ALL nights or day/night MIX shift to pick? HELP! need to reply to recruiter!

SCSTxRN · Feb 11, 2012

I currently work mix and I am just waiting for an all night line to open up. Nights. Definitely.

CHavez92 · Feb 15, 2012

Take all nights. Because days and nights are going to kill your body have you sleepy and tired the whole day at work but to be for real you might just be a zombie at the end of the day you will never have a chance to sleep. But on the other hand, all nights are difficult to but once you keep the rotation and vibe going you will be a much succesful person in all nights than you"ll be days and night. That way you wil have the chance to sleep and have time to do some personal things. Your boss is going to put a tough schedule on as soon as you hit the clock so get your rest and cut out on the partying, and get ready for the next morning.

All nights during work time is good so that you can follow the regulaur basis so on your days off you want be in zombie mode. My vote straight nights.!!!!!

Tryptophan · Feb 16, 2012

Go with straight nights. I was hired for a day/night rotation and it wasn't pleasant. I recently switched over to straight nights and it has been good.

annacat · Feb 19, 2012

I worked day/night rotation for 2 years. It was very difficult. But I think that day shift teaches a new nurse a lot!

Day shift is when the doctors round, family members visit, patients are sent to surgery... and lots more.

If you can handle it for a couple of years you will learn a lot. You are also more likely to obtain a full time day rotation if you have day experience!

I was 36 when I graduated and got my first RN job. After 2 years of day/night rotation I had to stop because it was really affecting my physical health and mental state. I have heard that it is not so hard on the body/mind when you are younger.

I now work in an out patient center with full time day shift and not weekends or hollidays. :)

My experience with night shift is that it is not as supervised. This can be a good thing for people who don't want management on their backs but as a new RN you should want to be supervised well. On my unit mistakes and unprofessional behavior were much less likely to be corrected on night shift. Most of the strictly night RN's were excellent and very experienced but there was a contingent who liked to find a dark corner and go to sleep for a few hours or hang out on facebook, these people were horrible to work with and not very strong in their nursing skills, I remember one such RN who began to perform CPR on a patient who was breathing and had a pulse! Imagine being a new nurse and trying to learn from people like this!

If you do choose to do all nights try to stay in touch with your management and actively stay involved in learning skills and understanding what goes on during day shift. Find the experienced competent RN's on night shift and learn from them. And try not to be one of those night nurses who leaves a lot of work for day shift.

I wish you good luck and great success with your new career path!

jetsh, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN, NP · Feb 22, 2012

Sorry to send mixed messages but I definitely vote for a mix! You'll get much better experience as a new grad on days, and you want the first scary situations you're in to be on days with plenty of people around to help out. My unit doesn't even let new grads do permanent nights until they've been there for at least six months, sometimes longer. Personally I think no matter what your schedule, you'll flip-flop a bit -- it's worth it to get the day shift experience. You'll see different things, get to participate in rounds, learn more about the various procedures...

That's my vote! I'm on permanent evenings now (3-11) and I hate nights so it works for me, but I'm really glad I did day/night for 1.5 years before settling into this. I saw a lot.

Good luck! Congrats on getting a job!

joanna73, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2012

I don't know how people manage to flip. I'm on permanent nights. I was on vacation last week, so naturally, I was up early every day to make the most of it. No issue there, since I had a reason to be up. Well, it's taken me almost 3 days to transition back to staying up at night. My point? This has been very exhausting, and I can't imagine having to do a mix. It's either permanent nights/ evenings or permanent days for me. The flipping is definitely out of the question. To each his own, of course....but I think the mix is never easy to adjust to. When do you sleep?

sckrawczyk · Feb 25, 2012

I currently work per diem, 12-hr shifts, and I work either days or nights, depending on my employer's needs. I rarely have a week that I don't work day and night shifts.

There are benefits to day shift, i.e. it doesn't mess up your body's internal clock, and you don't lose days to having to sleep either in preparation for or after a night shift.

Of course, night shift has its benefits, too, i.e. it is often quieter, way less non-nursing staff running in and out and making everything much busier, usually less meds to pass, blood sugars to check, etc. But it does impact your body clock and your regular life. Unless your family and all your friends are night shift workers, you're going to want to get back to a normal schedule on your off days.

If you can work either all day shifts or all night shifts, that's what I'd recommend. If you do opt for night shifts, I'd try to get them all in a row, if you're doing 12-hr shifts. That way you don't have to try to flip back and forth multiple times in a week.

Good luck to you!

bunsterj · Feb 26, 2012

ALSO, was talking with my mother about this and she was concerned about the safety from leaving work at 3am (IF that was an 8hr shift) but I guess that is another story... I'll bring a pepper spray i guess hahaa!
The hospital I worked at when I was working PMs or nights was fairly large, and we had a rather large security team; they would patrol the employee parking lots and garage when PMs got off and when nights would arrive. If you worked overtime on PMs, you left by way of ER and security would be called and give you an escort to your car. In my 5 years working there, I'm not aware of any incident involving an employee in the parking areas.

marie-therese · Feb 26, 2012

Hi newgradRN8,

The first few shifts are always the hardest to adjust to, since it'll be a new environment for you, totally different from the times when you were just a trainee. In my opinion, it's best for you at least the first 6 months to take day/night mix shift eventhough it's annoying regarding the sleep adjustments, but you'll have chance to learn more and see what goes on during a day shift and a night shift, in this way you will gain more experience and later on if you want to shift to an All night duty it'll be up to you coz in this way you'll know the cons and pros of different shifts.

Good luck!

:)

SummitRN, BSN, RN · Feb 28, 2012

rotating shifts should be illegal for patient safety and provider health reasons.

irish_fiddler747 · Mar 2, 2012

I guess I'm one of the few people to not vote all-nights, but at this point in my career (I've only been off orientation 4 months) I am enjoying rotating -- as long as I have a few days to switch back to days! (days to nights is easier). I work 3 weeks days/3 weeks nights and back. I don't like how nights messes with your body clock because I like to have a "normal" schedule on my days off even when I'm on nights. But I like the atmosphere of working on nights -- it's actually CALM sometimes and you're not running around like a madman for 12 hours every shift. But on day shift you get the experience of interacting with PT/OT/speech/more doctors, are able to do more patient education (sometimes) and get to be awake when the sun is up. Day shift is always crazy though. So for now I'm happy rotating - don't necessarily want to do it for the rest of my career though.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Mar 3, 2012

Not everyone likes days though. The atmosphere doesn't bother me, but I hate waking up early and going to bed early. I think it varies widely.