Have you ever heard this one: "You guys at night do not do anything but babysit the pts until the dayshift gets here, so I expect everything to be perfect when I come in the AM."
...First reaction? Slap the taste out of that mouth! Babysit? Night shifts is as hard, if not harder! No aid from supervisors, 1 CN for the whole floor (thats 3 depts, almost 60 pts), and PCAs that goes on break when you need them, oh yea We babysit them.
And then when we received the pts at the beginning of OUR shift, we get "IMperfect" pts.
Speaking from experience....Night shift is harder by far! Day shift takes it for granted that they have ancillary services readily available to them....Night shift we have VERY LIMITED staff working. For a 600 bed hospital, you might have 2 MRI techs on duty (if your lucky), 5 or 6 lab techs, even fewer housekeeping staff, and bare bones staffing on your unit. If an emergency happens, you really need to pool your resources and pray for the best (Until the code team arrives). Also, we have lack of nursing staff on nights ("...Cause all your patients are sleeping") and sometimes we have sundowners and confused patients needed a sitter but no sitter is available. Night shift staff are also abused by management. I need my sleep just as much as daytime staff - DO NOT MAKE ME COME IN FOR A DUMB STAFF MEETING AT 1400! 2pm is my 2am! Next time I will call my boss at 2am for inservices.....see how much she likes being waked up
Specializes in NICU, Psych, Med/Onc,Ped Home Health.
patients need care 24/7, regardless of the shift. disease processes don't take 12 hrs off at night, although that would be pretty cool if they did! believe it or not, patients do tend to get sick after 1900.
Oh my, yes, I've heard that one. I hate working NOC! I was the only nurse in the building for 72 residents, and I had three CNAs for the entire building. Most of our dementia pts. don't sleep all night, and our subacute side has ppl in pain who need meds all night. Add to that call ins in the middle of the night--when I have the happy joy joy task of calling staff during the middle of the night to try and find a replacement, checking all the wanderguards, calibrating all the glucometers, midnight census, scheduled meds, routine treatments that the WONDERFUL day shift schedules for NOCs, etc, etc, etc...I ended up in tears more than once and said never again.
I run my butt off for 8 hours on days now, and prefer it that way. I wish management would help on days, they typically don't. However, I much prefer my days with a huge med pass, lots of family members, and our house gerntologist writing tons of orders.
Have you ever heard this one: "You guys at night do not do anything but babysit the pts until the dayshift gets here, so I expect everything to be perfect when I come in the AM."
...First reaction? Slap the taste out of that mouth! Babysit? Night shifts is as hard, if not harder! No aid from supervisors, 1 CN for the whole floor (thats 3 depts, almost 60 pts), and PCAs that goes on break when you need them, oh yea We babysit them.
And then when we received the pts at the beginning of OUR shift, we get "IMperfect" pts.
patients need care 24/7, regardless of the shift. disease processes don't take 12 hrs off at night, although that would be pretty cool if they did! believe it or not, patients do tend to get sick after 1900.
my point is that patient get the care they need regardless of the shift, but noc shift has limited resources at our disposal. noc shift, we are a different breed and we are frugal....if we are lucky to have a cna sitter - we praise jesus! day shift needs to stop and think about the bigger picture. one time i heard a daytime rn complain and whine about having 4 patients - when i usually have 7 or 8 by myself and no cna!
yes, patients do code and get sick after 1900....and we have to care for them with our limited in house staff.
with all my gripes about noc staffing and patient loads, you'd think i would make the move to days - never!!! i hate having management up my back and the politics of senior management and customer service. like my old boss said "what happens on night shift stays on night shift"
I do a mix of days and nights and find them both stressful. But on days I can never go more than 2 minute without having to run to the nurse's station to answer the phone. 9/10 the phone calls are from relatives who are not next of kin and no we don't have a clerk to answer the phone.
Sometimes nights have less interruptions from family members meaning that you can actually get on with taking care of the patients at times.
abbaking
441 Posts
Speaking from experience....Night shift is harder by far! Day shift takes it for granted that they have ancillary services readily available to them....Night shift we have VERY LIMITED staff working. For a 600 bed hospital, you might have 2 MRI techs on duty (if your lucky), 5 or 6 lab techs, even fewer housekeeping staff, and bare bones staffing on your unit. If an emergency happens, you really need to pool your resources and pray for the best (Until the code team arrives). Also, we have lack of nursing staff on nights ("...Cause all your patients are sleeping") and sometimes we have sundowners and confused patients needed a sitter but no sitter is available. Night shift staff are also abused by management. I need my sleep just as much as daytime staff - DO NOT MAKE ME COME IN FOR A DUMB STAFF MEETING AT 1400! 2pm is my 2am! Next time I will call my boss at 2am for inservices.....see how much she likes being waked up