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?
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!
No, I don't have what it takes to be a CRNA.
I understand about seniority taking precedence for the day shift, but why do these hospitals run ads saying DAY SHIFT RNs NEEDED???
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.
I worked home health 8 months and hated every minute of it.
Other posters seem to think I need to be set straight.
I get so annoyed when people think I don't understand enough about the way the world works to think I can write my own schedule because nurses are needed so badly. I've never gone into any job thinking I was at Burger King. It's funny how some nurses have been able to pull this off, though.
Why do hospitals advertise for "all shifts"...to get people to come in the door in *hopes* that a day shift position is open. And not just hospitals, every healthcare entitiy that provides 24 hour care. Do you ever wonder why in ads they advertise for RN, LPN, CNA, etc, but don't put the hours they need that position for? To get em in the door. Same reason they post wage ranges (sometimes) or no wage information at all. Its all strategy and psychology.
By the way, go and get that NP. Just bite the bullet and do it!
Ok, Don't hate me, but i gotta say it. 1-Nrsg home experience, for the most part in a lot of places equals NO acute care experience. They vary drastically in whats expected of a nurse, and the skills needed. 2-If you're gonna work in a hospital, you're gonna start at the bottom of the totem pole and that generally means NIGHT shift. The coveted day shift positions go to senority...which is only fair in my opinon. Work your way up if you want it.
What about evening shift 3-11? Med-surg floors where I am do 8 hour shifts. Just a possibility.
Though I agree it is difficult to get hired directly onto days. Some units that will do that... it could mean they are extremely short and desperate, so take it with a grain of salt.
Where I work, and the last two places I worked before, they are/were waiting lists for day shift, for both nurses and aides. One of my friends has been on the list for almost a year now.
Our hospital has a policy that all positions have to be formally posted, even though they already have it promised to someone. That could have been what happened with the posting.
okay, since we are on the subject of night shift versus day shift:
in recent months, have you seen a lot of hospital staff nurses give up those "coveted" day shift positions and switch over to night shift, so that they could make more money with the shift differential??
i was under the impression that every time there is a recession and the economy is bad, hospital nurses prefer working night shift so they can bring in more money??
i ask because i am in the middle of a job search and i am looking for a full time night shift staff nurse position in a hospital, and i've been worried i might be forced to work day shift. i've been thinking that nurses worried about the economy would be leaving their day shift positions and transfering to night shift positions because of the shift differential, and therefore all the current job openings might be for day shift only.
for me, working night shift has nothing to do with the money. i would choose the night shift as opposed to the day shift, if given the choice, even if there was no extra shift differential. i am a night owl and i've been a night owl since high school. my body and my brain functions better during the night.
I completely understand being worried about having to work a shift during a time period in which your body doesn't function well. For me, it is the early morning hours. I am not a morning person and I don't work well in the morning.
If your body doesn't function well in the middle of the night, then I'd say don't allow anyone to pressure you into working the night shift. I have worked with night shift nurses who accepted the job for the 7p - 7a shift because that is the only shift human resources and nurse managers would offer to them, and it was dangerous for them. They couldn't stay awake, they were often falling asleep in the middle of the shift, and they had a hard time driving home from work, almost falling asleep behind the wheel.
You can't force your body to do something that is unhealthy and dangerous for your own body. Hospitals should not be forcing nurses to work the night shift if they are physically unable to work the night shift safely.
If you are currently working in a nursing home and want to transfer, have you looked into hospice? Many hospice nursing jobs are day shift. I used to worked as a home hospice nurse, my job title was a Primary Care Nurse, and I was on a home team. My hours were Mon - Fri 8am - 5pm. My hospice company had home teams and ALF and SNF (nursing homes) teams. They were all daytime jobs. The ALF and SNF teams delt with nursing home patients, provided all their hospice care and hospice case management. There were also hospital case managers for hospice who saw all the hospice patients in the hospitals, and they too worked daytime business hours. Also, our hospice company had 2 Hospice Houses for inpatient hospice care. Some nurses worked day shift, some worked night shift.
I think having SNF / LTC experience is great for hospice nursing. Many of my co workers had previous experience working in nursing homes. Also, if you are contemplating going to graduate school for your MSN and getting your ARNP, hospice and palliative care is a specialty you might want to consider. Our hospice company employeed many nurse practitioners, and they preferred ARNPs who had previous hospice experience. Most of the hospice ARNPs worked day shift. Hospice and palliative care has become its own advanced practive nursing specialty. In my own personal experience, if a nurse has worked in a nursing home before and has worked as a hospice nurse and then goes on to graduate school and becomes a nurse practitioner, they would be a great candidate for a hospice and palliative care ARNP job.
Well good luck. I know night shift stinks. But usually that's just the way it is. There are so many nurses with the same complaint but, they wait their turn to go to days. Have you ever thought of ER. Many ER's have different hours as compaired to the floors. Our ER has 0700-1500/ 1100-2300/ , 1300-0100 ./1500-0300/ 1700-0100 and the good old 1900-0700. It's nice for staff. But I have to say it is really a pain when your in charge trying to make sure staffing is OK.
Keepstanding, ASN, RN
1,600 Posts
at least you know your limitations and you know how you react to nights. i have done nights also, and my body/health suffered for it.
best of luck finding a day job !
praiser :heartbeat