Do Day Nurses Really Feel that Night Nurses Do Nothing All Night?

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Do day shift nurses feel that night shift nurses have nothing to do?

    • 30
      Night nurses do nothing all night but twiddle their thumbs and drink coffee.
    • 249
      Night nurses work once in a while.
    • 740
      Night nurses work very hard.

649 members have participated

Having worked the 12 hour night shift in many hospitals I find the same things. Day shift nurses leave us so much work to do that we're playing catch up all night. We start off 2 hours behind because we're finishing things left over from the day shift. I've had times when I'm still giving 9pm meds at almost midnite because things were so screwed up starting out. Then we have to do our night shift paperwork and deal with the patients who do NOT "sleep all night". Part of the night shift paperwork involves getting things proper and ready for the day shift to use. And I swear if something gets missed by us we WILL hear about it. It really burns my butt when they come in in the morning complaining about what the night shift didn't do because we ask their secretary to make a call or two for a consult. BUT it's ok for the day shift to pass things to us because it's a "24 hour care hospital". I'm just curious. How many day nurses out there believe that the night nurses should be able to do it all because we have nothing to do anyway?

This computer thing makes spelling and grammar errors sometimes...hit the worng key..(see..that was an accident.would have missed it if I hadn't had to answer the door and then come back to the keyboard)...WRONG key....type too fast..it is just too easy to mess up with these things!

Often in report I hear the night shift telling days that patient or room so n so was bathed on thier shift. Ever overhear any day shift ever tell nights who was bathed?

Originally posted by ARIOSRN

NURSING IS 24/7. THAT IS A FRAISE THAT I HAVE TRUELY LEARNED TO HATE. WHY?, BECAUSE IT IS AN EXCUSE THAT ONLY SEEMS VALID WHEN USED BY DAY SHIFT. NIGHTS WORKS JUST AS HARD WITH NO SUPPORT STAFF. DAY SHIFT HAS TECHS, NIGHT SHIFT DOES NOT. DAY SHIFT RN'S DO NOT DO BATHS, NIGHT SHIFT RN'S HAVE TO DO ONE TO MAKE THE TECHS JOB ON DAYS EISIER. WE GET WRITTEN UP FOR FORGETING A WEIGHT, THEY CAN DUMP A 10 HOUR OLD TRANSFUSION ORDER OFF ON US, AND THE ANSWER WE GET WHEN WE COMPLAIN TO MNGMT IS NURSING IS 24/7. I DON'T MIND PICKING UP THE SLACK WHEN IT IS BUSY, BUT IT NEEDS TO GO BOTH WAYS. IF SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE LEFT BOTH SHIFTS SHOULD BE FLEXIBLE ENOUGH DO WAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. AND MGMT NEEDS TO SUPPORT THAT. WE WORK JUST AS HARD ON NIGHTS AND DESERVE THE RESPECT DAY SHIFT AWARDS THEMSEVES.

ARIOSRN, I agree with what you said wholeheartedly, especially about those blood transfusion orders. And I don't care about your spelling, I care about what you're saying.

I think that because a few lazy bad apples on night shift DO exist, the rest of us put up with the' lazy night shift' label. :(

Management LOVES to foster resentment between shifts....'divide and conquer' ya know??....remember that next time you feel like slamming the opposite shift.

When I did swing shift there was very little hostility between shifts because we all knew the pros and cons of the various shifts. We didn't have the turf wars and resentment I see today.

I did nights mostly, but liked to come in and work with the day crew once every few weeks. It's good for everyone when we walk in one another's duty shoes occasionally. :)

Can't stand dealing with all the suits that hang around on day shift....so if they can put up with THAT, I'll hang a unit of blood for them....no biggie. :)

Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

When I worked nights (which was most of the time), I worked my behind off! Now...there were other staff not working...but I worked! :chuckle

As a nurse who works both days and nights, I have to say that some days are more hectic and some things are left to the night shift . isnt this the ideal setting for TEAMWORK? As long as patients are properly cared for and all staff is treated with respect, nobody should be complaining. If anyone has a real problem---we all know the chain of command. Be Sweet.

Well I work 12 hours, ICU, we do the baths, and check the MAR, go on road trips due to the increased congestion on days. The day shift is to rotate ETT tape, change lines IV site dressings, sure theey get admissions, but this is a 24 hour facility and admissions come at all times. Very seldom do the night shift leave procedures or anything for the incoming shift, because nights work as a team. Days will leave orders, not having the time to change their lines, or rotate lines. It is always something, but they will be sitting around talking when we arrive at 1830.:imbar

Specializes in Oncology RN.
I think that because a few lazy bad apples on night shift DO exist, the rest of us put up with the' lazy night shift' label. :(

You forget...some lazy apples don't just exist on nights! :)

I've worked nights since high school, taking one year and working days. I hated it...people milling around the desk, having your patient come and go for tests, PT, etc, etc. AND...I gained a bunch of weight on days because the dayshift partook of 3 meals and grazed in between. It wasn't til I went back to nights that I dropped all the weight because I was running all the time...and we might have time for one meal break, and if so...its usually sneak a bite in between calls. We get patients in at night who have to have surgery in the morning...so we will be running to get them ready.

I'm not saying that night shift is harder, but it is definitely challenging in its own unique way. Sure, we have nights when people might actually sleep...but I know that there are days when the nurses are left at the desk twiddling their thumbs and drinking coffee. We have a couple nurses who leave junk for us because "we have time to do it"...hanging blood, giving meds, etc.

The common idea is that because normal people sleep, everyone else must sleep as well. If only that were true. People tend to lose their marbles more on nights, and they also tend to crash more on nights. I guess our only consolation that we get paid more...but after a while, that offers no comfort.

I've worked nights for about 90% per cent of my nursing career, exclusively in adult psych. At my previous job, we checked the MARs, checked orders, made sure everybody was up and dressed for breakfast, did vitals, tried our best to get patients to cooperate with labs, all the usual midnight stuff. We also got the bulk of the involuntary admissions. That was okay. Where I've been for the last 3+ years, we do all of the above plus set up and pass the morning meds, give report to the docs, take the patients out for smoke break, run the census, and have report taped by 0700! :angryfire So what do days do? About 95% of the discharges (how taxing is that?) and, 3 mornings a week, they have staffing. The techs and social workers do all the groups, with the exception of Med Ed (which they're trying to palm off on evenings), they have a ward clerk 5 days a week to do orders: I'll be dipped if I know what else they do. I'm not trying to perpetuate the "war between the shifts". Maybe it's just unique to my current place of employment (I hope so), but we've got a bunch of prima donnas on days. One of them carries a spiral notebook to keep a list of anything nights or evenings do to make their work more difficult, and we're hard-pressed to get anybody from another unit to float on days. Please, no flames. Are there any other night people out there who have or have had similar experiences? :confused:

Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.

:uhoh3:

...deal with the patients who do NOT "sleep all night"... And I swear if something gets missed by us we WILL hear about it.... /QUOTE]

:uhoh3:

I can definitely relate. I know this is an old thread, but when I read it I felt like venting. I have worked night shift on a med/surg floor for 13 months. Day shift does have a good number of surgicals come back on their shift, and they get pre-surgical admissions, but they only usually have 3-4 patients, and 3-4 patient care assistants most days. 2nd shift gets the most surgicals back, and they keep very busy, with a little less staffing than 1st gets. On our night shift, many of our patients need assistance to the bathroom, which can take a lot of time if they are an ortho, many patients need pain meds, etc. We usually have a patient load of 6-7 plus covering 2-4 patients for an LPN. We only have 1 aide, even if we have 30 patients. This means the aide is spread pretty thin and we do a lot of personal care and call light answering ourselves. I personally have found that having 6-7 primary patients with 2-4 covers to be too much patient load to really be able to give my patients the care they need. Sometimes I miss pt. complications because I am spread so thin, which I hate- but I guess we are all only human. There are nights that I can barely sit down, let alone "sit around drinking coffee" like day shift seems to think. It's really discouraging to have run my butt off all night trying to care for a team of 9-11 patients, just to have day shift come in and complain about what I didn't get done. :crying2:

Specializes in LTC, sub-acute, urology, gastro.

I've worked full time on all 3 shifts & can say from experience that lazy apples exist on ALL shifts, night shift nurses & their patients most definitely DON'T sleep all night & ALL shifts are busy in their own way...it drives me nuts when 7-3 co-workers start the "well you know the 3-11 or 11-7 doesn't do anything" story & the other 2 shifts start in with "that needs to be done on the 7-3 shift". Phones, fax machines, copiers & all other equipment still work on all shifts & nurses should be prepared to work also. At my job, it's usually a question of "passing the buck" to another shift. :rolleyes:

Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.
... the night shift IS the shift that gets dumped on. First of all we get treated as third class citizens. By this I mean that when it comes to any inservices or classes of any kind,the education department thinks 12-8 shift doesn't count... Days wants everything nice-nice when they come in so they can (and do) sit and have coffee and Dunkin Donuts. God forbid they had to do something when they first arrive. I know this because I'm still there an hour or so after 8am (for free)... Many mornings I drove home in tears just for DOING my job and doing all of the "extras'' they dump on you. Sometimes I wonder, "Is it all worth it?" I always thank the evening shift nurse when she leaves to go home at night..."I'll see you, drive safe and hey, thanks alot." When I leave and say, "Good bye everybody, have a nice day," No one utters a word. Just goes to show you how much you're appreciated. :o

I can relate to A LOT of this, since I work on nights in med-surg. *Mandatory* inservices and educational classes are *never* offered on our shift- usually they are scheduled right after our shift- starting at 0730 when our shift is supposed to end. We usually don't get out right on time, and after being up all night most of us could not sit through a 2 hour class and comprehend it all. Or else they are scheduled in the middle of the morning or afternoon when we are sleeping.

We have a lot more patients than 1st shift does, and while they usually have 3-4 aides, we only have 1. Which means when there's a code brown, patients to toilet, blood vitals, frequent call lights, we do a lot of it ourselves. No, our patients don't all sleep all night. It really burns me up when we had 25-30 patients on the floor with 1 aide and then 1st shift comes in and complains cuz there's only 3 aides instead of 4.

First shift seems to think that 3rd shift doesn't work hard, but we rarely get our lunch breaks and many nights we barely sit down. When I orientated on 1st shift most all of them got all their breaks and had plenty of downtime to sit and gripe about 3rds. But of course, in our unit manager's eyes, they can do no wrong and 3rd shift can do no right.

I'm just sick of it. I never thought I'd be burned out after just 15 months of nursing.

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