night shift

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Specializes in Medsurg, home health, ob and rehab.

i was thinking about going to nights. day shift is a killer. it is always crazy busy. i would like to hear from nurses who work the night shift to see how does your night go. is it busy? do you have many emergencies? and do you like it? do you have time to pour up all your meds? Please let me know. im really thinking about nights. i dont want to make a mistake.

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Specializes in ER- Correctional.

I think how busy you are on nights, would depend on the ratio of prisoners/nurses...I am the only night nurse with a little over 500 inmates...I am "very busy" at night..They only time I sit down & do not answer an almost constant ringing phone, is to take my supper break. I do have my radio with me in case an emergency arises, while I am having supper. In an emergency I am the only one there..so nights can be more busy than days...just depends..I forgot to add...I love working nights.....cause I'm the Queen of the Night ! LOL

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Ditto to the above post! I am also the only nurse on nights. It can be "slower" to crazy busy. Lots of things play into that...intake in booking, disturbances, illness, dt'ers, transports, diabetics, etc. Some nights you wish you could spontaneously multiply! I do like staying out of all the b.s. that can go on with the other shifts. But that said it is known to be harder on a person....and it sure isn't for everyone..especially those that aren't used to functioning completely independantly. Like the above poster though, I love it!

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Specializes in Pysch, Corrections, MedSurg.

We have 2-3 nurses on a at night. Usually 1 - LPN and 2 - RN's. LPN does the sick call slips, transfers and med pass in the morning (which is VERY light) also may assist in doing a UMA(urgent medical assessment) on a person who has just come into booking. Also, they will help with fingersticks in the morning and depending on how many blood draws we have - they will help with that. RN's will do intakes and UMA's that we get called for and any I/M's that aren't feeling well during the night will be brought down, as well as any medical emergencies. At our facility we find that it gets really busy from Thurs night through Sunday nights. We house over 600 inmates. Some nights are busy than others, but I find that the nights go by fast. Hope this helps and welcome to the nightcrew. :yeah:

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