Nights, don't ya just love 'em?

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  1. Night's, love 'em or hate 'em?

    • 54
      Love 'em!
    • 31
      Hate 'em!

85 members have participated

Ok, it's 1.30am. I'm in the middle of a night shift. It's v quiet tonight (don't speak too soon). OK, I should be looking through patients notes, but I've already done that. Can't be bothered to read. So, as luck would have it, I have access to the internet! So have decided to compile a list of pro's and con's about working nights.

Pro's: (1) Money: whole time and a third! (2) Internet when not busy. (3) No bosses/doctors around as much to hassle me

That's about it! :roll

Con's: Here we go! (1) Tired, tired, tired (2) Can't sleep during the day (3) No social life (4) Don't see husband for days (5) Bowels go to pot (6) Get fed up (7) It's dark (8) Tetchy (9) I'm hungry again (10) Time and a third for THIS? :crying2:

I know it's a bit sad and pathetic, but it's made me smile! I'll prob think of more "con's" before the night is out, and not many pro's. I would love to hear anybody else's.

Specializes in Cardiolgy.

on a night now... yay me i got a break!! but ohh i want to go to bed!! so badly oh well 4 hours to go, think of th money :-)

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I love the night shift. Of course, sometimes with the acuity and ratios, I wish I had never become a nurse. And when you have chart checks, and charting on 7 or 8 patients to do, and then you get an admit with no ward secretary...that kind of sucks.

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It is now 04.10 and I'm at work. Would never get time to do this on day shift; first point in its favour. No management present; second point in its favour. No doctors unless I call them from their nice warm beds; a bonus feature.

As you may have guessed I like Nights but don't get to work as many now as I once did. Back to days next week and all the gumff that goes with it.

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I'm in my 12th year on the night shift...wouldn't have it any other way. Went to work on nights when my daughter was 6 weeks old....have never missed one thing in her life...I may be tired, but I am there. That makes it all worth it. :wink2:

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The night shift is great if you want to practice your cross stitch or which ever style you want.. especially in A&E at the week-end!!!!!!!

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As I said b4, there are some pro's for working nights, but they are outweighed by the con's! No social life and not seeing my husband for days. I turn into a grumpy bugger, can't sleep, feel ill sometimes and it usually takes me days to switch my body clock around.

Did you know that working night's on a regular basis (not necessarily permanent) can take YEARS off your life expectancy. It's due to the artificial 'high' your body get's at the wrong time of the it's 24-hour cycle. Also, if you have less than 5 hours of sleep more than once a week on a regular basis, that takes years off your life expectancy too. Great innit!!

thanx for this info I will supply this to my Ward Manager when she tries to talk me into doing the occassional spell on night duty. I worked night dury for 10 years!! suited family commitments and hated it. If I do the odd night it brings backthe old feelings of "head feels that it is full of cotton wool "on my days off. Feeling ill at 5.a.m and just want to sleeeeep!

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like actually doing them all the pros i agree with. cant stand having no sleep throught the day and no social life as am a zombie til ive done my stint

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The worst part for me is trying to adjust back to day shifts again. I am on my 4th night tonight (sun) and am back on days wednesday, which is the start of a 10 DAY STRETCH! I then am off two days and back on 4 nights again. OMG!

No Sister, I don't like having a social life, I don't like days off, I love working for days and days without a break. I also just LOVE it when I am down for a million early shifts in a row because I like to get an early night every night and have only a few hours sleep.

Oh buggerations, sarcasm button got stuck.

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thought i'd contribute to this. I don't do nights havn't for years but when the kids were little i did them liked the fact there were less bosses around but hated feeling like death warmed up even when i slept well. And now if i go past a certain time at night i'm awake it kills me all those years of shifts has just screwed up my time clock and i hate it.

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I hate nights when there mixed in with days, for example, this week I am on day shifts Mon, Tues, Weds and Thurs and then a night shift on Saturday. Off until Tues. In general I don't mind nights, gives me time to catch up on paperwork:-)

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I voted for lovin' em. When I was a full time Care Assistant I did 7 nights which meant 6 off, which y'know you can't beat really, its like a mini holiday. I'm lucky in that I sleep well in the day. Where I worked we could be just as busy or worse at night but there are no meals to dish out, no washes, no scheducled things like CT, MRI, ultrasounds, OGDs etc. It was an emergency medical admissions ward thought so the rubbish part was having 15 + admissions at night and having to outly patients to every god given part of the hospital.

The best thing about nights is the food (pringles, haribo tangtastics and biscuits, waaahey!) and the teamwork between the on call doctors and the nurses, it was a great atmosphere most of the time and we always had a laugh. Its a smaller team so the bond at night is stronger I think and when a patient go's off everybody pulls together.

Charlotte x

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