.  Good luck.

[amoLucia]

Nunya - excellent advice.

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

I've been on nights about three and a half years and you've gotten some good advice here. I keep a regular day schedule on my days off, in order to keep up with family stuff. I usually get home around 8-8:30am and I try to be asleep by 9am and sleep until about 2pm. Blackout curtains, weighted blanket, brown noise on Youtube. Melatonin has helped me, although I don't always remember to take it. I don't eat overnight while at work, I generally fast from 6pm until I get up at 2pm, that helps me to sleep. 

You'll find what works best for you. Good luck! Nights is a great place to get started in the hospital. You will have a better chance of having time to read through reports and results to get a feel for what's going on with your patients. There are less interruptions with MDs, ancillary staff and family members. There's also a greater level of autonomy because there are less staff members available to help. I find that night staff usually work together quite well and can have more of a collaborative feel because day staff can get so busy that they can't help each other as easily.  

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

On 12/26/2020 at 11:04 PM, Nunya said:

And not just family but friends too.  They'll forget you're working nights, or they just won't care.  My suggestion is to turn your phone off, including text notifications.  If there's somebody who you must keep in contact with, 1-2 people max,  I suggest you get a cheap tracphone or something similar, give the number ONLY to them, tell them not to give it to anyone else, and tell them it's only for emergencies....hospitalization that's life threatening or imminent death.  Cuz otherwise you're going to have people calling/texting all the time.  Good luck.

Great advice about the phone.   Another option if your phone supports it is set it to "do not disturb" and make a custom setting that will allow important calls to come through. My Samsung phone has a custom do not disturb setting that always allows calls/texts from "favorite contacts only." Then I set my favorite contacts to only my immediate family who knew not to call unless it truly was an emergency.   I'd imagine all modern phones have a similar setting baked in.  There's also plenty of third party apps both for android and iPhone that do the same with varying degrees of success and cost. 

I still keep this setting enabled now that I work days since my problem became needing to go to bed earlier than most of my night owl friends so it prevents unwanted calls late at night.