Do the shifts at your hospital "get along"?

[jessi1106, BSN, RN]

I have been on my unit about 10 months now. :wink2:

I oriented on days, but now have a straight evening shift position. Several times I have stayed for half of the night shift when they were short.

For the most part our unit has pleasant, professional, nurses. For the most part we have good teamwork, and the nurses are really busy, and give excellent patient care.

Still, I notice that each shift tends to think that their own is the hardest, and the others are somehow slacking.

I hear comments about "days being lazy", "people leaving too much paper work" for the oncoming shift, etc.....Basically, there are nurses on each shift who complain about the other shifts not doing their jobs well. I don't think that the majority of this complaining is well founded.

Since I have worked all shifts (and most of us have at one point) I just don't get it.....I mean nursing is an endless job. Most of us work really hard with little time to eat/etc...What else can we do but the best we can and then pass the job on?

Although I am not getting involved in any of this gossip/mindset I still am am wondering...is this common? Are there rifts/tension between shifts at your work?

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

It's often that we see/hear that....and I personally try my best to get most of my work done before the next shift comes on...but there are things that grate on everyone's nerves:

Pt admitted at 4AM goes without meds until 6PM, because nobody on the day shift called to resume home meds with doctor.

Pts. have IV fluids running dry at exactly shift change.

Pts have NOT had any of their medications for pain since 8 hrs ago.

I mean some things happen, but I approach work with saying I control what I can control while I'm on the clock....and the rest of the time is mine....

[HRM672]

I think some of that is natural, but that it can quickly gain momentum and turn into a general drain on the unit's morale. Things like that happen in all jobs, including nursing.

I know right now you feel very new and so while you see the problem, you don't feel like part of the solution. But believe it or not, your point that you work both shifts is a great point, and you may find that people in your job are receptive to your comments. You might even find that if when comments like these start, if you are able to plant some seeds for the other side...point out positive experiences you have had or the things you have seen when working the other shift...that it puts a stop to the problem you have seen. I have been surprised at how quickly a "group mentality" takes over, and how easy it is to turn around. Especially if, as you say, in general you have a great group of nurses.

[Spatialized]

I don't generalize a whole shift, just particulars. There are always those nurses who you get a patient from that you dread. The patients are wet, IVs running dry, mountains of paperwork left to complete and meds to give. But that is why nursing is a 24 hour-a-day job. There is someone to pick up your slack. As the oncoming shift, you really don't have an idea about the previous shift. Sure they may be sitting down at the moment of report, but what if that was the first time all shift? I try to give the benefit of the doubt. But like I said above, there are some repeat offenders.

I'd like to think our shifts get along...maybe though I'm just deluded.

Cheers,

Tom

[ilstu99]

Yes....it happens here. I usually just offer something like, "Yeah, I heard s/he was really hopping today," or, "wow...they must have been busy!"

Maybe it's true...maybe it's not. Either way, I don't have to join in the gossip...and it might just remind someone that they have wacko days, too, when not everything gets done.

[imanedrn]

I have been on my unit about 10 months now. :wink2:

I oriented on days, but now have a straight evening shift position. Several times I have stayed for half of the night shift when they were short.

For the most part our unit has pleasant, professional, nurses. For the most part we have good teamwork, and the nurses are really busy, and give excellent patient care.

Still, I notice that each shift tends to think that their own is the hardest, and the others are somehow slacking.

I hear comments about "days being lazy", "people leaving too much paper work" for the oncoming shift, etc.....Basically, there are nurses on each shift who complain about the other shifts not doing their jobs well. I don't think that the majority of this complaining is well founded.

Since I have worked all shifts (and most of us have at one point) I just don't get it.....I mean nursing is an endless job. Most of us work really hard with little time to eat/etc...What else can we do but the best we can and then pass the job on?

Although I am not getting involved in any of this gossip/mindset I still am am wondering...is this common? Are there rifts/tension between shifts at your work?

There's very little tension at my work place. As I posted on another thread, most night nurses at my hospital will say (without a second thought) that it's way easier than days. Most of those people also have worked days before, so they have a firm base of comparison. Most of the people who say days & nights are equally hard have only worked nights.

There are a handful of people on nights who will balk if things are left undone. Most of the others realize that the day shift is uber busy keeping up w/ multiple med passes, baths, linen changes, meals, procedures, orders, docs, etc. and are willing to do a dressing change or whatever, if we don't get around to it.

Also, I'm a new grad, started on days and have never worked nights, so I don't have a base of comparison either.

[ayla2004, ASN, RN]

Althouh this idea doesn't exist in that states from what i've read in the UK we don't have fixed early, late and nights and most nurses have a good idea of the plus and minus of each shift know that there can be slack periods but mainly frantic ones