night shift nurses-

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I am a brand-spanking new RN who has been working on my floor in other positions for 1.5 yrs. Starting next week I am moving to the night shift, and it has my nerves going a bit. Please share with me your wisdom and tips on getting through the nights!! How do you keep awake, what is your routine like out of report, what things do you call the doctor for in the middle of the night, and for what things do you wait to call the doc until it is morning? Thanks so much!

Rhonda S., RN

Specializes in Transplant, homecare, hospice.
I also have questions about night shifts. How do people survive in terms of changing sleep patterns, etc.? Is is necessary to keep the same sleep schedule every day/night, whether you are working that night or not? I would love to be able to work nights eventually, but don't know if I will lose my mind getting my body used to it. Advice from anyone about this?

Thanks!

Hi there. Well, I work as a nurse on nights and at first I stayed on a night schedule even on my days off. That was 4 years ago. For the past 6 months or so, my body has been flip flopping. On my days off I've been getting up early. Weird, but it works for me....that way I can make it to appointments....and such...

Are you a night person? I am. It wasn't too hard to get used to working nights. My witching hour...the hour I have the hardest time with is 0300. I always feel so sleepy. After it passes...I'm fine. Coffee or caffinated products used to help...as long as I drank them before 0300. After 0300, then I had trouble sleeping when I got home.

Good luck.

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I am in nursing school and my husband, who is a nurse, works the 7p-7a shift. He is night owl by nature, but even he has trouble sometimes. The trouble mostly occurs on his days off. He wants to stay up during the daytime with me so we can spend time together, but if he allows his work sleep schedule to get off track, it's really distressing to him. He will stay up with me and think he is tired enough to go to bed at 3am or so...he mostly just ends up lying in bed wide awake, unable to go to sleep at hours he is not use to sleeping. It can be hard to try to coordinate two opposite schedules! I encourage him to maintain his work sleep schedule on his days off too. It gives me an opportunity to study during the day while he is sleeping and we can usually manage about six hours together in the evening before I have to go to bed. He will usually get up an hour or so earlier on days he does not have to work, but I think the key to his success lately has been that he is not attempting to go to sleep earlier on his days off.

while he is at work, he takes a book to read or uses that down time to study for his BSN program. I'd suggest taking reading material or some crosswords/logic puzzle books to keep you alert during those nights when it's slow. Eat frequent, but small meals so you avoid getting sleepy after eating. Don't drink too much caffeine as there can be a rebound effect. Try to work out either before or after your shift. Some people get sleepy after a workout, others get perked up. Give yourself an hour or two to "wake up" before going to work. Hubby gets up at 4:30pm to start at 7pm. That way we have a bit of time together while he wakes up and gets his brain moving for the day.

That's about all the advice I can think of, I hope working nightshift works out well for you. Some people LOVE it, others never really adjust. Don't forget that it takes time to change your schedule around and to expect it to be bumpy for the first several weeks.

Adri

P.S. It is very important to communicate to your friends and family that they should not call you during the daytime when you are trying to sleep. You'd think this would be common sense, but it's amazing how little consideration some people have for the nocturnal schedule of others. My mother in law keeps getting mad that she can't call her son at 10 am or 2pm. I guess it boils down to how respectful your friends/family are!

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Sometimes you don't have to call at all- you can just put a note on the chart for the MD and tell the next nurse... or call at maybe 6:30am depending on the situation. Examples are: pt requests cough medicine, pt needs something for constipation, pt c/o a new abd cramp and you don't think it's anything serious, or patient is refusing something semi-important. I always call any time of the night for even slight temps (ie 100.3) and the patient has no tylenol order, high blood pressure, high temp with a tylenol order but the pt has not had a blood culture in several days, any nausea or vomiting, confused little old lady is getting violent and perhaps needs some ativan iv now. I will call in the middle of the night for pain depending on the situation. Don't worry about them yelling at you- they aren't your boss and they are the ones that wanted to be doctors. That's what being a doctor means- you get called up at night. I've never heard of anyone getting in trouble for calling a doctor at a certain time for a silly reason.The good thing about working nights is you don't see the doctors anyways.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I only have 2 sleep rules:

1. I always try to get at least an hour or two nap before work if I was off the night before.

2. I make myself go to bed if I'm still up and putzing around 2 hrs after work if I have to go back that night.

Other than that, I sleep when I want, and I'm awake when I want. Nothing like shopping at 2am, the stores are all yours.

On my off time, whether it's day or night is truly incidental to my sleep patterns. If my kids are here, I stay awake during the day with them, but since my boys are teenagers, on the weekends, they normally stay up till 1 or 2 am WITH me and then we all sleep till 11 or noon.

I've worked nights for the majority of my 13yrs as a nurse, and I would NEVER voluntarily move to days. Being asleep at 1pm is respectable, for me.

~faith,

Timothy.

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