12hr days vs 12hr nights in a hospital

KeepItRealRN, BSN, RN · May 9, 2014

There is no difference at all.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · May 9, 2014

There is no difference at all.

I think there's a big difference. On days, your manager is there bothering you. Social Work, PT, Nutrition, OT, Nursing Students, Residents, Fellows, Med Students, etc. are all fighting over the limited computers available. There are more visitors. Patients have scheduled tests going on and, if you work in a hospital without a transport team like I did, you're running them all over the hospital. At nights, pretty much no one is awake but the nurses. The Residents are not stealing your computers because they're trying to sleep and only come around if you page them. I FAR preferred nights to days when I worked in the hospital.

cassie77775 · May 9, 2014

Nights-way less people milling about, less visitors. Most of the time my patients aren't even sleeping so they are still awake all night.

Days- doctors, specialists, students, way more visitors, days does 99% of our discharges.

Plus for me, I do better getting up at 3pm for 7pm work than I do getting up at 5am for 7am work.

rachel0609, ADN, RN · May 10, 2014

I went from working all nights to all days and my pay decreased from $600-$800 a month. If your jobs offers shift diff you have to think about that.

HUGE difference even if you don't consider pay.

litebrightgirl · May 10, 2014

I like working nights but miss being home at night. Shift diff really helps too. I love being home during the day, even if I'm sleeping! We have self scheduling and I switched from working 3 12s in a row to working 2 12s in a row and a day in between. I love it much better. I no longer feel like a zombie on my third night

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · May 10, 2014

Huge difference. Don't know how anyone could possibly say "no difference at all".

The thing is, the difference between the two means that some people would kill to stay on days over nights, or nights over days....and rarely do people really want the other shift (whatever the "other" shift is). People gravitate toward what works best, and that differs based on each person's circumstances (and natural tendencies!).

I was always a night owl, and transitioned to working nights pretty easily. I didn't have drowsy periods during the night like many of my colleagues; you wouldn't find me nodding while charting. Some people thrive on nights, some people find that they get sick more easily (most likely because they aren't sleeping well/eating well because of working against the 'natural' body rhythms).

When I worked days (which wasn't often, by choice), I LIKED having enough staff on hand to cover my assignment so I could go to the cafeteria and eat a real lunch, LOL....on nights, typically didn't get to eat unless it was stuffing something into my face while charting. I DIDN'T like having management breathing down our necks, questioning patients on their "satisfaction levels".

Some people like having less administration, residents, visitors around. Some don't like it because it also means less of a support system in place when the feces hits the oscillating device. There are more routine tests and procedures during the day; there are more emergency tests and procedures at night. There is some of each on both.

If you can try it out first, that's the way to go.

krisiepoo · May 10, 2014

I do rotating 12's so I get the best of both worlds.

Days are really hectic (or can be). You have doctors, families, administration and all other forms of BS you can imagine. However I feel more "nursey" during the day shifts. I'm doing more than passing pain meds (which tends to be a big portion of my overnights).

However nights are a good change for me because, while it's really hard on my body, it kind of gives me a reprieve from the craziness that day nursing is. Although I've had a couple nights that were completely nuts as well and you won't have the support that is available during the day. I generally have more patients at night, too

Ruby Vee, BSN · May 10, 2014

I think there's a big difference. On days, your manager is there bothering you. Social Work, PT, Nutrition, OT, Nursing Students, Residents, Fellows, Med Students, etc. are all fighting over the limited computers available. There are more visitors. Patients have scheduled tests going on and, if you work in a hospital without a transport team like I did, you're running them all over the hospital. At nights, pretty much no one is awake but the nurses. The Residents are not stealing your computers because they're trying to sleep and only come around if you page them. I FAR preferred nights to days when I worked in the hospital.

I agree with pretty much every thing you said -- however, the patients don't sleep at night, and can be on the call light all night bothering you because they're not sleeping. "Fix my pillow" and "Mute the TV" calls are far more common than one would think.

RNperdiem, RN · May 10, 2014

It depends on the department you work in. Day shift gets to serve the three meals a day, help people up to the chair and take all those blood glucose readings and give insulin on the sliding scale. There are a lot of diabetics out there in med-surg. In departments like cardiothoracic, a lot of the patients walking is done on days. The orders are strict about distance to ambulate a patient three times a day or so. In many departments, baths are done on days. Doctors on rounds, physical therapy, more visitors are greater on days.

In ICU, most non emergent surgeries are scheduled for days. We tend to do more discharges and transfers out.

Nights will fill those beds, since they seem to get way more admissions. In some departments, you get more patients on nights. Night shift deals with the "sundowning" patients. It is a common scenario to have a patient who was wild all night, got some meds, slept all day for me and starts getting active at change of shift.

It evens out. We stay busy, just with some different things.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · May 11, 2014

The difference is like day and night. (Yes, I know that's lame but I couldn't resist.) Every night about 11 p.m. the phones suddenly stop ringing, visitors disappear. The constant orders showing up on the computers stops. The ER might be busy, but the floors and ICU units seems to calm down drastically. The patients still need the same care, but it seems to be easier because the entire hospital is just calmer. During the day, I might take 5 calls in a row before I can even think about seeing my patients, and I work ICU. We don't have numerous doctors roaming around at night, like we do on days. Students, PT, OT, dieticians, consulting docs, etc. etc. usually do not come on nights. We don't have to feed patients on nights. We aren't constantly taking patients to procedures on nights; most GI procedures are planned and done on days. Of course, I have worked at hospitals that seem to come alive in ICU at night. I have worked with a couple doctors who would show up at all hours of the night to place a swan, do a bedside bronch or something, but where I am now, that only happens if it is an emergency.