Hello, I am a relatively new grad RN with several months experience in acute care as a RN and 2.5 years experience as a CNA in memory care prior to becoming an nurse. Long story short...I took a swing at hospital nursing and found that it wasnt a good fit for me and I wasn't very happy so now I'm looking for something different.
I've been offered a part-time night shift position in a local nursing facility that is minutes from my house and I am very much considering taking the offer. I am very nervous, though, about the high nurse:patient ratios (in this case approx 1:40-42) on night shift and about the fact that I've never worked nights before either. I am kind of hoping that my experience as a CNA will help me adjust a little to LTC nursing...but I'm just not sure...
I have a few questions for you guys who have loads more experience with this than I do:
1) What, typically, are nursing responsibilities when working night shift and how does your shift typically run?
2) Is this a normal nurse:patient ratio for a night shift and how do you handle these high ratios? I knew it would be much higher than it is on days and evenings but I don't know if this is "normal".
Any tips or advice would be much appreciated as well!
