Need advice-Night shift LPN at LTC

jschut, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2004

What kind of advice are you looking for as to how to survive?

Personally, I survive by getting my work done and making sure that my patients are well taken care of.....

As far as my family goes, they have survived for the last 3 years of me working nights, and I'm sure a few more isn't going to hurt them! :)

J Lynn · Jul 8, 2004

I have to travel 80 miles to get a job where I can work in a great teaching hospital and only work 3 12's a week at night. The advantage I have is they have their own hotel for nurses to stay in while they work. The pay is the best I could find for an LPN.

If you search outside your immediate area, you might be able to find a hospital in which you can work weekend nights and make full time hours. They usually pay real good for that since that shift is hard to fill. Good luck.

Dixiedi · Jul 8, 2004

I have to travel 80 miles to get a job where I can work in a great teaching hospital and only work 3 12's a week at night. The advantage I have is they have their own hotel for nurses to stay in while they work. The pay is the best I could find for an LPN.
If you search outside your immediate area, you might be able to find a hospital in which you can work weekend nights and make full time hours. They usually pay real good for that since that shift is hard to fill. Good luck.

Nice! Where are you? Sounds like an excellent opportunity!

I lonve home care, but I am starting to get the itch to return to hospital (a lot of that deals with wanting to finally complete ADN and want/need tuition reimbusment.) But I am really beginning to miss acute care.

I've noticed all the CEUs I've been taking lately (I take a lot of them online) are geared at acute care and less and less am I taking those geared to LTC/rehab.

Blackcat99 · Jul 9, 2004

:) Thanks all for your great ideas! I am open to all kinds of advice. What kind of problems have you encountered on night shift? Do some people call in every Saturday night? Do you ever have lazy people who don't want to do any work? Are people allowed to go out at night to pick up food? What kind of problems did you find on night shift and how did you deal with it?

Destinystar · Jul 9, 2004

nites is good b/c u dont have to deal with the nursing administration, meal times, md visits, family, telephone calls etc. just have to make sure you get your rest. i would make sure i knew what fingersticks and insulins i had to give, made sure i had g-tube supplies. start doing my charting, cause you never know when someone is going to expire or go to the hospital, so want to stay on top of your work. the biggest problem i had was staff calling in sick, staff sleeping on the job, & trying to stay awake. :)

i am broke so will be returning to nursing next month. what advice would you give to an lpn working noc shift in order to survive. i need the money bad and the hospitals are looking for per diem lpn's only.thanks

donmomofnine · Jul 9, 2004

At the facilities I have worked, the main problem seemed to be that there were more call offs than for other shifts. It was harder to replace the call offs also, and staffing was sometimes minimal to start with. Also, in my experience, some night shift staff tended to not be "people" persons, and that is why they enjoyed 11-7.

Blackcat99 · Jul 9, 2004

:) Thanks DestinyStar and donmomofnine for your great advice! Yes I will take your advice and do my chanting when it happens instead of waiting till the end of my shift to chart it. As for call-offs I quess I will be praying that no one calls in on the nights I work. :chuckle

obeyacts2 · Jul 9, 2004

The general rule is : night shift is both the best and worst shift. When things are quiet its the best. But, if things go bad (deaths, emergencies, disasters) NOCS is when it happens, invariably.

laura

Mister Chris, MSN, NP · Jul 14, 2004

:) Thanks DestinyStar and donmomofnine for your great advice! Yes I will take your advice and do my chanting when it happens instead of waiting till the end of my shift to chart it. As for call-offs I quess I will be praying that no one calls in on the nights I work. :chuckle

Yes great advice - also do not get pushed into bad habbits by lazy night shifters, there are some about. Most of all make sure you eat and drink regularly and get a good rest when you are off. Turn of the telephone - I divert all my land line calls to my answering machine on zero volume and put my mobile on silent mode so it can store messages and numbers silently. Put in the ear plugs, on with the blind-fold, snuggle down in bed and sleep!

Keep up your great positive attitude, always.

Good luck.

Mister Chris :zzzzz :zzzzz

Blackcat99 · Jul 17, 2004

:) Thanks for your messages. I go to my job interview this Wed. I think I will definately get the job.

Betty_SPN_KS, LPN · Jul 19, 2004

I don't mind working nights. It takes some adjusting and getting used to. I work 3 12-hour nights a week and I have to adjust my sleeping times, which gets a little tricky. If you have school-age kids, I like nights better than fulltime evening shift, because at least you get to see your kids. Fulltime evenings you don't much.