7p - 7am Shift

Nurses General Nursing

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THIS IS A VENT SESSION FOR ME, SO IF NO-ONE WANTS TO READ ON, I WILL UNDERSTAND :)

I HAVE ONLY BEEN A NURSE FOR 7 MONTHS.......AND I ALL READY FEEL BURNT OUT......I WORK AT A NURSING HOME, (WHICH I LOVE, WORK- PART TIME) AND I ALSO WORK ON THE CARDIAC UNIT AT ONE OF THE LOCAL HOSPITALS IN MY AREA.....BUT I AM TIRED OF FINISHING UP CRAP FROM THE 1ST HALF OF THE 3-11 SHIFT, THAT THE PREVIOUS NURSE JUST SO HAPPENED NOT TO GET DONE...........I STILL HAVE MY MEDS TO PASS, MY CHARTING TO DO......MY TX THAT NEED TO GET DONE......DR'S TO CALL.........I AM JUST SICK AND TIRED OF FRICKING ATTITUDES......SOME OF THE NURSES I WORK WITH ARE FANTASTIC..........AND SOME I WORK WITH HAVE NEVER DONE HOSPITAL WORK, AND ARE CLUELESS AS TO CERTAIN PROCEDURES....I.E. TRACH CARE........SUCTIONING....ETC........I HAVE ONE NURSE TELL ME THAT I SHOULD USE AMERICAN TIME, AND NOT BRITISH TIME ( I AM ORIGINALLY FROM LONDON).......FOR HEAVENS SAKE I HAVE BEEN USING MILITARY TIME, THAT AS FAR AS I REMEMBER IS USED WORLD WIDE............AND HAS BEEN FOR MANY YEARS :)

THANK YOU ALL FOR LETTING ME VENT........I FEEL SOME WHAT BETTER :):):):)

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Specializes in Interventional Pain Mgmt NP; Prior ICU and L/D RN.

GIRL DO I HEAR YOU!!!! ME AND MY MOST OF MY OTHER CO-WORKERS ARE ALWAY B*&CHING ABOUT THE SAME THING!!! How is it that (ex) blood ordered to be transfused at 10am is still waiting to be given when we come in at 1900?? Us night shift people are always hearing from the managment even that days is harder and the pt acuity is higher. That some things have to be left for nights b/c it is continuity of care!!!!!!!!!!????????? (please don't flame; I am speaking of my hospital only here!!)

I have worked dayshift here and there to fill holes or whatever on the same floor I am on now (5yrs) and I seem to be able to complete all the orders the doctors have written for the day...okay except for the ones written at 1830. My charting and pt care is completed etc....the day nurses b*tch and complain about having to draw blood one time during the day....S**t we have to draw a.m. labs on everyone!!!!!!!! EVERY MORNING!!! Why didn't they have time to rotate an IV during their 12 hour shift? And guess who get's wrote up if it isn't done by midnight of the 72hrs? You guessed it the night nurse!!! continuity of care my butt....GGGRRRRRRRRRR......you got me going, I better stop b/c I could go on and on!!!!!!

SIMPLY PUT....I AGREE!!!

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WOOHOOOOOOOOO!! I thought maybe i was being petty..that crap goes on @ my LTC too.aggravates the crap out of me... The nurses I work w/ are so eager to get out of there on time.. they forget the most important reason they are there

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I prefer night shift, the few days I worked I did get to take a break and lunch! Never on nights, you are lucky to pee once in 12 hrs. It seems that night shift gets to bring the patients to CT and MRI, put in the central lines, art lines. There is no ancillary staff to help out, we do our own blood draws, abg's, ekg's but somehow get it all done. I would rather not deal with all the administrators and crazy families, I just love when the last visiting hours are over so we can get to work uninterrupted.

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I work both shifts and can see both sides. I agree some day shifters use their position to shift work to nights...but many do not. Guess it's individual. Day shift has more crapola to deal with in the form of administrators, docs, CM's, meetings, families, etc. :(

Also love my night shifts best...fewer suits around means fewer hassles. ;)

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

I know you're just venting. Vent away. We all feel the same way from time to time.

We are always picking up after the day shift. Then as a charge nurse, I get the complaints from the day shift about the night shift.

It's an age old situation where ever you work and whatever field you are in. (When I worked nights at Pizza Hut during nursing school we did the same thing).

Everyone's stressed, every shift works hard. There are b*tches on all shifts.

Vent away! I definately feel your pain.

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I work 7a-7p and I get dumped on a lot by the night shift. It seems that a lot of nurses seem to think that problems can wait until the docs make morning rounds rather than deal with it right away. I think that any shift you work there are those who try to get everything done and there are those perfectly happy to let someone else drown in their messes. So vent away!

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Specializes in jack of all trades, master of none.

What ticks me off is when nocs c/o about how busy they are, but you can find bubblers RARELY changed when they are supposed to be, or when you have the A/O x3 residents who are pretty much on their own, tell you that alot of time, they find staff members sleeping & say" No wonder my roommate stinks." Pretty sad when that happens on a regular basis.

Thank God I am out of that craphole!!!

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American time? American time????

Everybody I know here in Maryland hospitals, and most colleges use the 24-hour clock, aka military time. It's far more precise. Same reason we use metric to measure meds.

Never heard it called American time.

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Originally posted by TracyB,RN

What ticks me off is when nocs c/o about how busy they are, but you can find bubblers RARELY changed when they are supposed to be, or when you have the A/O x3 residents who are pretty much on their own, tell you that alot of time, they find staff members sleeping & say" No wonder my roommate stinks." Pretty sad when that happens on a regular basis.

Thank God I am out of that craphole!!!

That is pretty sad, I agree. I think that it's not the shift but the employees and management that tends to make places "crapholes".......I work 3pm until 7am and there are many times when the md callboard is loaded and I wonder why weren't they or atleast most of them taken care of on day shift? What I have learned is that it varied depending on which unit I was on. That boiled down to individuals, some who didn't follow through and just keep adding "problems" to the callboard and then there are those who have the callboard all cleared up by the time their relief gets there. Ofcouse there are those times when the day is just so crazy that you can understand why issues weren't addressed. The bottom line is that day shift has more help therefore they shouldn't pass on alot to the evening/night shift.

As for the night shift, atleast where I am, we are busy at night. Granted we don't have a large med pass(until 6 am)but we do all the consults, labs, st. caths, treatments, 24hr chart checks(which many times we have to follow through on what the day shift didn't follow through with), then we reorder meds, restock. This is all on top of checking on our pts(some of which are up every 20 min or so,lol), do resp/urinary assessments and I'm sure other things that I can't think of right now. So, we are busy, and God help us if we have a pt go "bad" or fall etc........

So, though there are always some who shouldn't be on nights period, it doesn't mean that all who work nights are lazy and sleep etc..........

JUDE

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Thank you all for your great responses......I just love to come here and vent.....b/c I know I will get tons of feedback :)

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when i started working as an RN 15 yrs ago i was required to work all three shifts..at the time I hated it but i think it gave me a good insight as to what goes on for the three shifts....(3-11) can be absolutely crazy with admissions and the night shift can be just as nuts with new admissions that are shuffled up from the ER; I have had kids code on me with only 1 other RN or an LPN on the floor...you are pretty much on your own and dont have all the people around to help out like the dayshift...there are always nurses that will dump on the following shift and dont pull their fair share, and i think it has got worse since the nursing shortage..lots of inexperienced nurses that dont fully understand priorities...like hanging blood in a timely fashion etc......following through with orders that need to be initiated right away...I try to understand where they are coming from and talk to them about why it is important to get these things done right away instead of delaying it for hours!!!!! then there are some people that are just plain lazy...lol

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