Night Shift and Marriage

[RestoringHope]

Hello all! I am currently in orientation to my first position as an RN and will be working 12- hour night shifts (7p-7a). I am so thankful to belong to such a great team and am so excited to embark on this new journey, though I am still a bit nervous about transitioning into nights and making time for my husband and staying close. I will be working three nights a week and he works days (8-5) and I wanted to know how other newer or seasoned nurses who work opposite schedules of their spouses still keep their marriage healthy. Any positive insights would be greatly appreciated!

[renardeau, BSN, RN]

Sometimes I think a little bit of distance/time restraint can do wonders for a relationship. Something I've noticed with my relationship is that in college (when we had all the time in the world ) we'd spend lots of time lazing about and doing things concurrently---maybe even side-by-side---but not together. Now, the time we get together is shorter, but consequently more precious, and so we focus on each other more I do find myself thinking about all the time we had together in the past that we took for granted, but in a way, this is also good, because maybe when we are at that point again, we will appreciate it more.