Night shift duty is it better than days???

blondy2061h, MSN, RN · Apr 8, 2010

For $5 more/hr I'd do nights. It's not bad if you do 12s since you still have half your week to be on a normal schedule. I like nights. No managers and doctors bugging you, more laid back, fun crew of coworkers, less visitors to deal with.

JustEnuff2BDangerous, BSN, RN · Apr 8, 2010

It depends on your preferences. Night shift is typically "quieter" than days because the patients are usually sleeping, the doctors are usually not rounding or doing procedures, etc. I prefer days because I like being on the same sleep schedule as my husband (as opposed to me getting home from work just as he is leaving for work), I like the busyness/potential chaos of days, and I am just totally not a night person.. Nighttime is for sleeping, in my opinion. You do get paid more to work nights, which is another bonus of working nights, so it really depends on the reason you're thinking about going to nights.

stylishgurl · Apr 8, 2010

Thank you so much for taking time to give your thoughts.They will help alot for my final decision.

klone, MSN, RN · Apr 8, 2010

A lot of it depends on your personal situation. Some people greatly prefer nights.

Physiologically, night shift work is very hard on your body. People who work nights have greater risk for a lot of diseases such as cancer, obesity, depression.

I worked nights while I was pregnant, and that was okay. Once I had the baby, though, it was awful, as we were firm in our desire to not use daycare as an infant. What that meant for me was that I only got sleep the following day in 1-2 2-hour increments (naptime with baby), and I could never work two consecutive shifts in a row (because I was so sleep deprived, it wasn't safe for me or my patients). Which meant that I basically worked every other night. The day I had off, was spent trying to catch up on my sleep. I was chronically sleep deprived and was in a fog for 15 months. And my baby was a GOOD sleeper. If you have a baby who doesn't like to nap for more than 30 minutes at a time, when are YOU going to get sleep?

My husband finally told me I needed to either go on antidepressants (chronic sleep deprivation made me very cranky, irritable and anxious) or get a day shift position. I was willing to leave the area I loved (OB) to find ANYTHING during the day. Luckily, a day shift position opened up in my unit, and I've been working days for almost a year now.

It's amazing how much better I feel, after having worked nights for 3 years.

Alas, we are moving next month and I will be going back to a night shift position. But my baby (who is now 2) will go to daycare so that I can get some true sleep during the day. Getting 2 hours of sleep after working all night is just not safe.

So, long story short - if you plan to work nights with a baby, my recommendation would be to utilize childcare so that you can get real sleep during the day. Don't do what I did.

I would recommend considering the position only if you know you can go back to days if you hate it. Working nights is HARD on the body. When I worked nights, I needed uppers (Provigil) and downers (Ambien) to function (not while I was pregnant or breastfeeding, though). That's not a lifestyle I would willingly choose for any long period of time.

nurse4hearts · Apr 8, 2010

I work nights by choice and I love it. It works way better with the kids. I get to spend more time with my kids. When I worked days (12 hours) I would leave and they were in bed and when I got home they were just getting in to bed. Now on nights I get to come home and have breakfast with them, they go to school and I spend supper with them. Works much nicer. And the "quieter" work shift is a bonus as well!

Peanut7 · Apr 8, 2010

I wouldn't do anything but nights in a hospital. Less chaos. Of course the older I get, the more it takes a toll. You could consider that with an extra $5 an hour, that's an extra $9360 a year. I'm not sure how much child care will cost you but if you have someone that can help you take care of the baby during the day when you're sleeping I'd say go for it. Ask her if you can test it out first.

JulieCVICURN, BSN, RN · Apr 8, 2010

I love nights. Not only do you not have family and administration breathing down your neck, but you get paid a lot more! And usually the people working on nights are less type A personalities and more laid back and fun to work with. Also? No docs hassling you. The downside is that when you do have to call docs in the middle of the night they're usually pretty cranky if it's not a good reason.

mmmc2 · Apr 8, 2010

If you think that nights will be easier, then you will, most likely, be in for a rude awakening. I have worked days and nights, and nights are by far harder (in my opinion)...generally less help (none or fewer PCTs, CNA's) and often higher patient ratios. And don't think for one second that your patients will all sleep through the night...that is rare. Mostly because we have to wake them all of the time for vitals, labs, etc but also because it's just noisy in the hospital. You will be caring for your patients your whole shift because they won't be going off the floor for radiology and no PT coming in as they do on days...They'll be all yours :)

With all that being said...There are positives to working nights too. It's generally less "busy" in regards to the number of people passing through the unit such as doctors, students and family members. Because of this, I love nights. I won't work days ever again. And the pay is better...

So honestly, it depends on what you are comfortable with. If you don't mind all of the people around, then days are good. If you prefer it to be a little less "busy" (and you don't mind calling doctors after hours) then nights will be for you. But whatever you choose, do what's right for you and your baby.

Juggling kids and nursing is hard. No matter which shift you work, you may not be able to see them off to school (when they are old enough to go). And that is what I find personally hard. Before nursing, I used to get to see my kids off to school every day. Now I don't get to do that a few days a week. But the upside, is that I am available during the day for school events, and that is very important to me (or even if one of my kids gets sick).

Which ever shift you choose, I wish you luck and hope that everything works out for you!

RedhairedNurse, BSN, RN · Apr 8, 2010

I do nights now but have requested days. I use to be an exercise freak before I started working in the hospital, luckily, I've recently desired to start exercising again and it feels so good. But, I gained close to 40 pounds with this change in my life of working nights. During the winter months, I was so depressed because I never saw the sun. Now that Spring has come, I'm working out again, losing weight and feeling much better. I never had a history of depression and refused to take anti-depressants. I knew the cause of my depression and didn't feel like a little pill was the answer.

I chose nights for my kids. I can see them off in the morning when I get home from work, make sure their hair looks nice, something I sure don't trust my husband with, and it just feels good to see them before they go to school. I'm also home when they get home.

But the downside of nightshift.....I'm seeing a lot of night shift workers getting cancer and also see many obese nurses. I do have to take sleeping pills to sleep during the day which I don't like. The seasonal depression was so bad this past winter that I just don't want to go through that again. I've been given the opportunity to 'try out' days for a few months and have the option to go back if I want. So we'll see.....I don't know how it's going to work.

traumalover, RN · Apr 8, 2010

I did three years on days and am on nights now when I relocated, and I LOVE NIGHTS. Fun people, less family, no administration, no pt/ot/speech....and in the ICU if it's busy it's usually a really sick crashing pt. Or two, or ten. the differential kicks butt. I work three or four 12's in a row, and then have a "normal" three days a week. I thought I would hate nights, but I love them. Don't even want days now!

I also worked nights when i first started out and didn't like it, because I struggled with sleeping. Must have grown out of it, cause now it's no problem.

Dalzac, LPN, LVN, RN · Apr 8, 2010

I worked nights for many many years, 35 to be exact. I had to work days when my kids became teenagers because if I wasn't home at night, neither were they. Precious little hoodlums. As soon as they moved out I went back to nights. I could get my work done. No one taking the chart. No traffic, ancillairy depts, no interns or residents, I could do patient care without interuptions. All I ever saw was Respitory doing vent checks etc. When you called a code, just the code team responded and not 5 million people that thought their input is priceless. And the most important......No Visitors unless things were dire!

Now the down side, I gained over 100 pounds. I have lost 90 of that since I retired. The best way to work in my opinion is 12 hr shift and never more than 3. The funny thing though now is I can't sleep at night and I retired 5 yrs ago. My best sleep now is 5 am to 2pm and my grandkids give me hell because they want to hang out while I am asleep.