xtina15

I have worked 12 hour night shifts in acute care for four years now. I enjoy the pace, the lack of administration presence, and supporting my patients when their families leave and the lights turn off. I cannot imagine working dayshift (at least at the facility where I currently am). However... I am a true morning person and am the most productive, and typically happier, when I have a predictable schedule and am able to plan my day. Working nights seems to throw me for a loop, half of the time I can't even tell you the date. I feel as though I am always bouncing between exhaustion during runs of 14+ hour shifts, and laziness when I have more than one night off because I crash so hard. Any advice or similar experiences? I am not ready to give up on night shift, and changing positions is not an option financially. As I am a fairly new RN, I also don't want to lose out on the learning experiences of working in acute care by moving to outpatient just yet. Thanks for the discussion friends.

I unfortunately don't have much to offer in terms of WHO to talk too, I have tried to explore similar avenues and have found myself going in circles. I am only able to commiserate and also hope for an eventual answer. I work on a large telemetry/cardiac interventional unit, night shift, and we typically start the shift with 5 or 6 patients, discharge one same day patient from cath lab, and then get 2 - 3 admissions. So we typically end up charting on 8+ patients, and are lucky if we have two nursing assistants (god bless them, I was one, but a handful of them move so slow). It's terrible, but there does not seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel unless the entire face of our healthcare system changes. In a world centered around patient satisfaction, my patients are increasingly dissatisfied, because guess what, their nurses are dead tired and have no time to give truly attentive care, I for one am looking to specialize and possibly move into outpatient, and I'm only a few years into this gig after dreaming of being a bedside nurse for life. I am praying I find somewhere that makes me feel like this back breaking work is worth it again.

They've done this before with meetings, classes, etc. Called them "education hours". My schedule this week because of this goes as follows... Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. No OT for any of it. All 13+ hour shifts. On my training shift because we had a code I actually ended up being there for 16 hours.

I recently worked two additional shifts, (full shifts of 13+ hours) to orient into a leadership role the unit asked me (well really, told me) I was going to do, in addition to my regular 3 shifts of 13+ hours per week, totally approximately 56 hours in one week. I worked this many hours another week as well. I asked whether or not this entitles me to overtime pay and was met with the response that they are "education hours". And the topic was shot down from there. I asked colleagues/friends and no one else has received this answer. Has anyone heard of this? Am I being blatantly swindled here? And no we are not unionized. HELP?!

I am a relatively new nurse, a few years into this gig, but I worked as a nursing assistant for years before also. And although I have not been officially diagnosed with an injury, I can tell you that I am in my late 20s and require a chiropractor to function. If I don't go to be realigned at least once per week (which my insurance doesn't cover) I get shooting paints down the back of my legs that start in my lower back and my neck becomes immobile. This job is unforgiving on the body. I sleep terribly due to my back and neck. Before this gig I was very athletic so I had a decent build to start with. If I'm honest, I fear for my body. It's enough to make me want to leave some days. Your body is the car you drive through life in, and floor nursing beats that car to hell.

"I'm so disgusted with myself right now that I'm even asking these questions." PLEASE do not feel disgusted with yourself that your putting your self care as a priority. If you don't take care of you, how can you take care of your patients? Our profession is unforgivable in the sense that you always need to be on your A game. If you feel that you are not on your A game and its interfering without your happiness and ability to take care of your patients in a way that you'll feel happy with? Thats called burnout my friend and don't let tell anyone tell you that it takes predetermined length of time to reach burnout. Take care of you! You have ONE life to live. We have chosen to spend ours in the service of others, you deserve to nurture yourself also.

I learned early on that there are some coworkers who will always, and I mean ALWAYS, find something you didn't do or give you attitude during report. You could have had the craziest shift and still have managed to finish 99% of everything and then they will give you attitude about the fact that forgot to put SCDs in the room (even when there weren't any clean ones on the unit). I want to/need to stay in my current position at the moment so I get by by remembering my work ethic and how much I know I care about my patients. There are just some people who will never be happy with you no matter how hard you try.

I work on a post cardiac interventional unit, so post PCI/ICD placement and we also function as a telemetry floor when beds are available. We also get all patients s/p heart/lung/kidney transplant as well as pre-op CABG and heart/lung transplant. I was hired under the impression we were 1:6, however, with the same day cath lab patients being discharged and thens subsequent ER admissions, I end up charting on 8+ patients, and lately we're holding onto 7 patients all night without fail. So... I'd say 1:7

I work and live in Northern New Jersey and went to at a large and esteemed school in PA. I graduated in the month of June and had a job by September after applying to over 50 jobs. One, I repeat, ONE, job contacted me back for interview, so obviously I took it and am still there today. I had four years of prior nursing assistant experience in the float pool so I'd worked everything from ICU to psych, as well as raving letters of recommendation. The tri-state NY area is not friendly to new grads unfortunately.

Fair enough! I think I am also bitter because "coincidentally" during recent nurses week awards, everyone nominated and/or who received an award happens to fall into the "dayshifter and consistently picks up OT" category. Haha

We had a "Thank You Breakfast" that had the same food as what comes on the patient trays. There was also a "You Made a Difference" dinner, which not a single night shift staff member was invited to. I had better Nurses Week experience working at 100 bed hospital in a severely poor area where we didn't even have a a budget for ice and hot packs than I did working for one of the largest health care systems in the tri-state area near NYC.

I receive calls almost on the daily basis to work overtime on my large and understaffed inner city telemetry floor, and for over two years I have never once said yes. My colleagues who say yes seem to have gained some "gold stars" in the eyes of my superiors, but I refuse to accept overtime. Why? I get to work by 6:40 PM, after a 45 minute commute, and then most mornings I leave at the absolute earliest by 8:40, and have left as late at 10:30. NO ONE recognizes that we essentially work mandatory overtime every shift, and we bust our butts with 7+ patients at night, when our ration should be 5. We are even encouraged to go to meetings/classes post these extended shifts. Does every unit/work place have this issue with overtime? I'm tired of management staring down their noses because I won't work even more time, and patting those on the back that do.

The way I see it... after a crazy shift, or a crazy few weeks... hell lets all admit that sometimes this job is pretty crazy all together... a few mimosas at brunch with coworkers is essential to me. At least where I work, dare I say it strengthens us as a team because we realize we are all going through it together and letting go of the stress (not saying drinking is the only way to do that) is very important, however one chooses to do that!

Hello wonderful nurse friends! I am wondering if any RNs share this concern with me... I am almost one year into our profession (I was a nursing assistant for years before) working night shift on a large cardiac interventional/telemetry floor. Our shift length is between 14-15 hours (12's are no such thing, we are understaffed and the expectations for documentation are just not conducive to getting out on time, additionally our entire unit needs to be reeducated on how to give/receive report, giving report takes over an hour = insanity) ANYWAY... I lack energy on my days off and living a healthy lifestyle is VERY important to me... before I joined this profession I ran half marathons, went to the gym a minimum of 4 days a week, did yoga, cooked my own meals daily and it seems that I cant even manage on my days off the do any of this anymore... I feel myself falling into the rut on poor eating, low energy, chronic back pain, high stress... It seems that our profession is unforgivable in terms of wear and tear on the body... so many nurses I work with are over weight, over tired, limping(!) I LOVE this profession (even though it's killing me physically), but I also value health (physical and mental) and an active lifestyle and recognize how of this type of strain could affect me long term... and to be honest I'm scared! I want to run with my future children, hell I want to run when I'm 70! Any shared concerns or thoughts?

Hello All, Thank you in advance to all who take the time tor read this post. Just a little background on me, I am a new nurse on a large telemetry floor in an inner city hospital in New Jersey. I have been there a little over four months now and am currently working night shift. Prior to this job I was a night shift float pool nursing assistant for three years so I was well versed in patient care and was relatively well adjusted to night shift work. From day one I was leery of my new position on my unit. Nurses, nursing assistants, social workers, and clerks alike in more or less words actually told me to "run", "get your year in and leave", "this is hell"... it goes on and on. Not one positive comment was ever made about working on my unit. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the situation and chalked it up to the fact that I was the new girl on the block and they were trying to intimidate me (which is a whole other issue). I should say that I pride myself for being an eternal optimist and have thick skin in regards to frustrating patients/situations/staff. That all being said, I am finally beginning to understand why I was getting such negative feedback, and my question to you all, being that this is my first job, IS THIS NORMAL? Night shift and day shift on average work 14-15 hours (although we were all hired for 12) simply to finish documentation. I arrive early to work around 6:40 PM in an attempt to prepare myself for the night and get a jump on things, and it seems that no matter how quickly or efficiently I work, I never leave until 9/9:30 AM or later (latest has been 10:30) on a GOOD day. I should note that there are 10-20+ year experienced RNs working with me, who are also staying the same length of time. Our assignments are on average 6-7 patients, many of them with multiple drips (heparin/primacor/lidocaine/lasix) or receiving around the clock antibiotics, or are post procedure. It seems to be an absolute impossibility to maintain the quality of care, safety, patient satisfaction, and charting accuracy that is required of us without staying over each shift. And even then I KNOW that there are things I could have done better, documented more clearly, or even that I flat out forgot to do. My question to all my fellow nurses.. have you experienced this as well? Or is my unit simple used to understaffing and now considers this the norm? I am by no means giving up on this job yet, but I am not able to provide the quality of care I would like, (meds are given late, I cannot read in the chart as in depth as I'd like, etc.) nor do I feel good at the end of the day about the care I provided. My eternal optimism is waning and it is taking a toll on my mind and body. Any advice/thoughts? Thank you friends. Have a wonderful day.