Night shift on your unit

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Hello everyone. I'm just curious about the environment of night shifts on different units. I float a lot and I see some units where it's total silence throughout the night, then some where you can hear the nurses conversations from really really REALLY far away. They have no sense that it may be normal for them to be awake at that hour, and pts are sleeping. I'm just curious if there is a norm or if it totally varies.

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Specializes in public health, women's health, reproductive health.

I just left a night shift job and it was different depending on who was working. Some nights were really quiet and other nights people talked so loudly (and laughed so loudly) that some of the patients would ask to have their doors completely shut. It wasn't just the nurses, though. Phlebotomists would come to the floor and talk so loudly that you could hear them on the other end of the unit. I finally told them to keep it down and they looked at me as if they were highly disgusted but they did quiet down. It seems not to occur to some people what hour it is or that they may be disturbing anyone's sleep.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

On my floor we generally chat quietly. Once in while we will forget and laugh a little too loud. Then we sush each other.

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L&D doesn't ever seem to be quiet. Of course it feels different at night (less bustle) but still....not quiet.

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