Night time munching...

[SweetLemon]

So I am really new to working nights and am currently on an acute psychiatric floor in which I have anywhere between 8-12 patients per night. Some nights it seems all I end up doing is giving a few PRN meds for the insomniacs and complete the night auditing paperwork while other nights its all about trying to extinguish one fire after another. On the nights when things become really busy and we are trying to avoid a behvioral emergency my stress level goes way up and all I want to do is eat junk food(which there is ALWAYS plenty of on my unit). To be honest I really like the nights when things are a little more chaotic I just dont want to end up gaining a bunch of weight because of bad habits at work. So my question, while your actually on the unit and things like a warm path or a nap are not available how do you cope with the stress????

[caliotter3]

Well, we all eat! Isn't that what night shift is for?!

[nkochrn, RN]

Apparently we all eat too.... LOL

A patient actually sent back his survey and commented that the nurses were fat.

[caliotter3]

That's right! Fat nurses. And not all of them work the night shift!

[SweetLemon]

Apparently we all eat too.... LOL

A patient actually sent back his survey and commented that the nurses were fat.

Ouch!!! Maybe he was NPO and jelous....

[nkochrn, RN]

I also print off a few sudoku puzzles to occupy me when things get slow or read a book but that makes me sleepier usually.

[Straydandelion]

I used to try gum to prevent the munchies and would quickly tuck it under my tongue when anyone was near. That worked fairly well, though occasionally I think my speech was a little off, until one night it wound up in the medicine container.. good thing I hadn't poured the medicine yet! :rotfl:

[emmalou*]

aaah yes I remember night shifts. I would go down to the candy machine on the ground floor and buy potato chips, chocolate bars and coke for my mates around 2.30am if it was a quiet night. Back in the day when the wards were stocked with biscuits, bread and jam we'd eat those, and have toast as well! Those were the days.

Not too many of us were overweight actually, but we were young, I gained quite a bit later on then started taking in bottled water, drinking tea and had a few dried fruit and nuts on my break instead.

In terms of eating behaviour, I equate night shifts to going out partying. At what other time would you be eating junk food at 2-3am?

[tfleuter, BSN, RN]

Back when I was working as a vet tech I used to do the night shift at an emergency clinic on the weekends. It was much how you desribed, sometimes things were really slow and other times we were all running around in chaos. During the slow times someone always brought junk food to share. We would even send someone down the road to the gas station to pick up food and as you can imagine, there wasn't a lot to pick from besides soda, chips, candy and day old hotdogs. I'm glad I've gotten away from that because I couldn't believe how much junk I was consuming in just one night

[rngolfer53]

Ouch!!! Maybe he was NPO and jelous....

If he ever came back, he would be NPO. That'll teach him.

[Midwest4me]

well, we all eat! isn't that what night shift is for?!

hahaha! how ironic that we are having a potluck on our unit while i write this!

[NIGHTWOLF87]

in our hospital, we have a chik-fil-a that is open from 2100-0100 m-f. also, our unit director stocks our fridge with hot pockets, ice cream, various tv dinners, yogurt, and coffee. we also have pot lucks from time to time (had one last night, as a matter of fact, "just because"), and we have one nurse that whenever she works, she always brings bags of chips and salsa. so much for eating healthy!