night shifts....

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 9, 2004

Been working nights for 12 years and generally it agrees with me. It's very hard physically on the body and lowers your immunity, so you have to take care of yourself. Especially in the area of sleep. Are your kids going to give you the time you need to sleep? Many people never adjust and can't handle it.

I like nights because as was mentioned we are in charge without management, plus I've always been a night person, tending to sleep late and stay up late. Plus the money is better.

Any chance they'll let you do a trial for about a month, with the option of changing your mind?

nyapa, RN · Jan 9, 2004

I worked permanent nights for seven years and absolutely loved it. The independence was great. However towards the end of it for some inexplicable reason I found I became quite depressed. Don't know if I can blame it on the night shift. But I am off nights now and feel heaps better. Guess the moral is; just watch how you go, some ppl have difficulty sleeping, others find it hard to manage family and sleep...and believe me you need your sleep.

Jacqui

angelbear · Jan 9, 2004

I love it though I must admit it has done a number on my health. But alot of that is my fault for not taking better care of myself. I do love having more autonomy, no management, and staff on 3rd really do stick together. We are all we have. Sleep is very important protect it with a vengence, eat very small highly nutritius meals several times a day. You will be fine and as others have said you can always change shifts even if you have to change jobs.

RNSuzq1, RN · Jan 9, 2004

My husband has worked nights (7pm-7am) in a Neo-Natal Unit and Children's ED for about 13 years. Before that he did rotating shifts - really hated that. The pro's of working nights for him at least is there is NO Politics going on at night - meaning no Managers - bigwigs hanging around bothering everyone. He also likes the fact that he has a set schedule.

The Con's are many - after 13 years he's pretty burned out never really getting a decent "days sleep". On the days he has off - he tries to go to sleep when the rest of us do, but always ends up puttering around the house in the middle of the night - because his body is so used to being up at night. We have 3 sons and because his permanent shift involves weekends - he has missed out on so many weekend family activities. If we want to go to the beach, camping, on a picnic (whatever) on the weekends - always have to tell the kids Dad can't go because he's either asleep or working (that part really stinks). He has to take vacation time to do any sort of family thing with us.

He works at a HUGE Hospital - State of the Art "Everything" and what drives him and all his night co-workers crazy is - they can't get anything decent to eat during the night. The cafeteria caters to the day workers and only opens up for the night shift between 12:00am and 1:30am, so if you happen to be busy during that time - you don't get to eat unless you took a bag lunch. What they offer at midnight is left-overs from the daytime (I've seen the stuff and it's pretty gross). You'd think a place this large would have an open all night snack bar for the staff & visitors - even a small place to get a cup of coffee or a light meal - it's a shame. Anyway - that's my .02 cents..

uk_nurse · Jan 9, 2004

Thaks for all ur advise. At the moment i do days and nights but for last 3 weeks done just nights. I must admit i do like them. My only concern is not seeing my family often ( children and hubby). If i'm on weekend nights it is difficult to get some sleep due to the boys playing etc which is only natural. I am going to give it a go i think for a while and see how it goes. Once again thank you everyone who has replied :)

nyapa, RN · Jan 10, 2004

Originally posted by SusanNC
He works at a HUGE Hospital - State of the Art "Everything" and what drives him and all his night co-workers crazy is - they can't get anything decent to eat during the night. The cafeteria caters to the day workers and only opens up for the night shift between 12:00am and 1:30am, so if you happen to be busy during that time - you don't get to eat unless you took a bag lunch. What they offer at midnight is left-overs from the daytime (I've seen the stuff and it's pretty gross). You'd think a place this large would have an open all night snack bar for the staff & visitors - even a small place to get a cup of coffee or a light meal - it's a shame. Anyway - that's my .02 cents..

At our hospital we get NOTHING at night - all we have is access to the crisp and chocolate vending machines, as well as coffee / tea and bread. Otherwise we bring our own. Years ago hospitals used to provide platters for the night staff. Those days are sadly gone

gwenith, BSN, RN · Jan 10, 2004

Originally posted by dar15
At our hospital we get NOTHING at night - all we have is access to the crisp and chocolate vending machines, as well as coffee / tea and bread. Otherwise we bring our own. Years ago hospitals used to provide platters for the night staff. Those days are sadly gone

Actually traded away for a pay rise by the union (rats!!) Mind you some of the hospital supplied food was well.......... You don't really want to meet a luke warm pastie at 3am or those little cans of Tom Piper sausage and baked beans. I get the "Night duty gas" so the last thing I ever need is...... you guessed it!!:chuckle

When I was training in the prehistoric era we did not have anywhere to heat those tins so, every so often a nurse would become desperate and try to heat a tin of sausages and beans in the autoclave in the treatment room - the morning staff could usually tell when this had happened by the bits of bean and saggy sausage festooning the roof above the autoclave. :roll

nervousnurse, ASN · Jan 10, 2004

ROFL over heating the beans in the autoclave! :roll

I started out on 3-11.....I call it the "NO LIFE" shift.....I hated not seeing my hubby for days in a row.......(since he was in bed by 10pm.....way before I got home!)

For nights, ditto on what everyone else said about sleep, sound machines, masks for your eyes, turning off the phone, small meals, etc!

Then I switched to nights.........LOVED them, but I'm also a total night owl by nature! I am the FIRST to admit that days and evenings are busier and hectic.......doctors, surgeries, visitors, constant phones......ugh! I agree with whoever said kudos to those who work days....(and eves!) ...I couldn't do it anymore!

HOWEVER....... :cool: I got tired of day shift thinking that we did nothing but sit around all night......So here's my advice- don't try to convince other shifts that you still work very hard, because they'll never believe you! Even after I'd give report with allllll the details and problems throughout the night- it doesn't matter, they STILL think you did nothing......( I say this sort of "tongue-in-cheek") Yessss, I know SOME people believe we actually worked!

There is a special camraderie on nights, as everyone else said....And it was funny- when I switched to nights, I was a newlywed and people thought I was crazy.......I explained that on 3-11, I wouldn't see my hubby for a few days, but with nights, I saw him EVERY evening, and sometimes we'd even go out to dinner and the movies, then I'd go into work.......I loved it!

I also loved nights because you can run so many errands during the day that are sooooo difficult when you work days/eves......sometimes on the first morning before being off a couple shifts, I'd run errands till noon, then sleep till 6pm and still have the whole evening with hubby.......oooooh, and when you're off, it's sooooooo nice to be home in your cozy bed with your loved one.:kiss

Mind you, on my time off, I would sometimes sleep an hour or so with hubby, and then wake up abruptly at 2 am and be up allllllllllll night, but it didn't bother me.....but I'm also not a parent, so I kept my night owl hours even when I was off....... (I REALLY admire parents that work nights!) ......I've known many nurses who take their children to school, sleep a few hours, get back up, pick up the kids, TRY to get a little nap later.......Wow......I'd never survive! I hope it works well for you!

Friesw/that · Jan 11, 2004

i have worked 12 hr nights for almost 14 years. i now do a 5/2 split, so i'm off 5 days in a row, every other week.

my children are 12/13 yrs old. i take them to school every morning, and pick them up every afternoon. i could not do that working 12 day shift. if one of them gets sick, i can be at home, and still go to work, instead of having to take off work.

i tried working straight days---got sick as a dog,

slept 10 hrs a night and remained exhausted. i finally went back to nights.

i agree with other posts, to trial it, especially since you have family support. :)

Agnus · Jan 11, 2004

Originally posted by TraumaQueen
Night shift is THE bomb!

I worked on days for a very short period of time when I was on orientation a few years ago, and the difference in personalities between the day and night nurses is HUGE. (no offense) The night nurses are so much more laid back, we take everything in stride..... We all get along, and the day nurses are constantly bickering and complaining about -everything/anything-. :)

REALLY:rolleyes: I have worked both shifts and my experience was the opposit where personalites were concerned. :nono: You are generalizing and it is never a safe thing to do.

nursemary9, BSN, RN · Jan 12, 2004

Hi

I first saw this post at work a few nights ago. I meant to respond, but got busy.

I have worked nights for many years--I think it's about 27 yrs. now. I have learned to love it!! They could not pay me enough to go back to day or PM shift!! NEVER!!

I don't know how to explain it, as I rarely worked night shift before that.

At the time I needed to work part time for health reasons & at That time at the hospital I worked for, the only part-time positions were at night. It was OK at first; then when I didn't need part time any more, I realized that it was really like getting an extra days pay per pay period, so I stayed for the money!!

Pretty soon, I realized I actually liked nights!!

Now, I would never leave my night shift job!! I work full time--80 hrs. 8 hour shifts. We have every other weekend off and every other holiday. I have worked for the same company for 33 years, altho not in the same hospital, as they closed the first hospital I worked for.

As someone else said, tho, it is not just yourself you need to think about, it's your whole family situation. My husband has always been incredibly supportive and helpful. We made it work.

For about 10 yrs.--until last April, I even worked part-time Home Health during the days.

The other thing I always liked was doing my shopping & daytime errands early with fewer people around--especially Christmas Shopping.

At any rate, it is not for everyone, but I love it!!

Please, don't think that nights is a piece of cake, tho. It can be really busy and there are fewer people there for back-up.

Plus, I wish I knew even a few patients who slept at nite!!

One thing my Manager has said is that she needs her strongest nurses at night--people who can make decisions and people who are critical thinkers!!

Hope this helped.

IloveSnoopy · Jan 12, 2004

I have worked nights on med/surg for four years now...huh...exactly four years today infact...LOL. I love nights and wouldn't trade them for the world. Like others have said...there are less doc's, big wig's, office people, x ray and lab people, and most important of all....patient families...(they can be the worst!!) I am the only one on our unit that does strictly straight nights. I got to choose that because quite frankly...noone else wanted them. It's kind of nice because I'm like a leader for all the new staff that are thrown into the night shift against their will...and actually..a lot of them have decided that nights aren't all that bad. I also like not being there at meal times....giving insulin..helping people open their milk cartons, feeding them...also get to miss out on the complete morning bath thing...I was never big on giving baths. Now...don't get me wrong..I'm not trying to sound lazy here...it's just that I think that I can give better 'nursing care" to my patients without all this extra have to do stuff. I've actually found problems with my patients that the pm shift had missed....i/e sky high b/p, etc. It's not that the pm gals aren't good...it's just that there are sooo many extra things to do..they run out of time to get back for vitals a second time..etc. Now...don't get the impression that nights are all fun and games...because they are not. It seems as though patients are more likely to crump at night and don't forget the ever important "sundowners" thing.....patients can be alert and oriented all day...but as soon as midnight hits...they are crawling out of their beds and seeing a little white cat in the corner.

I also agree with others who have said that for the most part...nights are more laid back. Even if we are super busy...we still find time to play a prank on someone or make a funny joke...

As far as the eating thing....I just eat supper at home and maybe have a small snack at work. Our cafeteria is only open til 7pm. Sometimes we will order pizza or have a pot luck. Ok..I guess I've rambled on forever.....back to my main point...nights can be hard at times...but they definately do rock!!!!!