I Love Night Shift

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

This is just a post related to the absolute gazillions of negative commentary about night shift.

1. Teamwork, less backstabbing and sarcasm

2. Shift differential

3. Meals and showers are generally already done

4. The 3am giggles

5. Never need a sitter (elementary kids + older)

6. The traffic is nonexistent

7. Superheroes work at night (Batman, Green Arrow, Daredevil, Dark Angel)

8. Putting small gifts at pt bedsides Christmas Eve/Halloween for those who celebrate and then get to go home and spend morning with family

9. Sleeping out in a hammock (under a shady tree!) to get Vitamin D

10. Sending family to work/school and having house to myself

11. Night shift is full of really crazy or crazy sick pts. Either way, it's a good time.

You can disagree with me or do your night shifts/sleeping differently, and that's great. I love night shift. I'm hooked.

I'm with you. Wouldn't have it any other way. I like the thought that I can jam pack my day away from work with all sorts of activities just as long as I get enough rest to function at work.

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I am a new nurse, new to night shift. #7 made me feel super!

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Get paid more to do less. If you really want to work during the day, please go right ahead my chum...........p!

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I miss working nights!!!

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Sometimes I miss the night shift. I had a lot of fun during that time. I met my husband on my shift, he was the "rubber band bandit". He was one of the attending docs and went around rubber banding different things behind the nurses back. Laughter really made the shift go by quickly. I remember having water fights on many nights....:whistling:

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Specializes in ER.
NOADLS said:
Get paid more to do less. If you really want to work during the day, please go right ahead my chum...........p!

To do LESS? You must not work in an ER. Less staff, less resources, but the same amount of patients. If you get paid a night diff and you work LESS, I'd never leave your current job.

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poppycat said:
I've got you beat, meanmaryjean! This year is 40 years since I started working nights. Except for 1 month when I tried day shift, I've never worked any other shift & I'll never go to any other shift until I retire in another 30-40 years.

Assuming the earliest age you could start working night shifts is at age 16, that would put your suggested retirement at 86-96 years old?

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Specializes in None yet..

I'm just a first year nursing student who worked 3 months as a CNA before starting school but I hafta say.... night shift blew me away. The nurses were whip smart. One literally came in a got a resident who'd been consigned to death watch back on her feet (after working a full shift as an ER nurse at a hospital) and the other NAC and I worked the whole night as a team. The feeling of teamwork was the BEST of any (admittedly limited) experience I've had. It was an unconditionally positive experience, so much so that I picked up double shifts from my regularly scheduled evening shift just so I could hang with the night owls. I'm thinking that night shift might be the place for me.

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mirandaaa said:
Night shift is seriously the best for every single one of those reasons!

I can't wait to get back on the night shift routine ?

Also, don't forget: #12: No bosses/higher ups or state inspectors to deal with! (at least not where I've worked)

New to night shift here. Do state inspectors not come to the hospital at night? If so, that's enough of a reason by itself to work nights!

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Specializes in 15 years in ICU, 22 years in PACU.
RNsRWe said:
I've always been a night owl, so working nights was easy for me. I never hit the "four am wall". I never nodded off during charting, never bleary-eyed during my shift.

Otherwise, I liked having fewer residents, attendings, management-types loitering at the desk ?

Night shift works for self-styled introverts too!

https://allnurses.com/I'm-nurse-I-like-people-t570005/

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floridanurse1983 said:
New to night shift here. Do state inspectors not come to the hospital at night? If so, that's enough of a reason by itself to work nights!

State inspectors have been known to come at 6 am or 6:30 am, but don't make a habit of it. One time they showed up around 6:30 am and I ran around making sure everything was done as quickly as possible. Oncoming shift was trying to prolong report but I made it short and sweet as the surveyors were down the hall. Just made it out of there!

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Love night shift!! It caters to my introvert-ness and I always get time to do things BEFORE work. (Working out, etc) On day shift I felt like I missed EVERYTHING for those three days because I was just dead tired and had to be up at 530 am all over again. Not to mention everyone else in the real world was done for the day and headed to sleep already.

On nights I can get 6.5 hours of sleep and be good to go. As on days... I was getting more and still felt absolutely dead the next morning.

I love my night shift co-workers. So helpful and a lot of team work.

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