Does your HN/NM cater to his/her dayshift?

slinkeecat · Jun 27, 2002

this must be An LTC..... that sucks.... have you tried talking to your nurse manager and trying to compromise..... at 0600 is hard to get everything done in an hour before you leave.......I would try to talk with the powers that be and try to make them understand that pts need thier rest and should not be woken up for no essential treatment that should be done in waking hrs it is against the law in WV to do that....... aren't their regulations for that crap????

SmilingBluEyes · Jun 28, 2002

Our old one did; she used to hold staff meetings in mid-afternoon times. (usually between 3 and 5 p.m.). When some of our nightshifters complained, know what she said?

"Too bad, get used to it; it's a dayshift world out there and that is the most convenient time for me to hold my meetings"

....no matter that 3 in the afternoon is like 3 a.m. would be to "the dayshift world". I simply did not attend the meetings. It goes on and on what the dayshift gets away with versus nightshift...but This is what stood out as the most glaring example.

NannaNurse · Jun 28, 2002

For this very reason......I'm now in Acute Rehab at a large hospital and it will be a cold day in Florida before I go back! It's sad that this goes on...especially when staffing is so hard. Evening and Nights are the hardest to fill, it makes you wonder why those dedicated nurses/cna's are treated 'substandard'?!?!

I worked as a ADON at one facility. When we had inservices/meetings, I took the time to come in at shift change from evenings to nights to do them.

I believe that you reward dedicated staff. I believe that is someone has done a great job, went out of their way, went the extra mile.....you tell them. A pat on the back and a warm smile can do wonders. Consider yourself patted and smiled at. Thank you for your dedication and Good Luck!:kiss

**SKM-NURSIEPOOH, BSN, RN** · Jun 28, 2002

the day shift has gotten many things thrown back on 11p-7am shift merely because the day shift is under the assumption that night shift nurses/cnas sleep most of the shift. it's like they want to get back at us because we don't have the volume of medications/treatments to do on our shift that they do...there's a trade-off...they get the normal working hours with a higher volume of meds...we the night shifter have less amount of pill volume but have crazy hours.

what they fail to realize is that we night nurses have other tasks/duties that the day shifters don't. we're expected to order all of the medications/medical supplies; we're supposed to calibrate the glucometers (daily); we're to check the medication/treatment carts for out of date medications/treatment items; we're to check the crash cart (daily) for medication replacement; start all of the daily i&o sheets; check lab & x-ray orders; prepare the patient infomation sheet to go out with the patients during medical office visits; ensure that those patients going out for dialysis have their breakfast & lunch to take with them prior to leaving our facility; not to mention during the nightly chart audits, monthly summaries, recording of vitals, & nursing notes & updating the 24* report. day shifters come-on, inspecting every little thing :rolleyes: ...if one of our get-ups is not up by the time they come-on...they demand to know why & report it to the unit manager & or adon/don if our reason doesn't suit them...& most of the time it doesn't :angryfire!!!

they've had all medications that are to be given 1* prior or 2* after meals thrown onto our shift (like they couldn't move the time up one hour from 9a to 10a to commentate the 8am breakfast schedule). no...we went from passing 16-20 patients at 6am to 35-40 patients...many of whom are pissed that we wake them up that early for one daily pill!!! we had to pick-up their fbs & sliding scale (which usually involves 17-20 patients either daily or half of them q m-w-f) because they claim the they're too busy to do it in time for the patient's breakfast....well i say stop coming on eating your breakfast first & you'd find the time :angryfire!!! i sometimes don't get the time for a bathroom break...let alone eat: mad:!!! i just don't understand.

when our don decided that our shift cnas would be getting some of patients up in the am, day shift tried to decide for us which one...of course they went for all of the heavy completes that require a lift !!! i've worked over on several occasions & have noticed that these people are left in the very spot that my shift cnas have left them....& this is at 2:00pm. in other words, some of these poor patients only get changed once during the day shift... :sniff: right before the next shift comes on!!! when i complain...it falls on deaf ears :angryfire!!! go figure!!!

MQ Edna · Jun 28, 2002

OK, I've done this drill before, but here goes: Please note the time of this post. I'm the CNS for a community hospital. I just performed four mock codes, started an IV and helped an excellent and hard-working night shift CNA give a bed bath on a 350 lb. patient who, shall we say kindly, wasn't reaching all of his spare parts. I can't flip to nights all the time, but I do it often enough that they at least know my name and know me by sight. And yes, the managers I work with do schedule their meetings for the convenience of both shifts.

We also just finished a committee meeting on night shift safety issues that was scheduled at 10:00 at night. The ER director and Security director were both in attendance. The Assistant VP would have been, except she called me at 9:45 pm that she had a child who was vomiting (yes, managers do have lives). I'm the chair of this committee. We really do care that the area our hospital is in and some of our "clientelle" place our staff members at risk, and we really are working to do something about it. Night shift staff are NOT expendable!

By necessity, a lot of what managers do is done during the day and, unfortunately, they often get to know the day staff better than the night staff. For those who don't seek out night shift staff members and get to know them better, it's their loss. There are some really cool people who prowl by night, and I'm lucky that I'm someone who can biologically flip my sleep cycle back and forth to get to know them. :cool:

mattsmom81 · Jun 28, 2002

Jeannie, you sound like a great clinical specialist...would LOVE to work around you!! :)

Some hospital day workers take advantage of their preferred status with the director to manipulate the system...some don't and those are the ones I appreciate. :)

I recall a few who would routinely let their drug orders go all day without calling pharmacy...routinely retime it to 8 PM and make it daily at 8 PM so they don't have to deal with it.... retiming meds and treatments to night shift on a daily basis does tend to get on my last nerve..

Particularly when these are the gals on their cell phones all day, who seldom do a bath or change their outdated IV tubings (leave it all to nights to do) and who take cigarette breaks q 2 hours religiously, have time to flirt and gossip, etc.... bet ya'll have one or two of these ........

night owl · Jun 28, 2002

No one likes to make waves especially our HN, AHN. Since they have to work with these people all day long, they keep them happy by giving them what they want and keeping the peace. When the day nurses rotate to nights they go back and tell management that night shift sleeps all night. That may be true for the CNAs,(another thread topic discussed before) but the two nurses, myself included DO NOT! Day nurses know how hard we work with just the two of us on at night and yet they complain and more is thrown at us to do. Talking to HN/NM is a joke b/c they don't want to hear it. If they listen, it goes out the other side and nothing is acomplished. They work with four and five nurses in the day , we have two until 0600, and she comes in 20-25 minutes late EVERY DAY. (If she comes in at all) The other day we were orienting a new part time RN to nightshift, but she's working the day tour and the 6am LPN says, "Someone could have done my fingersticks for me!"(She has three to do...WOW) The nerve...I wanted to say,"If you came to work on time, you'd be able to get them done yourself." They want everything done for them before they get in. They want their meds done, their treatments and their fingersticks...." KISS MY BLOOMIN orifice!" We've gotta leave something for them to do for eight hours... I'm just so glad I'm on vacation starting yesterday b/c I very much needed to get away before I lose my job altogether....But when I go back, I know that there will be something else thrown at the night shift to do b/c dayshift complained.

mattsmom81 · Jun 29, 2002

Some day shift nurses truly believe the main part of their job is to pacify the suits, families, PR etc... and leave the patient careand grunt work to evenings and nights....I've run into this attitude quite a few times and it ain't likely to change if management condones it.

Have a good vacation...maybe look around for a more supportive workplace too while you're off, eh? Never hurts to open up your options! :)

Furball · Jun 29, 2002

Originally posted by night owl
Ours does and it's sickening!!! Whenever they complain, "There's too many treatments on our shift!" she has the Dr rewrite the orders for """@0600""". When they complain, "There's too many meds on our shift!" All of the QD or OD med orders were for 0900 (ie) MVT, Calcium, folic acid and in LTC, everyone's on those supplements! She had those orders changed to """"0600""" the nerve! When we try to fight it it's like pulling teeth and it takes months to change it back. What gives????

If anyone woke me up at 6am to give me a vitamin pill I would be a little irritated......doesn't the pts well-being count for anything? geesh...

mario_ragucci · Jun 30, 2002

I've never floated or worked nights. I suppose, if I work nights in a hospital, you shouldn't refer to working at night as working "graveyard" out of respect.

The folks who work at night look different when I arrive, and definately give the vibe to stay away. I wouldn't mind working at night, because I can adjust to it.

I don't see how one shift can take preference over another when it comes to hospital work, and taking care of people.

:imbar :stone :kiss

fedupnurse · Jun 30, 2002

I have worked both shifts. Days is busier in certain respects. Lots more doctors, suits, visitors and sometimes more meds to give out. Also we have to feed some people (ICU-teaching hospital, lousy aides who don't do much). Nights is a much nicer atmosphere that allows you to actually spend time with your patients when you don't have an unreasonable assignment. Love the less suits part and the less docs part. The way our visitors have been of late, less of them ain't bad either. Downside of nights is less experienced staff, docs who yell at you for waking them up (I try to teach the new staff to YELL BACK!). Did days for 2 years and went back to nights about 2 years ago. Sure there are some perks when suits see you they will try to appease you and night shift is all but forgotten usually. In my unit days is shorter staffed thna nights!! Never thought I'd see that!