NIGHT SHIFT CENTRAL!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I've been a night shift RN for a looong time. I also do research on issues related to night shift work/ sleep problems and the 'domestic inconvenience' of shift work in general.

I'm currently doing a massive project on how healthcare institutions impact the sleep of their night shift workers, and how they allocate certain resources differently between night and day shifts.

So, I'm putting it out there- share your shift adaptation tips and tricks, your vents and rants - all things night shift related.

Why? Because everybody knows- all the cool people work nights! :)

I agree with everyone's comment about night shift, so far. I have this feeling of a general disregard for night shift people, and the fact that we work just as hard as day shift. We catch a lot of mistakes, too. People in the hospital don't all sleep.

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I have not had night shift yet. because I am a nursing student but I think it would be exciting and night shift is a good exprience.:nurse:

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I like nightshift for the most part.I think it's funny how some day shift people think we sit and twiddle our thumbs for 12 hours because patients "sleep" at night.HAHAHA!!!! Now most people with sundowners are awake all night and bed alarms go off, and there's fluids to hang /meds to give,and vital signs to get and turns to do and sugars to get.I never get to be bored at night.If its slow I get moved to ER or ob.Our OB unit is ALWAYS full and so I am always keeping busy at night.Which I like cuz it makes time go faster.Nights are good for me.They just have " mandatory" nursing staff meetings 4 pm to 6pm and if u wrk the night before and night of the meeting it sucks.We have a meeting in a couple weeks starting at 1 pm to 2pm so nightshift people who live further away are expected to wake up super early and be at this meeting for an hour while day shift wrkn that day are excused.For the most part night shift rocks:)

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

where can i get the best blackout curtains for my room? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

I work 50/50 days and nights, 12 hour shifts at a large urban trauma and transplant centre. I can vouch for the huge number of extraneous people hanging around and getting in the way on days. It's really revealing when you pull into the parkade at 6:30 in the morning on Christmas Day and it's virtually empty... unlike the average weekday morning when you might have drive around a bit to find a good spot.

On nights it's a whole different world. I work in an ICU where for the most part our assignments are 1:1 and on nights we're a little more relaxed about breaks. So when the feces hits the oscillating air movement unit, there's usually nobody around to help. We don't have a nursing attendant or a unit clerk on nights, the pharmacy is closed and if there's a STAT med needed that isn't in the night cupboard then STAT might be an hour later, after the on-call pharmacist has been yanked out of his nice warm bed. We often admit more patients on nights than on days, and they're usually critically ill. Many of our codes happen on nights too, especially the ones that end in ECPR. There's nowhere in this building at night to get healthy, nutritious hot food, but we've got a dozen or so vending machines filled with soda, candy and salty snacks. As someone else mentioned, we often arrive at the beginning of the shift to the cold, congealed leftovers from some admin-provided meal but nothing similar for the night staff. All the special events planned by any group will be timed to make it unlikely that night staff can attend - pancake breakfasts, staff appreciation barbecues, holiday teas... all after most of us are home and snoring.

As I get older I find it harder and harder to flip back and forth between days and nights. Our rotation has us coming off nights on Monday and back on days on Wednesday. (It was designed by a computer and an Excel spreadsheet... as long as it meets the scheduling provisions in our collective agreement it doesn't matter if it's killing the staff.) The options are few. There are only a limited number of straight-day or straight-night positions available and they're snapped up by those with the most seniority. I don't think I could work permanent nights since I sleep poorly during the day, even with all the appropriate actions and a good dose of zopiclone. I can't function on four hours of mediocre daytime sleep for very long. I worry that one of these days I'm going to miss the curve at the bottom of the hill that leads onto the bridge and have to call in dead for my next shift.

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Specializes in geriatrics, IV, Nurse management.
Who works 8 hour shifts?

Actually 8 hour night shifts are very common. I haven't worked 12's in years :)

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Love it... I don't have to talk to anyone once my patient goes to sleep. It's great!

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

I work in the ER... and are no sleeping patients in the ER! Well, maybe the drunks.

So we are plenty busy at night but with less resources. This means I get my cardio in pushing stretchers to CT/Xray!

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I work in the ER... and are no sleeping patients in the ER! Well, maybe the drunks.

So we are plenty busy at night but with less resources. This means I get my cardio in pushing stretchers to CT/Xray!

I do private duty so I'm all alone. I will say that listening to a vent in a dark quiet house makes it very easy to get sleepy, but thankfully my best friend also works private duty at nights so we have fun texting and sending silly snap chat photos.

One thing I do dislike is my boss will call at all hours of the day and then when I call back the next day to return the phone call she acts frustrated that she couldn't get a hold of me. uh... sorry I was sleeping and the office closes at 5! Give me your cell phone number, I'll be happy to return the call at 3am! :p

Edit: And while there is a lot of downtime with my particular patients, I fit a TON of nursing care into just a couple of hours when the patient is actually awake. Time management is no issue here!

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Specializes in Inpatient Oncology/Public Health.
Who works 8 hour shifts?

I work 3 8s. And I've worked nights since I became a nurse 7 years ago. Nothing to add really, though. Agree with everything said:)

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I work 8 hr shifts (unless I am mandated then its 16). Like the camaraderie that we have, hate the unplugged crockpot in the break room with dried out leftovers from the staff appreciation pot lucks.

i do find it hard to have my only contact with management be through emails and the occasional mandatory meeting. I feel like they don't get a chance to know us at all.

Also hate the emails with all the new tasks they think we should be doing on nights but then constantly run at minimal staffing and wonder why things don't get done.

End of rant!!

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where can i get the best blackout curtains for my room? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Amazon...

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