Night shift -- can you just take it easy, please?

[SoundofMusic]

I'm a day shift nurse. I usually handle 5 patients on days on a busy cardiac tele unit. On any given day shift, there are usually ten different tasks on 5 different patients, many more demanding family members with zillions of questions and demands, interns who sit around dreaming up new stat orders to write, never enough techs or techs who want to help, endless lines of little old ladies who need to visit the bathroom 10 times a day . . . managers who seem to rove around, checking out paperwork and whether you've fufilled each and every educational requirement scheduled.

...If I don't get to that ONE urine test, or that ONE timed blood draw ...can you just stop rolling your eyes for once and just HELP me make up the slack? Surely you've got at least a few free minutes at night to do this ...

I've worked nights, too. I know how it is . ..you get busy, too ...but you DON'T, I repeat, you DO NOT have to deal with what we do on days ...diets, tests, procedures,, and many more meds to give. It's likely I am NOT going to get it all done ...not w/ 5 demanding patients, NOT with discharges and admissions ...no way, no how. I am also NOT going to reach every doctor and solve every single problem all day long so YOU can have a "quiet" night and not have to call a doctor once in a while ....

Sorry -- know I'm going to be flamed for this ...but I just can't stand it anymore. Nurses need to work together and stop putting down their co-workers constantly for not completing every single freaking task in one shift.

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

I worked in the ED/ER just recently.

I had to take over patients who were sitters (sitting down waiting for a bed), and bed bound patients. Nearly ALL the patients who had medications written up and who had been admitted that morning (some very early), had NO medications ordered, and because we got so busy, nobody checked until we had to give 2000 meds - and found we didn't have them all. And I spent half my night with little old ladies who couldn't toilet themselves - one who had been given a mountain of stuff to help her bowels move - so she kept saying she needed the toilet, then nothing would come out. Of course I had to sit and stay with them all each time - this is what wastes a lot of time, when management won't pay for sitters to stay with lols/confused peoples and do these tasks.

Nights can be busy but it's a different kind of busyness. I agree that days are worse - more people haggling you, everyone needs a bath, more toileting (it seems) etc to be done. These last 2 duties take up LOTS of time, IMO.

But I suppose I just get mentally resigned to it - if something hasn't been done, we hand it over, that's what nursing is about. I mean I transferred a patient (she wasn't specifically my patient), to a ward - no prior h/over had been done, she had no cannula and no drugs sent with her. The ward nurse was less than impressed, but hey! no-one had had time to do anything for her - she hadn't even been on a bed b4 going up to the ward - or everyone had just assumed she had these things.

Days ARE crazy, I have to admit that, and some tasks can be handed over. I don't tell anyone off, though I might mentally sigh and curse in my head. I just get on with it now, and if I don't finish my stuff, I hand all THAT over. Too bad if the oncoming RN doesn't like it - it's part of the job.

All I can say is, get used to it.

[darkangel83]

The nursing world would be a much better place if we all respected each other a little more! This day shift/night shift divide is absolutely ridiculous...and I work both on a very regular basis!

I, too, believe that nursing is 24 hours and that sometimes things just don't get done (this goes for ALL shifts)! All I know is that I do my very best each shift to make sure the next shift is 'set up for success' (I like that phrase!). When I come in for my shift, all I expect is that the person before has also done their very best!

Yes, sometimes there's a train wreck to clean up (day or night)...interstitial IVs, missed orders, bypassing catheters, angry family members...or heck, maybe even somebody in cardiac arrest, but it's all part of the job description! And really, if you haven't worked the shift you are taking over from (day or night)...you don't know how busy it was or everything that happened...so my advice...suck it up! Because the next time it might be you leaving something for someone else!

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Each shift is a different busy. I work permanent nights. I'm one RN for 30 people, with one NA. I give evening meds, settle people to bed, chart, stock for days, complete care plans, check orders, sign requisitions, clean, turn and change 25 people, and wash 7 people for days.

I'm one nurse. Oh yeah...monitor IVs, get drugs from the night cupboard, and call the doc who yells for everything.

Yes, days are busy....but so are nights. You also have to be more resourceful on nights because there is no support staff where I work. However, I do what needs to be done. It isn't a competition.

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

I've never understood justifying a "my shift is worse" rant by saying "I've worked the opposite shift too, and it's easier". OK, so you've worked both shifts...unless you worked MY shift that I just ended, you have no idea how busy I was or what I had to deal with. We all know some shifts are just insane. Why not give the other nurse the benefit of the doubt that they may have had that kind of shift? Now if there is a pattern of one nurse consistently not doing their job, then speak directly to that nurse about the problem and if it doesn't get solved use your chain of command. Easy Peasy.

[TraumaJunkie2010]

I will disclaimer my post by stating that I have never worked nights.

With that being said, I work in a VERY busy ER, and we see twice as many patients on days as we do nights. BUT, nights tend to get the GSWs, drunk-driving MVCs, stabbings, etc and less of the coughs, MIs, UTIs, etc. In my opinion that pretty much evens things out.

When I get report from nights, if something is left for me to do, my response is ALMOST always "Don't worry about it, I'm here for 12 hours". Now, that doesn't mean I'm not going to make you do the hemocult that was ordered at 0400, haha.

I always give nights the same courtesy I would expect them to give me. And most of the night shift nurses are absolutely fabulous. There are the few that want to come on shift and sit on there butts, but they are few. I've seen my dayshift coworkers ream a nightshift nurse for not calling report on a patient who got a ready bed on the floor at 0659. This is ridiculous in my opinion.

We are a team, and we are turning the patient's care over to another nurse. It's not like we're sending them to the floor or ICU with things left over. Do your job, and quit whining about it. I get so tired of hearing nurses bash other shifts for things left undone. For the most part, I don't care what you weren't able to get done on your shift, just let me know so that I can do it.

Sorry for the ramble, but this is something that really gets me.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

OP, you need to change jobs, or go to the shift you say isn't possible for your body to do, or start working on getting better staffing for day shift. Or just do what you can do and don't worry about or be stressed by criticism from night shift.

You could ask your manager if your work is satisfactory, where you could improve, and let her know what the obstacles are, get her advice, etc. if you think she's on your side. If you don't think so, keep quiet. Remember, the manager is usually more concerned with her own boss' view than the view or issues her staff have. So she's probably the enemy.

Some nurses like to complain and can never be satisfied. Some c/o are legitimate. Sort of depends on your work's culture - like having to start an IV on a pt one got only 5 minutes before shift's end. Nursing is 24/7/365 for bedside care staff. That does NOT mean it's ok to dump work on the next shift. But it also does not mean that the oncoming shift can never receive a pt who needs some work done.

Conclusion: Toughen up your own attitude and quit worrying about complainers. Work faster, stay later, leave nothing behind. Change jobs, go to a different shift. Can you work 3-11? There would be only 1 meal, lots of visitors, fewer orders, fewer ancillary staff disciplines around, but you have to get folks ready for beds and do a huge med pass at 8 p.m. or so.

Maybe you should try Home Health or Doc's office or other non-direct care in a hospital. School nurse. good luck.

[Mulan]

I'm just tired of doing my shift and half of someone else's every single night I work.

Isn't that the truth!

There are always those nurses that you absolutely hate to follow behind.

However, they seem to be ones that management thinks of as golden girls a lot of the time. LOL

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

I suspect the OP had a beef with a specific nurse and a specific incident that frustrated and angered her.

The post encompassed ALL night shift nurses though. My night shift back went up when I read the GENERALIZATION that nights were easier, and the nurses who worked them did not carry their weight. I don't believe that was the intent of the post. It's just what I absorbed after 24 hrs awake.

I'm sorry the OP has been treated poorly by nurses she passes report to. I'm sorry that the nurses who follow her don't appreciate that she makes their jobs easier. I just wish her post had not made me feel like I was one of them.

[jjjoy, LPN]

The day/night thing seems like a distractor from the root of the problem - poor support/low resources.

The eye-rolling attitude described is not uncommon in nursing, unfortunately. And it *really* grates on me - evidence perhaps that my skin isn't thick enough for many nursing jobs?

As another noted, nurses with this attitude would likely huff and eye-roll no matter what... if they were taking report from night shift for day shift, they'd huff and eye-roll. If everything was completely done upon reporting for their shift, these are probably the types who'd then huff about that person making everyone else look bad by having everything done.

Still annoying, though...

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Just to remind night shifters, think about the following very time consuming tasks we are required to do that you are not required to do, or are usually unnecessary on nights:

1. Provide a daily report to case managers and/or attend rounds.

2. Walk patients off the unit at discharge and/or when needing to be accompanied to test and RN to leave the floor to go with them.

3. Arrange for diets, re-enter diet orders, take away trays, fulfill diet requests, fill pitchers, grab coffee, grab condiments ...generally play waitress for THREE meals on your shift.

4. Receive calls from family members wanting updates, or just wanting to talk to a nurse -- sometimes as often as every 2 hours. Call them if requested. Connect them to doctors for updates. Generally fulfull every request they make concerning your patient. Daytime is when they do this ...nights they go home to sleep. Usually. (I realize SOME do spend the night and then they can be a pain to you -- but it's not as often).

5. Tests, tests, tests. Patients who return from tests ...needing frequent vitals, needing tele on, tele off, needing boots, transfers, etc, etc.

6. Orders non-stop. Most orders are put in on days ...docs don't like being called at night and we all know it. They do their orders early and you have to get most of not all of them done on your shift.

7. Admissons (yes, you do them on nights), but most discharges on are done on days. Discharges come with: med reconciliation/education, getting signatures, more education, taking out IV's, helping pts get dressed and ready to leave.

This does not include the occasional code, elopment, fall, or whatever crisis might happen on any given day. Doesn't inlude arguments, difficult patients, or having to explain and educate on each and every med given at 1000.

Need I go on? And let me ask you this ..what happens when your tech staff is short or unwilling to helop ...now we dayshift nurses get to add baths, filling water pitchers, and vitals/sugar checks to our lists . . .

How do you think we can get it all done??? It's not possible. It just isn't. I wish more night shift would realize this.

I have known many a day shift nurse who burns out and goes to nights because they can't stand families, docs, managers, and all the rest of the people we deal with on days ...many of those nurses seem to become some of the most demanding and uncompassionate nurses towards the day shift, from my experience.

Remember, please ..what is is like to work the day shift, before you criticize.

I'd LOVE to do nights if I could, but my body can't do it for some reason. And I really appreciate night shift people who do this, because I can't. But I wish they'd appreciate ME and all i do on days ...and try to take it a bit more easy on me at 1930 at change of shift.

I think on both shifts we are busy. I thnk we need to be respectful of each other and not devalue our peers. Codes, falls, admissions, elopements, educate patients and deal with irate families. They hear MD's screaming at 2 AM because the K of 3.0 wasn't called on days and the patient just had a 6 beat run of V Tach. It takes more than one person to care for a patient in 24 hours and be respectful to the following shift by accomplishing the most possible in the time allotted. Maybe they would feel more appreciative of you if you were more appreciative of them.

Frankly, as a manager and supervisor I get pretty sick of all the whining between the shifts each claiming they are the over worked dumped on shift. If EVERYONE chatted less about how abused they are and how much the previous shift left to be done and just starting brain storming and goal oriented and attack the left tasks........more would be accomplished and that would leave less to be left over for the next shift.......

I have found, however, that the loudest complainers were the biggest offenders when the shoe was on the other foot.......they know how they "left it for nights" and resent the same tactic being used on them.....just food for thought......:)

[tma0312]

I completely agree with OP! At my last job, I did half days, half nights every 6 weeks. Day shift was insanely busy and totally exhausting. Night shift was, well, easy as pie, even when the staffing wasn't great! And those night shift nurses were sooooo mean to the dayshift nurses when stuff didn't get done. I mean, seriously, I KNOW you are not doing anything important between the hours of 12am and 4am! I work that shift, too! I know how you all sit there at chat and gab and laugh so loud the patients complain!

I just gave up and stopped caring whether or not they got angry at me for stuff not getting done. Our unit manager knew this was a problem and she even made night shift nurses work a few day shifts once to give them a taste of days. None of them could hack it!

But of course, every facility is different. Some managers may not be so understanding.

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

This has NOTHING to do with day shift versus night shift. It has EVERYTHING to do with nurses not realizing that this is a 24/7 job and low working morale. Geesh !