Hospital night shift?

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Hi all! Quick background on me... I am a new CNA who was recently offered a 7P-7A position with the local hospital and I am SO excited! This floor in particular (cardiac med surg telemetry) is great because the nurse manager informed me the hospital was implementing max nursing and CNA ratios, meaning I will be assigned only 8 patients with 2 RNs, which is still a little scary but a lot better than other ratios I've heard of in the area.

My question to yall is what should I expect on this floor on a 7P-7A shift? What is the typical schedule that you follow, how did you become accustomed to working nights, etc. Also, I was recently accepted into my RN program that starts in August... In your opinion, does it help working nights while in school? Any advice is appreciated!

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I am an RN but many years ago I was a CNA going to RN school but I worked 3-11. 11-7 will work as well. 3-11 is supper, vital signs, putting them to bed, bed weights and people coming back from surgery needing extra vitals. 11-7 is more laid back with most sleeping but a lot of blood draws around 4-6 a.m. And of course turning people every 2 hours, walking people to the bathroom. I had trouble sleeping in the daytime so I had to get black-out curtains, eye masks and earplugs (heard mailman and dogs barking, lol). So for school you will wake up around 1 p.m. and hopefully you can get basic classes out of the way with classes from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. or may even online classes (history, government, biology, etc.) and then I would change to 3-11 to get more morning classes. Good Luck!

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Thank you for the advice! Luckily I've gotten all my other courses out of the way so I'll only be taking my nursing cores from 8-12 (it's an ADN program). So Monday mornings will be rough for me :D

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Specializes in Ortho.

First off congrats on getting into an RN program! I'm CNA/PCT currently working the 7P-7A shift and will start taking my prereqs for nursing in the summer. I personally prefer it over the day shift It's less hectic with some things but can still become busy depending on the types of pt's you're assigned. Whenever im floated to the tele unit I'll usually have around 10 pts assigned to me. I do their vitals around 7p, 11p , and 3a(if my RN's request it) blod sugars for the ones that require it before bedtime around 9pm ish and eventually lab draws (once I'm trained for that). 12 lead EKG if requested by my RN. Check weight around 5am The rest of the time I'm charting in between time and turning pt's if required by my RN. For me it only gets hectic when multiple patients request baths, or most of the patients are 1-2nd person assist with ambulating, total care, or we have a patient thats (roudy). Oh! and if we're getting new admin's all at the same time. The CNA staff is usually smaller during this shift so it can become overwhelming at times especially if they are understaffed. Other than that the night is pretty chill. My hospital pays a little more for night shift so thats not a bad thing for students.

The main thing is conditioning yourself to stay awake due to the odd hours but that comes with practice. As soon as I get home I pass out. Wake up around 2pm take care of errands etc and then report to work at 6:45. rince and repeat until I'm off for a few days. With working 12 hour shifts a good nights sleep is important. Some CNA's like to work back to back and some spread their schedule out. I personally like to work 4 days on 3 days off one week and 3 days on 4 days off the next week. However when I start my class in the summer I'll adjust my schedule. Overall I enjoy the night shift the main thing is maintaining enough sleep during the work week and being active and healthy on your off days. Good Luck to you and congrats!

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Thank you for your input! Do you find on your days off you switch back into a "normal" sleep schedule? My fiancé works days during the week so it would be nice to remind myself of what he looks like every now and then :lol2:

and good luck with your pre-nursing school classes! They are tough but so worth it in the end ;)

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Specializes in PACU.

I had to double check that I had not unknowingly authored this topic myself! I'm in your exact situation, just finishing up orientation for a cardiac tele 7p-7a job. I am also in school now, for the next month or so. I'm already feeling the crazy coming on with learning how to schedule my time so that I can do homework, study, work, eat, sleep... oh yeah and pee. haha. I start nursing school in the fall and will probably go down to a PRN schedule once that starts. I appreciate the responses you've gotten as I also don't really know what to expect! I'm so excited though!!!

Good luck!!! :up:

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Specializes in Ortho.
Thank you for your input! Do you find on your days off you switch back into a "normal" sleep schedule? My fiancé works days during the week so it would be nice to remind myself of what he looks like every now and then :lol2:

and good luck with your pre-nursing school classes! They are tough but so worth it in the end ;)

Yes it can be a challenge to switch back to normal on your off days depending on the person. I'm naturally a night owl and it took me a few weeks to adjust to this schedule. You can study on your down time in most cases or ask some of your RN's if you can observe some of their tasks. I'm a visual learner so I tend to do this from time to time especially if the unit isn't as busy and I'm done with pending tasks. Keeping yourself busy even with simple tasks can also make the time go by faster too. It's all about managing your time. You can still make time for your loved ones on the weekends or plan things around your schedule. It's even easier if your PRN. I've worked with a lot of night shift techs who happen to be students, or have families, or both so it can be done.

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