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Discussion

ICU Position

Well I've finally made up my mind to go into ICU nursing. I really need a change from my med surg unit. I like the idea of doing a great deal of work with just a few pts that I can be very detailed with each one. I'm reading these ICU/MICU notes a nurse wrote online to look into what is done and going to ask the icu i plan to go into about nurse to pt ratios, orientation, and just how they like it. I'm doing 8 hours 3-11pm now 64hours/week. My big issue besides orienting to ICU is going to be working 12 hour shifts (72hrs/wk) and it being 7p-7a and trying to adjust between offwork life and work. How do night shift 12 hours accomplish this? I mean sleeping and eating and your days off? I figure days I work and I only ever want to work 2 days in a row not 3. But work 7p-7a get home 9am sleep until 5pm then ready to go to work if in a row but then it gets tricky the day off. I'll get home from work sleep then it's 5pm and I will not be doing stuff till 7am next morning! So maybe get to bed 3am wake up 11am next day and sort of rotate like that. And can take naps if i need to. So can anyone tell me how they adjust there time, sleep, meals, days off to 12 hour nights?

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I use to work nights in Pediatric step down and other subacute facilities. At first, I wasn't sure how I was going to adjust, either. I tried different techniques. And, I found one that worked for me. Before the night I know I am scheduled to work after having had two nights off in a row....I wake up super early like around 6am...that is early for me. I work out, clean the house, grocery shop....then its like 12noon and I am pooped. So, I sleep until 5:30pm and I'm at work just in the nick of time. The next night I am on schedule and as soon as I get home 830am I am knocking out the zzzzzzzzzz and I wake up by 5pm. I'll repeat again the next night.

The only night you really have to adjust for is after having had nights off before. Like I said, make an attempt to wake up early and take an afternoon nap. For the period of adjustment between just having had one night off...I would sleep as soon as I got home...wake up around 12 noon and finish the day off and go to bed by 11pm. Wake up at 6am, run errands, take a nap by 12noon.

It works, I'm telling you. I did this for two years.

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I use to work nights in Pediatric step down and other subacute facilities. At first, I wasn't sure how I was going to adjust, either. I tried different techniques. And, I found one that worked for me. Before the night I know I am scheduled to work after having had two nights off in a row....I wake up super early like around 6am...that is early for me. I work out, clean the house, grocery shop....then its like 12noon and I am pooped. So, I sleep until 5:30pm and I'm at work just in the nick of time. The next night I am on schedule and as soon as I get home 830am I am knocking out the zzzzzzzzzz and I wake up by 5pm. I'll repeat again the next night.

The only night you really have to adjust for is after having had nights off before. Like I said, make an attempt to wake up early and take an afternoon nap. For the period of adjustment between just having had one night off...I would sleep as soon as I got home...wake up around 12 noon and finish the day off and go to bed by 11pm. Wake up at 6am, run errands, take a nap by 12noon.

It works, I'm telling you. I did this for two years.

Thanks sounds good!

I usually sleep till about 2 or 3 on my first day off. Then I'm either really tired by midnight, and can get on a decent daytime schedule, or stay up till 2-3 am and sleep till 10am. If I find myself on an early morning schedule, I nap before my first night back. If I'm on a late schedule, I just sleep in a little more and get things done in the afternoon before work. I never could go home and not sleep that first day. I found that if I deprived myself of too much sleep, I couldn't sleep at all and started hallucinating!

Another thing, try not to let youself get really hungry at night. I would do that, go home and eat like a pig, then sleep. I slept like a log, but I gained weight that I'm still trying to lose!!

I think everybody has their own unique way of dealing with the shift. You just have to find one that works for you through trial and error!

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