All the cool people work nights!

Isitpossible, LPN, LVN · Jun 23, 2013

i just started nocturnal dialysis... I love the camaraderie, there are just the four of us... no drama that plays on days shift... love it!

tokmom, BSN, RN · Jun 23, 2013

*** Except it would be inaccurate. I am a full time rapid response nurse. We (the two night shift RRT RNs) receive and deal with 68% of all RRT calls. We are based in a trauma unit that receives more admissions, and deals with more emergency surgeries at night than day shift does. So in addition to liking to brown nose the boss and charm the attending, they like the slower pace of day shift.

Depends on where you work, and not everyone is a RRT nurse. Of course you are going to have a busy night. That is what you do :sarcastic: . But to generalize that day shift people only work day shift to brown nose is not fair.

Maybe you work with brown nosing people. I feel for you. However, most of us run the other way. No fuss, no muss. No politics. Do your job, and go home.

This post could get into a "My shift is busier than your shift." Yeah right. Worked them all for the last 20 plus years in a variety of hospitals. EVERY shift is busy. People work what they do for personal reasons. It's not for us to judge.

PMFB-RN, RN · Jun 23, 2013

Depends on where you work, and not everyone is a RRT nurse. Of course you are going to have a busy night. That is what you do . But to generalize that day shift people only work day shift to brown nose is not fair.

*** I know. I was just kidding. As I already said.

BrandonLPN, LPN · Jun 23, 2013

There's definitely a sense of entitlement amongst day shifters, at least in LTC.

3rd shift sure as shoot better have everything perfectly set up for 1st shift or else they'll hear about it, no matter how busy the night was.

On the other hand, it's perfectly acceptable for days to pass things off, case "days are always so busy", you know.

It doesn't help that day shift tends to have higher senior nurses, so there's a higher percentage of queen bees.

Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN · Jun 23, 2013

Autonomy!

twinmommy+2, ADN, BSN, MSN · Jun 23, 2013

I just started night shift work this winter, and I love love LOVE the lack of drama. If only I could put the rest of my family on night shift too...

bamaguy1989 · Jun 23, 2013

I will say that day shift on my floor usually is busier but they have a lot more help- usually 4 or 5 nurses plus a charge that does not take patients and 2-3 CNAs plus a unit secretary. Nights we usually have 4 or 5 nurses but our charge nurse always takes a full patient load. We don't have a secretary and we have had night where we had 1 CNA for the whole floor. I still love nights so much more than I ever could days.

Mewsin · Jun 23, 2013

I'm a night girl through and through. I worked my first evening shift in a year tonight and I'm up still because I'm back to my beloved nights tomorrow. I stayed late at work tonight to talk with the night girls, I miss them so much when I'm at school. I'm hoping, hoping and praying, that I can go casual as a nurse and work straight nights then also. It works so much better for my family because I am home to send my kids off to school and I'm home when they get home from school. My body was not made to work day shifts, I have to take melatonin in order to go to sleep before 3am.

MommaTy · Jun 23, 2013

I am a night shift worker and the night shift rocks. I have always worked nights, the team is it's own :)

dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN · Jun 24, 2013

What's your shift differential?

$6.75/hr, plus another $2 an hour for weekends.

I did orientation on days and actually did manage to hold my own. I've been on nights for about a year and a half now and have actually thought about going to days. Unfortunately, the disparity between day and night shift work loads on my unit (burn -- with the majority of dressing changes and tanks, plus heavy PT/OT being on days), plus several....aaahhh...spirited personalities on day shift has made me wonder whether I could handle it. On top of that, the logical part of me screams at the idea of taking a $12,000/year pay cut to do (often substantially) more work.

silverbat · Jun 26, 2013

I worked 18 years on nights!! these lst 6 on days have been hard to get used to. I loved night for all the good things PP have said, and hated days for the same things already posted.

One thing about nights that I liked was how well we worked together...almost beyond temawork and entering the twilight zone...we got to know what the others were thinking almost, in a given situation, and would generally have already obtained supplies, etc., before being asked....

Now, on days.... I feel like a zombie sometimes, even after 6 years. Its hard to get up at the same time I would almost be getting off work!

With my physical limitations, now, nights are no longer possible, so....... I am doomed to be among.....GASP!! ..... the DAYWALKERS!!!

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Jun 26, 2013

Case in point about teamwork on nights:

Monday night in our ICU is central line dressing change night, and nearly all patients have a central line. We had two fresh neurosurgeries (one developmentally delayed) and a fresh open-heart. Got an admit from an outlying hospital. Both neuro cases needed blood, as did my kid with a hgb of 4/ hct of 10. THEN the feces hit the fan - and we had to place a kid on oscillating ventilation and then ECMO (for the uninitiated, it is basically doing CV surgery in your patient's room and then placing then on heart-lung bypass) at 0500. The ECMO part required moving to another room (of course it did!)

So, in addition to all of the above, every one of the seven nurses had their assignment changed at some point during the night to accommodate the ever-shifting landscape of acuity and general taskiness of the night.

We ALL walked (well, dragged and limped) out the door at 0730 with all work complete and documented. A total butt-kicking at the hands of a cadre of eleven critically ill children- but we all left with a sense of accomplishment at having done our jobs and done them well.

Go team!