Getting Stuck with Night Shift.

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I decided I might need to get some hopsital experience so I started applying at some hospitals. The hospitals I applied to advertised they needed nurses for nights AND days. I specified days on my application but I guess that part of the application doesn't get looked at.

I got two phone calls from excited human resource people who said they would love to have me come in for an interview, but when I ask if it is day or night shift they tell me they don't have any day shift positions open.

I've tried working night shift and it almost killed me. I apologized to them but told them I just couldn't do nights. One of them even upped the ante a bit and asked, how about 6a to 6p??? You'd get finished a whole hour earlier!!!

I apologized but told them I couldn't work nights. One of them told me if I changed my mind to call back.

I understand there may be a waiting list for day shift. Does anyone know what the average wait to get a day shift position is in case I decided to be a fool and try to do nights?

I've got a pretty secure job at the nursing home but it's very unchallenging and I'd like a little more variety and excitement. I don't know if I should blow it with this job to get stuck working a night shift job I know I couldn't do for months only to find out it could be a very long time before I could get a day job.

Also, why do these places run ads for day and night shift when they apparently never had day openings from the start. Is it a bait and switch deal?

Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).

To add my two cents:

Don't be surprised at the lack of days positions. I have never worked anywhere in acute care that hired people directly on to days. There was always a list of people on nights who had waited years for a day shift slot. If you know that you can absolutely not handle night shift in an acute care setting, then you may need to cast your net a little wider to find a unit who is hiring to days.

As far as NP school, if your specialty is to be anything other than geriatric NP, I would recommend you get acute care experience, seeing as how as an NP, you will be dealing with a lot of acute care issues.

If CRNA is what you are interested in, you'll need 2 years of solid cardiac ICU experience regardless. There are never day shifts on those types of units.

Best of luck in your hunt!

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Specializes in LTC.
I disagree about the ability to adjust to nights. I have been doing a straight nights rotation for basically 2 yrs, and I still feel like crap, can't stay awake, can't sleep when I get home, miss out on lots because I just don't feel like doing anything from the time I wake up til I go back to work.

Maybe some people flip to the night side, but it will never be something that comes easily to me.

I could never work nights at any job. I know it without even trying. I have seasonal depression in winter and I know having to spend so many of my waking hours without the sun would bring me down. Even 3-11 doesn't completely agree with me... I have less energy, motivation, etc. than when I have a first shift job.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Straight days is hard to come by when hiring in as a new hire. You might have to rotate. Nights will not kill you. You just have to learn how to adjust your body to the shift.

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Specializes in Labor & Delivery.
Yes, it was a typo. It's 6p-6a.

Night shift almost killed me because my body couldn't take it. I would have to hang my head out the window on the way home and sing to keep from falling asleep. About 3AM I would become so miserable I didn't think I would be able to make it the rest of the shift. And no matter how much I slept, I was always tired. Always. I was also picking fights with my husband.

I hate how people think nursing home experience=no experience. The nature of work may be different. I can understand the patient care may be of higher acuity (it's on a med-surg floor) but I've been told I'm basically a new grad. This is a big insult, because I know and can do a heck of a lot more now than as a new grad. I'd venture to say I'm at least familiar with a lot of what goes on in a med surg unit, and I may have been born at night but it wasn't last night.

But if the graveyard shift is the best I can expect I may just have to go on to NP school without working in the hospital. I'm not trying to be a spoiled princess, I just know my limits.

I completely understand where you're coming from. I also just hate working nights. I was tired and miserable ALL of the time. For those who insist that you can adjust to night and do okay, I'm glad that they have been able to do so. I however couldnt! I always woke up in the afternoon feeling headachy, nauseaous and miserable. Then I spent a few hours with my kids when they got home from school, and away I went again. I not only felt physically ill but mentally exhaused. I left my full time night position. I'm working PRN now and about 50/50 on days and nights. It's not as bad when I pick my own schedule and alot of the time I'm put on call on the night shift. I recently got a full time job that rotates day/night q two weeks. That to me is still better than full time nights. Good luck with your search and don't let anyone make you feel bad that you cant work nights, it almost killed me too!

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I must be a rare breed. I love being a night owl. When I worked in the hospital, in tele and in CCU, I worked night shift. I was very content being a night shifter. When I worked as a Patient Care Tech in an ICU, I loved working 3p - 11p and loved working 11p - 7a, but I dreaded and hated 7a - 3p. For some strange reason, my body seems to think it is normal for me to stay up all night long and sleep during the day. I don't sleep well at night, have trouble sleeping at night. But I feel tired as the sun is coming up and I sleep soundly during the daytime. Weird, I know.

In my case, I've been this way since high school. In high school, I got into the habit of staying up all night long to do my homework and studying and then I'd sleep when I got home from school. I lived in the college dorms during nursing school, and so pulling all nighters were easy.

After leaving the hospital, I've worked outpatient same day surgery and then did home hospice nursing. Both of these are Mon - Fri daytime hour jobs. I have hated needing to get up early in the morning. Trying to be at work at 7am or 8am feels like torture to me. I struggle with insomnia when I try to force my body to go to bed early the night before work.

I've been applying to all my local hospitals to try to get a job as a staff nurse again, and I am relieved to hear that most facilities put their new employees on the night shift. That is good news for a weirdo like me. I've been worried that with the poor economy, all nurses would be craving those extra night shift differentials, and therefore there would only be vacancies on day shift. For me, preferring a night shift job has nothing to do with the extra money. My body and my mind just function better in the middle of the night.

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Specializes in Med surg, Critical Care, LTC.

Geese, we've all had to pay our dues. The reason you were told there weren't any day positions is probably that a night nurse already an employee took the day position.

I agree, not everyone is cut out for nights, but I do think you might consider giving it a try before you say you can't do nights.

I've run in to so many nurses who feel that because of the nursing "shortage" they should be able to write their own ticket. Sorry, I'm a firm believer in paying ones dues.

I have a day position, if I want to move to another position in my hospital, I would have to start with a night shift position. That keeps me where I am - as I HAVE done nights before, and worked my way to a day position.

Blessings

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As far as NP school, if your specialty is to be anything other than geriatric NP, I would recommend you get acute care experience, seeing as how as an NP, you will be dealing with a lot of acute care issues.

If CRNA is what you are interested in, you'll need 2 years of solid cardiac ICU experience regardless. There are never day shifts on those types of units.

Best of luck in your hunt!

Yeah, that.

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Specializes in Psychiatric nursing, Home Health nursing.

Have you tried looking into Home Health? I love it! Worked nights for years and after the first year I got used to it and actually preferred nights over dayshifts (you work your tail off on days and make less money). I'm really liking home health... all day shifts and very very rewarding. Good luck.

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I was/am on nights for two months. As soon as a position came open (the average time a nurse is on our unit is 9 years, so this was a real surprise), I applied and got it!

Our night shift nurses love it, but I couldn't hack it with the big dogs. I always feel sick to my stomach and horribly depressed. I was lethargic on my days off. I volunteered for the "on-call/call-off" status anytime there was a low census.

Only 5 more shifts on nights, thank goodness.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

I generally do not trust any add that states that there are openings available "for ALL shifts". It usually isn't true. Just my experience.

I decided I might need to get some hopsital experience so I started applying at some hospitals. The hospitals I applied to advertised they needed nurses for nights AND days. I specified days on my application but I guess that part of the application doesn't get looked at.

I got two phone calls from excited human resource people who said they would love to have me come in for an interview, but when I ask if it is day or night shift they tell me they don't have any day shift positions open.

I've tried working night shift and it almost killed me. I apologized to them but told them I just couldn't do nights. One of them even upped the ante a bit and asked, how about 6a to 6p??? You'd get finished a whole hour earlier!!!

I apologized but told them I couldn't work nights. One of them told me if I changed my mind to call back.

I understand there may be a waiting list for day shift. Does anyone know what the average wait to get a day shift position is in case I decided to be a fool and try to do nights?

I've got a pretty secure job at the nursing home but it's very unchallenging and I'd like a little more variety and excitement. I don't know if I should blow it with this job to get stuck working a night shift job I know I couldn't do for months only to find out it could be a very long time before I could get a day job.

Also, why do these places run ads for day and night shift when they apparently never had day openings from the start. Is it a bait and switch deal?

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

But if the graveyard shift is the best I can expect I may just have to go on to NP school without working in the hospital. I'm not trying to be a spoiled princess, I just know my limits.

Heck, if you have the means and support to just go ahead and finish school, then I would go for it!!

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I think the suggestion of applying for a PRN position is a good one. That way, you will still get some important experience, particularly if you are wanting to go back for your NP. Even if you get your NP in geriatric care, you would still want to know what goes on in the acute care setting with your clients, you know?

PRN status nurses get to set their hours. We have prn nurses who will come in for only part of a shift, or who work every weekend.

If you took a prn position, you could specify days. Or maybe evenings (3-11, 7-11). Or maybe even work an overnight, either a 12 or and 8, every once in a while--that certainly wouldn't stress you like full time nights did.

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