What is the better shift? Would you rather work night shift or day shift? Curious :)

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi, just a little curious on which shift is most desired.. Night shift or Day shift? And Why?:D

I've been a nurse a little over a year. Oriented during days but have been working nights. For a while I thought it was great, much less hectic. I work at a teaching hospital and there are litterally a million people on the unit during the day (who the heck stole my chart:o)... so I loved the slower pace of nights especially being new, but I quickly realized it's not always slow. It actually gets quite crazy. Luckily we always have a resident/intern on the unit to go to for orders.

But I'm at the point where I'm getting sick of nights. I feel HORRIBLE the day after I work even after sleeping 6 hours or so... when I wake up I might as well sleep the rest of the day (if I could... I have 2 toddlers to get from daycare). And I'm ready to hit the sack again by 7pm. Just so tired all the time. Also I miss sleeping by my husband 3 out 4 days awake. For our marriage's sake I think it would be so nice, no matter how crazy our days were to be able to sleep in the same bed.

I'm about to start rotating and eventually want days now!

Specializes in LTC.

Days and evenings....

Specializes in Case Mgmt, Anesthesia, ICU, ER, Dialysis.

For me, personally, if I were going to be in nursing long-term, nights is where it's at. I've done both - I was straight days in dialysis for 13 years...but when I went to the hospital, I'm all about the nights. Less supervision, more independent thinking, and your coworkers can be your lifeline. Now, I've finished my master's and am going to have to go back to days...part of me is looking forward to it (I can't flip those hours like I used to) and part of me dreads it. You'll find what works for you...and it may not be forever, but if it works for now, that's good enough. That's the beauty of nursing...we have so many options. Blessings to you as you figure it out. :)

Specializes in ER.

I would say evenings. 11a-11p or 3-11p if u're not a morning person.

I've done nights for 2.5 years and it really has affected my mood, energy level, sleep pattern and even social life! I am tired all the time during the day and it took me about 1.5 years to get used to night schedule. Sometimes you wake up at 3am on your day off and there's nothing to do.

Yes, there are less supervision and people come together like family, but that largely depends on the culture of the floor. It's not like that where I work without a good leader. Right now, I am trying to get off nights because it's busier than the day with less staff and no support. The hospital doesn't acknowledge the night shift either (especially nurses' week)

I work night shift only since I've come back to nursing. There is a less supervision and no management types snooping around. I work with a great bunch of people, we all get along and laugh about things when there is down time. We work together to get things done.

The pay is better and my living situation is such that I can come home and sleep without being disturbed by anyone.

Day shift is an utter ZOO with the families there, admissions, discharges, Drs coming and going. I will quit nursing if I would ever have to work day shift. No meal breaks and nurses with 20 + years experience nearly in tears because they don't have time to do their work. Frequently I see staff do all their charting for the shift after they have given report since they don't have time to do it during their shift. No thanks.

I work in a mid-sized general hospital in AR. We have no more than 7 patients on nights, often 6. Our charge nurse does our admissions. Days are supposed to have 5 but it's 6 every day, often with 3-4 discharges and then quick new admissions to those same rooms. The staff has to do their own admissions on day shift.

I forgot to add the most important part. In two years of working I think I have accrued about an hour and a half of overtime and that was unrelated to patient issues and involved people being late during storms, that sort of thing.

In other words, I have time to get all my work done, things ready for the next shift, loose ends tied up, charting done and out the door on time every day.

Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.

What if you choice is 0330-1600 or 1530-0400? It's neither night nor day, but apparently some facilities roll that way!

Specializes in geriatrics.

Nights all the way. I work permanent nights and I love it :)

Specializes in Med-Surg/DOU/Ortho/Onc/Rehab/ER/.

When I eventually be a nurse, I'm thinking nights

Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.

Nights

1. better team work

2. lack of suits and clipboard wielding clippy-cloppy shoes wearing 'nurse damagers'

3. better team work

4. unsocial hours payment

Specializes in Med/Surg, LTC/Geriatric.

I don't mind the workload on nights at all. 2am isn't a problem. 4am isn't a problem.

It's 10am the next day when I'm trying to sleep and can't get a quality sleep. It's 4pm the next day and I only got 5-6 hours of poor sleep and have to do another night and am obsessing about sleep. That's the problem for me.

Otherwise, I like nights.

Days Pros:

better only because of better staffing and the ability to get quality sleep and plan activities with the rest of society....

If any shift is messed over...its nights from my limited experience. Nights are more likely to be short staffed...Seems like we never had an aide. Most be more independent; however, nightshift nurses do have more team work.

Dayshift is favorite child treatment...

Nightshift is Step child treatment....

Management felt like nightshift nurses did not work as hard as dayshift nurses. Ive worked both day and night. Totally not true.

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