Night Shift Nursing

Nurses Stress 101

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Hey everyone,

I've been working the night shift (obviously since I'm online this late) steadily since last February, and I was just wondering what everyone's schedule is like. I usually try to stick to nights on my days off and will go to bed at 3 or 4 in the morning and sleep in until the afternoon. I seem to need a lot more sleep when I work the night shift and cannot make myself get up before noon on my days off. My eating schedule gets all messed up as well on my days off. Sometimes I'll only eat 1 or 2 meals a day, definitely not healthy, if it's my first night off I'll sleep until 5 or 6 PM, especially if I worked a lot of days in a row, and then I'll eat around 9 or 10, and go back to sleep around midnight or 1 AM to try and be awake a little during the day the next day. How do you spend your days off? Does anyone else have as many problems as I do with the night shift?

mike, this paranoia..... i have picked up on that from some of the permanent night shift people. but i don't know if that is caused by them working nights or if that is just by chance. perhaps they are just paranoid people working night shift nursing jobs? not made paranoid because of working night shift?

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Specializes in General adult inpatient psychiatry.

I did the same thing when I worked nights, OP, and I'm actually considering going back to that schedule. I like the patient interaction on days but there are tooooo many Type A personalities and the only reason I sleep at night anymore is because I run around all day and am passed out on the couch by 2100. Getting up at 0500 is madness and I'm tired of fighting the alarm clock. I could roll out of bed at 1700 for night shift, get a shower, eat dinner, and come into work feeling alright. It's not easy and nothing about nights is normal but if you can do it, the shift diff was worth it to me and sometimes so is the piece of mind.

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I've worked many years on both shifts and I'm noticed some simple things.

-They only come out at night. Some of the weirdest ones stay up all night. And I mean creepy weird.

-Day shift people are the high stress, red bull, ready to have a heart attack nurses.

-Night shift people are paranoid. this I believe comes from sleep deprivation. They don't realize it's happening because it's over the course of weeks or months.

-Each shift complains more than physically thought possible. However, I think nights complain about things that don't warrant complaining- because of the paranoia.

After working both shifts, I prefer days. The differential is really not even noticeable. The "raccoon eyes" are gone. The long hours of inactivity and boredom are over. I can see a patient rehabilitate, with eating, physical therapy, etc. I understand more about nursing, more than getting a sleeping pill because he's awake.

My humble opinion.[/oh boy, you have just seriously ruffled a few feathers with your honesty, this is gonna be fun:yeah:

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Specializes in geriatrics.

And I'm not sure about some others, but the night differential I receive IS noticeable. Nights receive an extra 5.70 per hour. This enables me to work part time instead of full time and make the same money. I'd say that's worth everything....more days off to read, cook, travel, take courses. Other things I enjoy besides nursing :)

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And I'm not sure about some others, but the night differential I receive IS noticeable. Nights receive an extra 5.70 per hour. This enables me to work part time instead of full time and make the same money. I'd say that's worth everything....more days off to read, cook, travel, take courses. Other things I enjoy besides nursing :)

night shift gets 50cents more where i work! a whole 2 quarters!!!!

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Specializes in geriatrics.

That totally sucks. You guys are underpaid. I am very appreciative of my wage.

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

Sleep is for babies, anyway. I can't sleep more than 3 hours at a time after I get off work in the morning. I usually sleep a few hours (sometime less than 1) a day for a couple weeks, then crash for 8-10 hours and feel like I was in a coma. It's pathetic - a real health hazard, et cetera. Having 2 small children, neighbors who like to chainsaw stumps or mow lawns as soon as I put my head down, a full school schedule, and so on make life difficult. That being said, there are advantages to working nights: I get to finish my BSN relatively quickly, not deal with certain staff members who make me ill from the time it takes to change shift, and I make about 35% more than I would otherwise. Although I am basically falling apart from the lack of a decent routine, I could see myself staying on nights after I graduate. The plan was to do this, finish school, then find a "real" job. I've made this a real job for myself by dedicating myself to it. My biggest fear is that even after I spend an inordinate amount of money on a DNP program or something similar, I will make less money to start than I do now at my first job after graduating nursing school. Oh well. I think night shift RNs tend to get defensive at times, but I really don't do much, and I'm afraid that might be a factor when it comes time to decide what I want to do. I don't know - I'm rambling.

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I have a pretty big shift diff too..... it comes out to be about an extra 600-700 dollars a month....while I don't have kids, I'm DEFINITELY taking advantage of that.:lol2:

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I've worked the night shift for years and like it. I am also a night owl. I have noticed that most of our friends also happen to work the night shift. It's hard to make friends that don't because of the schedule. I used to have trouble sleeping during the day. Making the room as dark as possible and wearing sleep mask helped a lot. Some of our friends have kids and they basically sleep when the kids are at school. I'm not sure I could imagine having a newborn and working the night shift though.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

Night shift even before going into nursing. I have 2 school age kids. I sleep when I'm tired and wake up when I'm awake. Currently doing three 12 hour shifts/every other weekend.

My day can look sort of like this:

1900-0730 work

0800 arrive home: get kids on the bus

0845 zone out online for a bit

0900 Fall asleep

1100 wake up: zone out online

1300 fall asleep

1600 Wake up, get kids off the bus, start dinner

1630 Husband comes home: go back to sleep

1830 Wake up and go to work.

My off days I continue sleep/wake when my body feels the need. I haven't gone too wonky or paranoid yet as far as I can tell. (What'd you call me,Mikeworks?! :eek: ) I'm getting the same amount of sleep I get from when I worked day shift 0600-0230.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

(sorry, it should read three 12 hour shifts AND every other weekend.)

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Specializes in NICU.

I work 2300-0730. I typically sleep from 0830 to 1700. Our schedule is typically 3 on, 2 off. On my first day off, I try to sleep 3-4 hours during the day and go to bed at 2200. So far, this schedule works nicely. I'm married with no kids. I'm not sure how I will work it once we have kids. I might go down to part-time, I'm not sure.

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