Night shifters vs Day shifters

nicholrwalker · Nov 21, 2005

Wow, where is the team work? Not to mention professionalism....I would hate to be a patient in a ER which has such selfish staff. I always felt like nursing is 24/7, and if you have done everything you could do on your shift it's time to pass the tourch and go home. You hate to be petty but I am sure there will be a situation when the tables are turned and that nurse will have almost the problem as you, I would politely remind them of this situation. ICU is just as bad...It takes a few minutes to get report, I dont know why people freak out over admits, its all in a days work. After all that's what we are there to do nurse.

Bipley · Nov 21, 2005

Wow, where is the team work? Not to mention professionalism....I would hate to be a patient in a ER which has such selfish staff. I always felt like nursing is 24/7, and if you have done everything you could do on your shift it's time to pass the tourch and go home. ...

Agreed. The next shift comes in to take over, period. If you didn't leave them a lot of unnecessary work, and it does not sound like you did, the next shift needs to take over.

rntg · Nov 21, 2005

Being a dayshifter on a busy med surg unit, we have people coming and going at all hours on all shifts. We receive direct admits, new surgeries, ICU transfers, transfers from other hospitals, other units plus those coming and going from various tests and procedures. It is common for one nurse to have 5 patients to start out with discharge 3-4 or maybe even 5, and readmit the same number through the course of our 12 hour shift, so at any given time you may have 5 patiens and still have the paperwork to do on 5-10...it is crazy. The last thing we want or need when our shift is close to over, is an admission rolling down the hall at 7:15pm...that will have us staying there at least an extra 1/1 to 45 minutes. I would say if you know you need a patient out of your ER, realize that is you are giving report to a nurse who will be going off, that she too needs or wants to be out on time. Same goes for nurses arriving on the shift. Our shift report usually lasts 30-40 minutes, and then have all our patiets to see (this goes for any oncoming shift), if it can be negotiated that would be the best. Our patients (even our discharges) are assigned to the oncoming shift. Sometimes they will be gone by the time they get out of change of shift report, sometimes not, but they are responsible for them until they leave the unit. So on your unit, they need to be assigned to the next shift until the next unit is ready to take them. We do not put off the other units, sometimes it is just too busy with things that are already happening to take them at that very moment whether it be just an extremely busy time or if it will make us understaffed, negotiation and understanding are the key. Never should the patient be made to feel guilty on either end.

allnurses Guide · Nov 21, 2005

As a night shifter, all I can say is, it ain't the shift: its the person. :angryfire No excuse, oncoming takes report on anyone that is physically there. Doesn't matter if it is 7A or 7P. If she wouldn't accept report, give it to the oncoming charge nurse, whose job it is to cover staff who can't cover a patient at any given moment. Since she wouldn't either, I'd have called the nursing supervisor. There is no reason to have to pay you overtime because of a snit fit.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Nov 21, 2005

What a rotten selfish thing to do to a coworker. Many times I've walked in and immediately discharged a patient, transferred a patient, or received a patient from the ER. Stuff happens.

I don't have any advice. Maybe the charge nurses need to meet with the manager and discuss a floor policy and stick to it.

Of course in my facility it's not an issue, because no matter what we have to take report and take a patient from the ER. We're not allowed to say "we're in shift change and I'm not taking report".

Katnip, RN · Nov 21, 2005

In our ER we have a 45 minute window during shift change (the 7-7s) when we do not transfer patients to the floor.

If we have a patient that is ready to transfer except for giving of the report to the floor, the incoming ER nurses take report for those patients and then give the report and do the transfer after that change of shift period is over. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

We aren't going to make a nurse stay late just to give report. We all understand that at the end of the shift, it's time to go home, no matter whether it's days or nights. It's a looooong shift for all of us.

~Kat

fergus51 · Nov 21, 2005

As a night shifter, all I can say is, it ain't the shift: its the person. :angryfire No excuse, oncoming takes report on anyone that is physically there. Doesn't matter if it is 7A or 7P. If she wouldn't accept report, give it to the oncoming charge nurse, whose job it is to cover staff who can't cover a patient at any given moment. Since she wouldn't either, I'd have called the nursing supervisor. There is no reason to have to pay you overtime because of a snit fit.

Amen! I've never seen such a thing before. It's ridiculous.

RN34TX · Nov 21, 2005

Of course in my facility it's not an issue, because no matter what we have to take report and take a patient from the ER. We're not allowed to say "we're in shift change and I'm not taking report".

Thank you.

6 years of Med/Surg in 4 different states, I too, was NEVER allowed to say that it's shift change or that the nurse is at lunch to dodge report or receiving a patient.

In every facility I've worked in, I'd be written up for that.

But it's funny that now that I'm on the other end of it, I hear those excuses that I would have gotten in trouble for, all the time.

I wish that I could have been an ICU/PACU nurse at the places I worked as a Med/Surg nurse, because those nurses could bring up a patient at their convenience at any time.

In contrast, I almost wish I could be a Med/Surg nurse again at my current employer, because it's the direct opposite. The Med/Surg nurses get to ACCEPT patients at their convenience. I never had that luxury in Med/Surg.

yvonnemuse, BSN, RN · Nov 21, 2005

HOOOOOOOO boy.. I agree with the person who responded that it was a person problem not a day vs night problem . I have worked all the shifts and all combinations of them and have found that inconsideratin cuts accross shift lines. Once while working on a large Neuro/med floor, I had an ER transport bring a patient up and said "This is the transfer for room 500" I had to LAUGH. I knew this transfer was never called and I stated so. I called the ER and asked why this was "sprung " on us. The ER denied patient dumping until I said we has no open beds. The ER nurse insisted 500 was open. Yes it was...as a janitors closet, but for some reason was a numbered room. The other unit looked for vacancies sent this poor patient . I suggest that you speak to the nurse manager about your problem and encourage and interdepartmental meeting between the units . Perhaps you could volunteer to be on a taskforce that could streamline transfers and institute "guidelines" in the interest of patient care.

SmilingBluEyes · Nov 21, 2005

I have had problems w/dayshifters like this in the past. Some would sashay in 10 or 15 minutes late, muttering "oh sorry" and then go get their coffee, donut, water what-not, leaving me to sit and silently fume while I waited for them to deign to take report. Some days, report did not start til 7:20 or LATER. We are SUPPOSED to clock out BY 7:35.

Well I stopped that. I started writing report on their census sheet and shoving it into their hands, telling them, "You are on MY time now, so here ya go" and I would leave after reporting off to the charge nurse, who made their assignments. They stopped treating me that way and began to show up on time and take report on time. you need coffee/toast? FINE do it on YOUR time not mine..... (grin)

There is a simple way to describe behavior like this (and it's not limited to one shift or the other). It's passive aggression and you need to call them on it.