star2nite2000

I get so angry at the day and evening crews due to the fact they are constantly making the remark that 'I should work night shift since all they do is sleep'. But you know, I never see them volunteering to work when my shift is needing covered! I have worked the night shift for over 15 years now. Your body is not 'made' to work nights and you never really get used to it. Where I work the lights are constantly going off and I deal with very demanding residents which take up 80% of my time. The other 20% of my time is trying to do all my charting.

According to my administrator.....all night shift does is sleep. And no we do not. All the duties mentioned above, we do as well. As the one poster said, there is ALWAYS something to do on night shift.

I always made a 'cheat sheet'. I wrote down the treatments and the times and who they were for, what time the med pass was etc....then I went home and organized it all. Sure there are situtations that will pop up that will make it difficult to follow the schedule but it will help you get a routine going. The most difficult thing for me was learing who the resident's were by name. There are always those that you will learn who they are from day one! (The cursers, yellers, and strippers!) Good luck! I have worked LTC/SNF for the past 15 years (working nights no less) and I love it.

Do you enjoy 'inhaling second hand smoke' or is your nursing license more important to you? Only you can decide that.

Oh Lord, you have described the place I work to a t! The work is hard enough without having to put up with the unnecessary crap. I think what gets me the most is the backstabbing coworkers....and the two-faced ones as well!

I hate doing monthly summarys for the simple fact that I work nights and mostly only observe them sleeping!

At the previous facility I worked at, a woman passed away and I called the family and the physician, etc. When I called the physician (which was around 2am) he whined and said 'I don't have to come there do I? Just record the time of the death on the telephone order that you write for releasing the body to the funeral home'. As much money as these physicians get paid, they can at least come do their job. I don't care what time of day it is. Plus it would have been nice had he done so, considering he was the in house physician and the woman had been his nurse when he first started practicing!!

It is hard to find a good facility, but it usually mellows out after about 1 to 2 weeks, if you can stick with it that long. Alot of the problem is trying to get thru the orientation aspect of it so that you can then 'do things your way'. That was the most frustrating to me was having to do a routine someone else's way and made me so exhausted! Hang in there, most usually it will get better and LTC believe it or not, is rewarding....I've been doing LTC for 15+ years and wouldn't work in another aspect of nursing no matter what they paid me.

I work from 10pm to 6:30am. I do my charting around the middle of the shift and then should anything happen towards the end, I can always go back and add to the narrative. At 6am the next shift comes in and from 6am to 6:30am we have report....same for the other shifts. So, I pretty much get out on time. As for the day and evening shifts....they were having a hard time getting everything done so our facility hired an LPN to come in from 10am to 6pm to help both shifts out....

I started in August of 1991 and graduated in June of 1992 from vo-tech. The total cost of the program was $1200.

I would document in the nurses notes to cover myself, her request for the PRN and state why she said she needed it, her LOC before and after, etc.

Oh, OK! Yes, I was definitely charting way too much! Thanks so much.

I have been a nurse for 15+ years and have been working at a skilled nursing facility for the past 4 months. I have never had to chart on skilled before and was not shown how the facility expected the form to be filled out. The front of the form is self explanatory (mark Y=yes and N=no). Then on the back of the form is where you put how many it requires for transfers, ADL's etc.) and then you write a narrative which apparently is where I have the problem. My DON and ADON says that I chart too much. What exactly am I supposed to chart about then? I am so confused and can't get a straight answer out of them. If someone could give me an example of what I am to write in the narrative I would really appreciate it.

the nursing home i work at now, we have night shift duties of those that you mentioned above.

I worked at nursing home years ago where they were getting confused and disoriented residents up in the middle of the night to give a bath to because that was how it was scheduled. After a call was made to our state board of nursing by one of the aides, that little ritual stopped mighty quick. According to our state board of nursing, when a resident is confused and disoriented and unable to express how they truly feel, it is against their right making them take a shower at an ungodly hour.