Is it worth it?

A year is a long time when the schedule is making it hard for you to manage your mental health. 

I agree a year is a long time. I tried nights for a week and couldn’t do it because it made my depression and migraines a lot worse. I have been managing my depression fine without meds for about a year and after working nights for a week I thought I was going to have to get back on meds asap. Basically I felt like with my mental health I fell off a cliff the decline was that quick.

One thing I do want to mention is that a lot of times a manager may offer nights with the possibility of days.....but will never move you to days. That happened at my last job in the ER.....I waited and waited and was never moved up. For me, it was hard on me physically because of some health issues but I also felt like I just couldn’t think or process things well at work. Do you think you could handle things for a year or even longer if you can’t get moved up? 

5 hours ago, LibraNurse27 said:

Hi all, Hoping to get some advice from those who work nights. I am hoping to leave my current job or go PRN because of the lack of response from upper management regarding verbal/physical abuse on nurses by patients. I have an interview for a different hospital, considered "prestigious" and some of the best pay here in Bay Area. The post was for day shift, but manager said someone from nights may be taking the day position and then I would be interviewing for nights.

I have worked nights for short stints to cover people and it really exacerbates the symptoms of my bipolar disorder due to changes in circadian rhythms. I have many more manic/depressive episodes working nights, and trouble sleeping in the day. I'm thinking of taking the night position if I get the offer because I want a foot in the door, maybe do it for a year and try to go to days or another unit day position. Does this sound like a good plan? If so, any tips on surviving nights if you're not a night person? thanks!!

Sounds like a hard NO, to me. Keep looking for something more suitable.

1 hour ago, guineapignurse said:

I agree a year is a long time. I tried nights for a week and couldn’t do it because it made my depression and migraines a lot worse. I have been managing my depression fine without meds for about a year and after working nights for a week I thought I was going to have to get back on meds asap. Basically I felt like with my mental health I fell off a cliff the decline was that quick.

Yikes! I'm glad you got off nights 

1 hour ago, speedynurse said:

One thing I do want to mention is that a lot of times a manager may offer nights with the possibility of days.....but will never move you to days. That happened at my last job in the ER.....I waited and waited and was never moved up. For me, it was hard on me physically because of some health issues but I also felt like I just couldn’t think or process things well at work. Do you think you could handle things for a year or even longer if you can’t get moved up? 

Ah yes that makes sense! I don't think I could do it long term =( thanks for the advice!

There is already on thread on night shift here:

If you know it's going to exacerbate your health problems I would say look for other options. You may go onto nights and get stuck there, and if it's malking you ill, that's grim. 

Keep looking for a day job

13 hours ago, speedynurse said:

One thing I do want to mention is that a lot of times a manager may offer nights with the possibility of days.....but will never move you to days. That happened at my last job in the ER.....I waited and waited and was never moved up. For me, it was hard on me physically because of some health issues but I also felt like I just couldn’t think or process things well at work. Do you think you could handle things for a year or even longer if you can’t get moved up? 

Yeah, I agree with this. The dayshift position is gone and if you get the job on nights you’ll be competing with staff who have more seniority than you when a dayshift position opens up. I think you have to look at this as a night shift position, full stop. And it sounds like that would be really bad for your health.

"The post was for day shift, but manager said someone from nights may be taking the day position and then I would be interviewing for nights." Appears to be a bait and switch. You already know that night shift exacerbates your depression, why put yourself though that?

If you are offered the night position and truly know from experience you just can't function on that shift respectfully decline the offer.

If however you think you can manage those hours after your body adjusts to the schedule it might be worth a shot as long as the position offered is truly nights. Where I live not a single hospital offers straight nights anymore. Every single posting outside of a few specialties requires rotating shifts, either AM/PM or AM/NOC and I can't imagine a more unforgiving schedule to the human body that an AM/NOC rotation. 

In most circumstances I'd have just stuck with the turn it down if offered nights group but I kind of changed my mind when I noticed where you live. The bay area is a notoriously tight job market and if this is a place you know you want to work it just might be worth a try. The downside of course is because it is such a notoriously tight job market will you have any difficulty securing another job if you try it and find it doesn't work for your mental health?  Is that a risk you feel comfortable taking?