Night Nursing: Precepting and Perception PART 2

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This is a continuation of my first post: Night Nursing: Precepting and Perception

First of all, I want to say thank you all to people who had CONSTRUCTIVE thoughts about my perceptions of night nursing others were feeding me. As I said before, I was going into this with an open mind but I was afraid I would not learn much in night nursing because there just does not seem like much to do, and I have only ever worked 7-3pm, 3-11pm, or 7 am to 7 pm as a tech.

Second, for those of you who decided to not really listen to what I said and gave knee jerk creations, well if you treat patients like that you really need to start thinking about a new career.

Now that I have one precept day under my belt, I have to say there are many people who do have a misconception about night shift nursing. After my first night, we really never had to do much patient education (which is one aspect of nursing I love), or consults with the interdisciplinary team. However, the night was constantly busy, and this was at a community hospital in a city of 27,000 people (in 2010) - in 2000 24,000 people, which also serves various rural communities as well. We had a code violet on the floor, and the preceptor showed me some really awesome efficient ways to do stuff you never learned in lab (or even in clinical!). Also, I got to start my second ever IV cath because one of our patients (not the code violet) was very confused and snapped the IV line in half going to the bathroom. Saline was dripping on the floor and patient was flailing the IV arm all over the place with blood coming out. The preceptor let me start the IV and got it the first try. He is showing me really good ways to organize time and get things done efficiently while leaving on time as well.

So in one night, we had two patients who were very confused, one violent; one iso patient, one post op patient, lots of piggy back meds, and a really good preceptor that was willing to teach me hands on efficiency while on the floor.

It was a really good night. I go back in tonight. Night shift can get busy, it is a different kind of busy. So for anyone concerned about night shift precepting, I would say take some of the good advice only a few people on here gave me when they understood my apprehension: It is a good experience, but like anything else, only if you have a good preceptor. I have a really good one - and if you may not be happy with your preceptor, talk to your instructor about it. Do not be afraid to speak out - if you feel like you are not getting the experience you need to prepare you, talk to your instructors.

Your preceptorship is what you make of it. I was apprehensive about night shift at first. After my first night, though, those misconceptions were immediately cleared up.

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Dude, just because the people in your first thread corrected you and actually told you what night nurses do doesn't mean it wasn't constructive. Secondly the comment "for those of you who decided to not really listen to what I said and gave knee jerk creations, well if you treat patients like that you really need to start thinking about a new career" is used by almost everyone on here who gets upset because they were told the truth and got their feelings hurt. You are not going to earn many friends like that. You made an incorrect assumption in your first thread and people corrected you, own it and move on. Im glad you enjoyed your first night shift and have a little better experience about everything. Nights are a whole different animal than days, both have their ups and downs.

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It's not about earning friends. I went to my first night with an open mind, and some people gave a knee jerk reaction instead of actually listening to what I was saying.

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Specializes in Telemetry.
It's not about earning friends. I went to my first night with an open mind, and some people gave a knee jerk reaction instead of actually listening to what I was saying.

Weird. I remember your post and I didn't see any evidence of an open mind on your part.

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Weird. I remember your post and I didn't see any evidence of an open mind on your part.

Perfect example of picking and choosing only what you want to hear...

I know this is a large post and sorry about that. I am someone who tries to be proactive, so...after all that I have said, here is my question: How can I make the most of this placement to do well? I was hoping for day shift because I see how active the nurses are with assessments, passing medications, new admits, discharge and patient education. I really want this to be a positive experience, but how can that be when there is a perception that there is really nothing to do?

That perception has now disappeared since my last two night shifts.

Anyway, for those who may not think there is not much to do on night shift, trust me there is. If you receive a night shift placement for your capstone class, don't be discouraged what other people tell you about it...and you will get the "eww" and the look of "so sorry" thrown your way. It will be an excellent learning experience - and having an excellent preceptor (like I do), you will get to do lots of things and learn how to do real nursing on the floor.

In fact, I took someone's advice from my previous post who understood my concerns but told me to give it a try and I would be surprised. I am thankful to those of you who really took time to understand where I was coming from, that classmates were the ones feeding that perception (and I admitted that I never worked night shift), and to encourage me to stick with it and try not to change.

I would like to thank some of them by name, and sorry if I missed anyone:

Mavrick, MPKH, MrNurse(x2), HeatherMaizy, Nonyvole, AceOfHearts

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There still should be ample opportunities for patient teaching on the night shift. That's not exclusive to day shift nursing.

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