Night shift has changed my life for the worst

TheMoonisMyLantern, ADN, LPN, RN · Aug 9, 2020

Have you considered leaving acute care and doing something else? There are an abundant amount of day shift opportunities outside the hospital setting to consider. Dialysis, office nursing, school nursing, hospice, home health, private duty, LTC/SNF, to name a few.

HiddencatBSN, BSN · Aug 9, 2020

Do you knownwhere you’re moving to? Some places will have day shift openings. What sort of schedule do you work, are you flipping to day schedule on your off days? How are you organizing your sleep schedule right now?

pmaries1816 · Aug 9, 2020

12 hours ago, HiddencatBSN said:
Do you knownwhere you’re moving to? Some places will have day shift openings. What sort of schedule do you work, are you flipping to day schedule on your off days? How are you organizing your sleep schedule right now?

I'm trying to move to Denver Colorado as that is where my mom is and friends and just a support system there besides it being like my home. Right now I'm on night shift. Because of my medications, a few being stimulating, the only way I can function is if I stay up super late the night before the day I work, sleep in as late as I can take my meds, work, come home wait an hour because I still kind of have adrenaline, take my sleeping pills then repeat the next 2 days. After my third I take my regular meds and try to stay up as late as I can so that I can sleep in the evening and flip to a day schedule on my days off. I have to have at least 3 days off in between shifts otherwise I've noticed I really struggle emotionally and almost always have breakdowns. I try to work 3 in a rows so I can always get 3 days off in between but I tend to get moved so it doesn't always work. I'm just one of those people that can't do night shift ?

pmaries1816 · Aug 9, 2020

15 hours ago, TheMoonisMyLantern said:
Have you considered leaving acute care and doing something else? There are an abundant amount of day shift opportunities outside the hospital setting to consider. Dialysis, office nursing, school nursing, hospice, home health, private duty, LTC/SNF, to name a few.

I've thought about doing a clinic, but I'm not sure if I would be happy doing it and just extremely bored. I'm one of those people that likes to constantly be moving and wanted to avoid a desk job. In my population health clinicals we got exposure to many of these kinds of nursing and I didn't really like any of them. We did school nursing, home health, LTC/SNF, community health, and I think a couple others I can't remember. What I do know is that I love connecting with people and building therapeutic relationships as this is one of my strengths and a large part of what attracted me to nursing and the healthcare field. In population health clinicals we had more exposure to community health things, but definitely not all kinds of nursing out there which I'm sure I probably don't know about. If you have any advice.

I really appreciate all of the replies!

HiddencatBSN, BSN · Aug 9, 2020

46 minutes ago, pmaries1816 said:
I'm trying to move to Denver Colorado as that is where my mom is and friends and just a support system there besides it being like my home. Right now I'm on night shift. Because of my medications, a few being stimulating, the only way I can function is if I stay up super late the night before the day I work, sleep in as late as I can take my meds, work, come home wait an hour because I still kind of have adrenaline, take my sleeping pills then repeat the next 2 days. After my third I take my regular meds and try to stay up as late as I can so that I can sleep in the evening and flip to a day schedule on my days off. I have to have at least 3 days off in between shifts otherwise I've noticed I really struggle emotionally and almost always have breakdowns. I try to work 3 in a rows so I can always get 3 days off in between but I tend to get moved so it doesn't always work. I'm just one of those people that can't do night shift ?

I take a long acting stimulant for adhd and what I ended up doing was getting a short acting one for the days I flip. So on the first day I work nights I take a short acting in the morning or skip altogether. Do regular stuff during the early part of the day and get a 3-4 hour nap before I work and take my long acting stimulant before work. Between night shifts come home and wind down and then sleep 7-8 hours then wake up, take my long acting stimulant before I go to work. After my last night shift I try to go to sleep quickly without my usual wind down time and wake up around noon-2, take my short acting stimulant, do regular but lower demand stuff that afternoon and evening and go to bed at a decent or not too late time and wake up the next morning and take my long acting stimulant for a regular day. It’s working better this way than just the long acting alone so you might want to check with your prescriber about whether you could do something like this.

It sounds like you’re ultimately not getting enough sleep. I calculated out how much sleep I’d get if I slept regular nights without flipping and when I plot out my sleep and work schedule I make sure I’m accounting for AT LEAST that much sleep with a bit more because flipping schedules is tiring and you need more sleep with shift work. I’m also thinking about going to 8 hour nights with the plan to stay on that sleep schedule on most of my days off for consistency.

It’s definitely really hard, and adjusting my meds and scheduling/budgeting sleep have helped me a lot. I’m still struggling to work exercise in and to eat healthier, which will also help me feel better. But protecting my sleep and making sure I get enough rather than powering through on adrenaline have helped a lot. The power through on adrenaline is OK on a rare basis but as a regular thing you’re building up a massive sleep deficit. It is super hard to work opposite what everyone else does but putting my sleep before trying to function like a normal person has been what’s made this workable for me for at least the short to mid term.

Have you started researching jobs in Denver? Even if you’re not ready to apply watching job postings can give you an idea of what the market will look like for the area and also for the specialties you’re interested in.

It’s tough and it’s definitely not for everyone but if it’s something you have to do for your goals for the short to midterm I’d try to plot out more sleep for yourself and see if med adjustments might help you do that. If that’s truly not possible it might be time to think about alternate goals or paths to your goal. My current job is unionized and we keep our seniority when we move units so a day shift job for a few years in one position, and then a move to another unit, you keep that seniority for shift bid. And places with good night shift differential often don’t exclusively hire in to nights because there are enough experienced nurses who want/need the differential and therefore stay on nights.

LibraNurse27, BSN, RN · Aug 9, 2020

Sorry you're struggling! Night shift is also hard for me because of meds and other factors. My hospital seems to have more trouble hiring for days and evenings than nights. Our night shift differential is 15%, which attracts people. Also because we have 3 shifts and nights is 11-7 most of the "tasks" are done and sometimes night shift can be less busy... there are always crazy nights though! Anyway, it is possible to find hospitals where you can be hired straight onto day shift. If you can, start looking at job postings in Denver and see if there are some where you can be hired on days. Maybe hospitals that still do days, evenings, and PMs? I'm surprised because the hospital I worked at previously did 12 hr days and nights, and no one wanted days because it was the same ratios, less pay, and super busy. Is it common for it to be hard to get a day position and for people to have to start on nights and wait? I'm curious. Maybe depends on location or hospital? Interesting. I hope you find a day position in a job you enjoy, and that you like living in Denver close to family ?

HiddencatBSN, BSN · Aug 10, 2020

3 hours ago, LibraNurse27 said:
Sorry you're struggling! Night shift is also hard for me because of meds and other factors. My hospital seems to have more trouble hiring for days and evenings than nights. Our night shift differential is 15%, which attracts people. Also because we have 3 shifts and nights is 11-7 most of the "tasks" are done and sometimes night shift can be less busy... there are always crazy nights though! Anyway, it is possible to find hospitals where you can be hired straight onto day shift. If you can, start looking at job postings in Denver and see if there are some where you can be hired on days. Maybe hospitals that still do days, evenings, and PMs? I'm surprised because the hospital I worked at previously did 12 hr days and nights, and no one wanted days because it was the same ratios, less pay, and super busy. Is it common for it to be hard to get a day position and for people to have to start on nights and wait? I'm curious. Maybe depends on location or hospital? Interesting. I hope you find a day position in a job you enjoy, and that you like living in Denver close to family ?

I worked at a hospital where the nightshift differential was $0.50 and they only hired to nights because no one wanted to stay on nights. Everywhere else I’ve worked the night shift is 15-20% differential, current place is 30% weekend nights, and we are always short in my department on nights but you can get entry level jobs on day and evening shifts.

caliotter3 · Aug 10, 2020

Extended care home health provides the flexibility to work only day shift. This area of nursing is also good for establishing relationships and long term satisfaction with your patient’s care. You can take a breather doing this kind of nursing while you look for day shift work in other areas and then, if you want, you can maintain a presence in extended care by working one shift a week or even occasional shifts. Consider this while you look for day shift jobs in the Denver area. Best wishes.

Chickenlady · Aug 10, 2020

Have you tried just staying on a night schedule without flipping?

speedynurse, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Aug 11, 2020

On 8/8/2020 at 5:24 PM, pmaries1816 said:
I'm a new grad nurse that just started night shift in May and I've become very depressed, my anxiety has never been worse and physically I'm down in the dumps. I've gained like 10 lbs and can't seem to get it off no matter how much I work out or what I eat, my neck pain has never been worse mostly because I went over a month without working out or strengthening exercises which always help but can't now because I never have time and I'm always tired. I have IBS but had it under control and hadn't had any problems for 1-2 years and now it's back and pretty bad. I already talked to my managers and they were very supportive and put me on the list for day shift but there's a lot of people ahead of me. I also know I'm going to be moving hopefully some time soon within the year which means I'm going to have to start out on nightshift all over again and then when I want to move on to ICU or a different unit it's going to be the same thing, start on night shift and wait all over again to be on day shift. I am one of those people that just can't do night shift and I just feel hopeless that I'm never going to have my life back. Looking for any advice, please.

I have worked night shift on and off for probably 5 years. However, this last go around has been HARD on nights and I have a transfer in to go to a day schedule in another department. Some people love nights....some people hate them.....some are like me and struggle through them but find the shifts harder every time they go back to nights. This will be my last time on nights this time. There ARE day shifts out there....but you may have to be willing to go to another healthcare system, another department, a nursing speciality that you may not necessarily want, etc. I am actually an experienced nurse with critical care background, but had a rough time finding a good job to transfer to in the middle of the whole COVID crisis. I really do understand struggling with nights.....just keep applying.

jobellestarr · Aug 12, 2020

I can’t work nights either. I literally have to think “ if I was on the day shift, is this something I would call the Dr about?” I kid you not. You might want to check out Denver and see if they have straight shifts and if so, you might get hired for days. I live in AZ and it’s your preference for what shift you want to work.