Is that the general consensus amongst hospital RNs? I for one had a terrible time with night shift... actually I seemed to adjust alright, outwardly. Inwardly, my endocrine system went haywire and I ended up in the hospital with an exacerbation of a previously well managed health condition, and out from work SICK for an entire month.
Due to the health problems, I had to quit that job only 5 months into it. After searching month after month, the only other day shift hospital position I could get was on a HORRIBLE ortho/medsurg unit 70 miles away from my home.
Despite the heavy work load, extreme favoritism, crazy boss, and absence of teamwork, I appreciated the opportunity and tried to make it work for me. The employer itself was a pretty good one I think, but with the commute and the other issues, I only made it for 6 months--- and quit.
Every other hospital job I've been seeing is for night shift.... If I see another day shift advertised will that be a red flag that the unit is very bad?
I was willing to work nights, but I really can't risk getting sick by going on nights again. Should I just stay away from hospitals from here on out?
Yes, SmilingBlueEyes and Ruby Vee and !Chris are correct. I have been in nursing 40 years. I have worked nights, evenings, and days in everything from ICU to working in refineries and in caring for the homeless on the streets. You need to be honest, and to try to be a friend to your co-workers (wherever you end up). You have made some significant mistakes early in your career, which is rather sad. It is time to pull up your pants, get some more training in one of the many sub-specialties that do not require you to work nights, and get a job that you are determined to stick with. You can't learn to be a fine nurse by moving around (3 jobs in a year) or by feeling sorry for yourself. That said, some of us enter nursing with incorrect ideas about the sacrifices this calling can sometimes require. Give serious consideration to what you really want to do with your life, and get some counseling (but don't go seeking a "Label" of disability that will stick to you like glue and drag down your self-image or reinforce your feelings of having been "done wrong")(Let's save that disability label for those with problems that are really seriously impairing.)
I think using devious and unethical ways to get a day shift positions is disgusting and I would not want to work with anyone doing this. Such dishonesty would not speak well to your ethics as a nurse. The ADA was not set up for liars.
I am not devious, unethical, or disgusting. I don't have a "mood disorder" either, as if it's any of your concern. I have another health condition that actually got much worse working nights. Being in the hospital, incurring 1000s in medical bills due to the exacerbation of the condition, and incredibly SICK (and off work, unpaid) for an entire month wouldn't make me "disgusting", "unethical", or "dishonest."
I am actually having a hard time believing I have to explain that to any health care professional... or any adult for that matter. Maybe if you practiced a bit more self-care and compassion, it wouldn't rub you the wrong way when other people look after and take care of their own health.
I am not devious, unethical, or disgusting. I don't have a "mood disorder" either, as if it's any of your concern. I have another health condition that actually got much worse working nights. Being in the hospital, incurring 1000s in medical bills due to the exacerbation of the condition, and incredibly SICK (and off work, unpaid) for an entire month wouldn't make me "disgusting", "unethical", or "dishonest."
I am actually having a hard time believing I have to explain that to any health care professional... or any adult for that matter. Maybe if you practiced a bit more self-care and compassion, it wouldn't rub you the wrong way when other people look after and take care of their own health.
The post that you are referring to isn't about you. It is referring to the poster who suggests that you get a note from a psychiatrist saying that you cannot work nights due to a "mood disorder". No one here is saying you have a mood disorder, or that being off sick is disgusting or unethical or dishonest.
Yes, SmilingBlueEyes and Ruby Vee and !Chris are correct. I have been in nursing 40 years. I have worked nights, evenings, and days in everything from ICU to working in refineries and in caring for the homeless on the streets. You need to be honest, and to try to be a friend to your co-workers (wherever you end up). You have made some significant mistakes early in your career, which is rather sad. It is time to pull up your pants, get some more training in one of the many sub-specialties that do not require you to work nights, and get a job that you are determined to stick with. You can't learn to be a fine nurse by moving around (3 jobs in a year) or by feeling sorry for yourself. That said, some of us enter nursing with incorrect ideas about the sacrifices this calling can sometimes require. Give serious consideration to what you really want to do with your life, and get some counseling (but don't go seeking a "Label" of disability that will stick to you like glue and drag down your self-image or reinforce your feelings of having been "done wrong")(Let's save that disability label for those with problems that are really seriously impairing.)
I don't think I need counseling, I need income. And I need to be healthy enough to work for the income. Not all of us can sit around and wait for the perfect job. I don't know if that's what you and some others are reading into what I wrote, but it's quite the opposite. I do my very best at work, with as stressful as these places have been, and actually have to take the first job that comes up many times. When I graduated, I applied all over because there were so many employers just saying that they didn't want new grads. The ones that did accept new grads didn't "train" for long at all as another poster put it. It does irritate me that nurses (the ones who just LOVE to call themselves crusty old bats as if that's admirable in any way), who have supposedly been caring for others for tens of years are so judgmental, dismissive, and rude.
The post that you are referring to isn't about you. It is referring to the poster who suggests that you get a note from a psychiatrist saying that you cannot work nights due to a "mood disorder". No one here is saying you have a mood disorder, or that being off sick is disgusting or unethical or dishonest.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
That's right. I am disgusted with the poster who said you get a note from a doctor that suggests you are too mentally ill to work nights and should use said disability to bump other nurses from existing positions.
I feel for you. Keep trying to find the position that works for you. It will come along. I promise.
There are clinic and office nursing jobs out there, that while may pay less, are day jobs.
It's terrible. I have a spouse who has a mood disorder, probably a personality disorder, and is abusive. He's just not that abusive all the time, but I am unhappy and would like to leave. My parents were more abusive. One of my brothers cut himself off from the family and the other one is under functioning as a man over 30, but insists on living in their house for some reason. So I have tried to make plans to leave. I have bills, a dog, and no other family. Wouldn't let me sleep when I worked nights. When I finally found my day shift hospital position my husband used to stay up extra late at night and be loud. Yell at me all the time , if I was talking about my job (any) he says I'm bragging, mocking the fact that he hasn't been able to find a job in the field he went to school for 10 years ago. One day recently, he was yelling out of the blue ---twisting my words, becoming more and more irate. Then he choked me. I got out of the house, drove around for a few hr, with my dog,then came home bc it was cold. I don't want anybody I know to know. What could or would they do anyway? I laid low at the house, he didn't talk to ME for 2 whole days, not he's feeling better and talking with me and laughing about what he sees on tv or reads in the news. No apol I am struggling with different issues, trying my best to get out of a bad situation.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I honestly feel horrible for you. I was raised by a violent bipolar father, a narcissist of a mother and have struggled with depression all my life. I get a lot of the pain you feel. I was married to an abusive man the first time around and when he began to abuse me physically, I got out. I have been through some of what you have been, although I hesitate to say I know just how you feel because I can't be sure.
But I do wish you the best. I think counseling may be of some help, if nothing else, to help you find the way to help yourself though all this mire of pain, low self esteem and hurt and find your strength. There is so much going on and you deserve better. This is about SO MUCH more than working nights affecting your emotional and mental wellbeing.
I honestly and truly wish you well. My heart goes out to you, truly.
Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
I worked straight days in the CTICU. I am certainly not a senior nurse but all or my treaters for my depression and substance abuse strongly advised me not to work nights as evidence has shown that shift work will just worsen those disorders. I was hospitalized for mental health reasons. I don't see this as creating hardship for other senior nurses. It's just having a reasonable accommodation made for you based on your disease. Those senior nurses just have to accept it ! They're in no position to complain, especially if they don't have those problems.
Since you have said in other posts that you are in a monitoring program you most likely are not permitted to work nights at least that's how most of these programs work. Again your program may be different but hospitals who hire nurses in monitoring as mine did 10 years ago - knew and agreed to these stipulations so it's a bit different than just walking in and saying after orientation. "Oh BTW I can't work nights because of my physical condition." They might actually be able to fire you if you are found to have lied about said condition during a pre-employment physical.
Since you have said in other posts that you are in a monitoring program you most likely are not permitted to work nights at least that's how most of these programs work. Again your program may be different but hospitals who hire nurses in monitoring as mine did 10 years ago - knew and agreed to these stipulations so it's a bit different than just walking in and saying after orientation. "Oh BTW I can't work nights because of my physical condition." They might actually be able to fire you if you are found to have lied about said condition during a pre-employment physical.
Hppy
That isn't correct. People in my monitoring program most certainly can and do work nights. I don't know where you heard that from. There are no specialties or shifts that nurses in my program cannot work, with the sole exception of home health because you are totally alone most of the shift. Other than that, we can work any time, day or night, and anywhere, whether it be in ICUs, EDs, med-surg, clinics, jails, schools, or what have you.
They might actually be able to fire you if you are found to have lied about said condition during a pre-employment physical.
Hppy
No way would you be fired for that. You aren't required to disclose all health conditions to an employer anyway -- pre-employment physicals only ask about health conditions that affect your ability to perform job related tasks, such as lifting and so forth. I never had a job that asks about my psychiatric or substance abuse history. They don't go that in depth.
If anyone ever does ask such a question to people in this thread, I suggest they state that their conditions arose after beginning the job. It isn't as if they can prove otherwise. :)
SmilingBluEyes
20,964 Posts
Your thinking is so skewed, I can't even.