please help us help night shift!

[pk1]

Need ideas that would make night shift staff happy. Already do self scheduling, with changes ongoing between them as they desire, already have increased staffing numbers on nights, have staff meeting at convient time for them-they do not attend, eucation inservices offered at convient time- they do not go, staff hired nights- requested nights. Ask for suggestions-they give none. Grape vine gossip says they are unhappy and plan to leave, but none of them tell director, just smile and say nothing. What can we do to increase moral?????????????????????

[SmilingBluEyes]

there, again, is something mgt can act on. Instead of letting dayshift plow through and plunder it all, save it for nightshift for a change. They (Day nurses) get plenty, like I said.

I do have to commend my place of work on one aspect. Every year, we have a Christmas party on like the 2nd Friday night of December. They DO count how many are on staff inhouse that night and send over prime rib or salmon dinners for us who are working. I think that is VERY nice and yes, it means a LOT.

Also every year, for Nurses' Week, they get us each a small gift. The mgt immediately "tags" each item to a name and holds it in the office for the person when she comes to work. No plundering or hogging is done, when it's done that way. I appreciate the effort, too!

Little things......

[GNURSE5]

I am a night shift worker of two years and I have seen the treatment from training on days to working on nights. It is often said "they can do it, the patients are sleep, we got to go watch American idols leave it". Wow the respect I've gained for my night shift crew. We hardly ever get a break to eat, we clean up all night, bed alarms are sounding, sun downers are disoriented, meds are given through out the shift, iv needs to be restarted, high acutity levels with 3-4 nurses (6-7 nurses on day shift), total care baths are done with 1 aide on hand. The list could go on. We do our best, patient safety is everything we want to protect our license often times it seems as though who cares. We ask for more help and we get it but managent then find season night shift worker to fill in positions needed in other areas. Back to square one! The help is a replacement! We often find many errors that day shift is credited for. We often feel left out. Our suggestions are often overlooked so who wants to voice an opinion. More meetings need to be provided for 11pm-0000am, give us a thank you, and Yes save some of the goodies. An increase in shift diff is good idea as well.