Nights to Days

[Ioreth, ADN, RN]

After a year of working nights and absolutely loving night shift, I've learned that night shift does not love me. I've tried to make it work, but I really just need to switch to days. After some run around with management I finally got approved to switch to day shift and I was allowed an orientation shift that will be tomorrow, mostly to watch and do a few discharges. I worked last night, so it is a fast turn around and that alone has me worried since I've never mastered the art of the fast switch between being awake during night to awake during day. I'm dragging here, so in my sleep deprivation, I looked around for how others made the switch, but none of the threads I saw quite match what I'm looking for. 

Some background. I've only been a nurse for 1 year and 2 months, and all of it on the same unit. I've spent that entire time on night shift after orientation. Orientation was 6 weeks of day shift followed by 6 weeks of night shift. When I was orienting on days, I was still trying to wrap my head around being a nurse so I don't think I got more than a glimpse of how day shift is different from night shift.

So how is day shift really different from night shift? I don't mean unit-specific things, but for those that have worked both shifts, how are they different? What challenges will I face that are unique to days? Any tips for making it work after only working nights? Did anything surprise you?

Staying nights isn't an option. Being a different schedule from my family is wrecking havock on our relationships and my mental and physical health isn't enjoying it either. I need day shift to work, and some of the other crud I've been dealing with at work has me a bit rattled. Even with the orientation day, I want to go in confident and prepared, but certainly I understand that there will be an adjustment period to the new work flow.

[speedynurse, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Day shift and night shift have different rhythms and even slightly different personalities (sometimes). The most stressful thing for me during day shift was administration being around asking why this wasn’t done or that wasn’t done.....it’s also much busier for the most part. Night shift generally has more downtime and the staff tends to be more laid back. For awhile I loved nights as someone who is slightly introverted and just wanted to be left alone to do my job. And then my body decided it had enough.....even with some of the day shift frustrations, it is still SO much better to sleep better, have some normalcy in my life, and be able to see friends and family more. 
 

As for adjusting from nights to days....it will be rough for a few weeks but then you will gradually feel more clear headed and rested hopefully. I forced myself off of night shift mode which meant I was sleep deprived for awhile but helped me adjust faster. Don’t sleep in too late on your days off or it will throw your circadian rhythm off. And honestly I had to use melatonin and Benadryl to adjust my sleep schedule. If nights are physically hard for you, all the annoyances of day shift will still outweigh the night shift exhaustion. Or at least it did for me!

[amoLucia]

One word ------ BUSY-NESS!

[Nunya, BSN]

More doctors around, more family members around that you have to deal with and explain things to after you've explained them to the patient, more admin, more "can you do this?" from admin, more BS....but the shift will usually seem to go faster....

[NightNerd, MSN, RN]

Days are much steadier and busier, but typically better staffed, both on the unit and across the hospital, so there is (usually) more support. On days, you need to factor in times to deal with mealtime insulin, coordinating patient care around different tests and procedures, various doctors coming to see the patient, family and visitors, and dealing with discharges and admissions here and there. (I feel like I typically got way more admissions on nights than on days, and way more discharges on days. It doesn't happen often, but there are times when you may discharge most or all of your patients and be wide open for admissions and transfers, which is, admittedly, awful.)

Ultimately, I'm finding I prefer nights to days after doing day shift for about ten months - to a point. I liked my work more when I did nights and felt I had more time to connect with my patients, help my coworkers, and focus enough to get things done and learn to be a good nurse. On days, I often feel like I'm in survival mode, and I feel a little more isolated from my coworkers because we're all busy trying to stay afloat. We do help each other, but I personally felt more closeness and camaraderie on nights (this will absolutely vary from unit to unit, just something I've experienced). That being said, night shift can feel endless, while days typically go pretty fast, which is nice. And it's hard to replace being on the same life schedule as your friends and family. My life outside of work is much nicer while I'm working day shift, which absolutely makes it worth the downsides, at least for the time being.

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

Physically, it took me *maybe* a week to be adjusted back to a day schedule.  My body felt weird for a bit, had a few dizzy spells, but I was definitely craving that normalcy and quickly switched back.

In terms of the two shifts, the biggest adjustments for me were the amount of extra people around and phone calls I needed to answer compared to nights.  There are all three meals to get through for the patients in terms of insulin coverage or feeding patients who needed it, as well as PT, OT, social work, etc. coming around, not to mention visitors (although with COVID, that is probably one thing that's easier).  And the calls from MDs, NPs, pharmacy, lab, etc. for me about my patients were so distracting!  I literally felt like yelling "WHAT???" the 10th time the clerk called my name on my first day shift.  But ultimately, although days were probably less fun to work, my body needed them.