New ED job 2:30p-3a! Advice..

[Lev]

Hi Everyone! I just accepted an offer to work evening shift (2:30p-3a) at a very busy, huge ED. I will be orienting on days (because that's when preceptors are available). I heard (from reading around on allnurses) that 3p-3a is the busiest shift and you literally do not have time to sit down and you may be dumped on. Is this all true?! (I know i'm asking the same people who probably answered before). I am very excited for this opportunity and I will learn a ton and their ED nurses get to drop central lines which is great experience! Any advice for a med-surg nurse transitioning to ED? I've taken ACLS already. I won't have to deal with the peds patients (who I am scared of) until I get comfortable as an ED nurse.

[DayDreamin ER CRNP]

I used to work 3p-3a (be there at 2:30). It wasn't horrible. With our ED, we had a 12-bed pod that opened at 3pm so we got a lot of patients from the lobby at one time. I don't think it was a dumping area but it was usually filled pretty quickly with the patients that had been waiting. Those people were usually only "semi" sick. They didn't really need an immediate bed but didn't need to just go home either. We would also get a fair amount of ambulance patients - again, not horribly sick but we would get the occasional stroke or stemi pt. Rarely would that pod get a really high acuity patient though. If the patient in that area needed to be tubed, we would do it then send it up to the pod with the "big beds" where they could get more 1:1 care.

Yep, it sure was busy but I enjoyed it.

I did not, however, enjoy the time of the shift. While I did get some decent dark sleep time in, it was hard to sleep much past 10 or 11am in a neighborhood.

I went to 7p-7a for another 8-10 months then made the switch to days. I learned more about traumas on 7p-7a but got sicker, more critical patients during the day. I would strongly suggest working nights 7p-7a for a few months if you can swing it. I think it would teach you a lot about that patient population and there is a different "bond" with night shift folks. I can't really explain it but there just IS.

best of luck!

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

I'm going to revive my old thread and ask people for their advice on time management. What tricks have you learned to help you keep up?