Hello, all! I'm curious about your workplace's practices for those of you who work nights and/or weekends. (I'm about to enter an ABSN program and anticipate that I'll work these kinds of shifts upon graduating, and possibly as a continuing career choice.)
Do you feel like you're at a disadvantage due to not having frequent, in-person contact with your NM? (or do you have a NM who actually works these "off" shifts?) How is your performance reviewed -- who's making the critiques and decisions? (And I assume you have to come in with rings around your eyes for your daytime performance reviews!) I'm sure it's wonderful to work without management breathing down your necks, but is that also a downside when it comes to career progression, raises, etc.?
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Interesting you should ask this. I just completed a large-ish study and one of the things I looked at was this issue. I found that the larger the hospital, the less likely you were to see your manager if you worked nights. In fact, in the tertiary care hospital I studied (I studied 19 hospitals in all, from critical access to tertiary in size/ scope) 90%+ of night shift nurses had not seen their manger in over six months, and 95%+ of the time, the manager had not worked ANY PART of the night shift in a year.
I work in a large tertiary teaching hospital with a thousand beds -- and my manager shows up at 6:21 every weekday morning for face time with the night shift. Evaluations are done by the assistant managers or other senior nurses, and they're done before, after or during the night shift. Staff meetings happen on the day shift, at 0730, so it's easy to stay after work to attend. They also happen at 1730, so you can go home and sleep and come back for the meeting. Honestly, it's tougher to get to the staff meetings when you're working day shift!
I've worked weekends, rotating shifts for years. I know my manager well. (Like her, too!)
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I always came in early or stayed late to be sure I saw all the staff. I would occasionally pull a night shift to help out or I would be sure in services were held during those hours.
Depends on where you work. Some facilities are supportive and connected to their night and weekend only staff and some aren't. Look at your facilities history with other than day shift employees...have any of them ever been promoted if they applied for the position, or have only day shifters received promotions? Raises should be equal % for every nurse, shift shouldn't matter.
Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.
I work weekend days plus one other weekday so I have a chance to see the weekday charge nurses and the NM. When we did mid-year reviews, NM came in @ 1700 and stayed so she could do both weekend day and night shift. I believe she did the same during the week. I DO miss seeing my NM and our clinical lead person. They are great. The weekend group is cool so it is a good working group that I fit into better than the weekend group.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I'm a hardcore night shift nurse. The CNO and nurse managers at my workplace all know me and seem to approve of my performance. In fact, I was recently promoted, so night shift has not hindered my career progression.
However, I work night shift to avoid interaction with management, so take my words and use them as you want. :)
I have an on call number I can call and one of my NM will call me back. I get a performance review attached to my paycheck which is based on my documentation, patient satisfaction, me being on time etc. The only time I see my managers is when I go in on Friday to get my check, but they are just a phone call away at all times.
At my last job, I had a terrible nurse manager. She would say she would come in early to meet us in the monring and leave us hanging by not turning up. She would then call, after about half an hour, to say she was running late or not coming in that daybecause her kid was sick or something. She took more PTO than anyone I've ever met, yet put a night nurse on performance management over excessive sick leave when she had breast cancer.
She only communicated with night and weekend staff if she perceived a problem with them. When given feedback or information about an issue, she would either not follow up on it or find a way to make it the fault of the person reporting it. She accused me once of filing an incident report to get at her. Seriously? It was a medication error that I made and took responsibility for.
Only the most basic inservice was arranged for nights and weekends, but if you went to a seminar or conference, paid for yourself and on your own time, she expected you to provide notes or resources for ALL the unit staff.
In short, I was glad to have very little to do with her. My performance appraisials were done by the night supervisor, who had a much better idea of how I actually performed consistently. I had more chance of seeing the CNO or DCNoO than the NM and that suited me just fine.
Do you feel like you're at a disadvantage due to not having frequent, in-person contact with your NM?
Not really. I like not having a bunch of suits around while I work. My manager makes it a point to come in at 7am vs 8am often so that night shift can still see her and talk to her in person if needed. I also try to attend unit meetings to make night shifts voice heard!
How is your performance reviewed -- who's making the critiques and decisions? (And I assume you have to come in with rings around your eyes for your daytime performance reviews!)
We have yearly evals which decide if we get a raise or not and how much (some kind of BS algorithm). Our manager picks two of our coworkers (staff RNs and/or Nursing Assistants) and we get to pick two additional coworkers. There is a questionnaire they fill out about our performance and it all goes to our manager. She meets with us, goes over it all (they dont tell you which coworker said what.) and sets goals for the next year. We also go over last years goals to see if they were met, and if not why and how we can fix it. For night shift she usually schedules it for first thing in the morning after a shift so we can do it and go home to bed. It usually takes no longer than a half hour.
I'm sure it's wonderful to work without management breathing down your necks, but is that also a downside when it comes to career progression, raises, etc.
it is wonderful, and i dont think it is a downside at all re: raises, etc. I think my manager knows me well enough from various communication I have with her at meetings, in the morning after my shift, etc.
Our managers are on the floor starting about an hour before we leave...yes they are frequently on the floor, not holed up in their offices. (Managers plural, referring to our actual manager and 2 assistant managers.) So we do see them, just not all day every day. I just had my first review a couple months ago, and she spoke w/ the night shift charge nurses to get feedback on me. As for raises, we are a union facility and they are not merit based. They're time-served based.
Interesting the difference between hospitals. I also work in a large tertiary care hospital. Never been to a staff meeting. I'm told they exist somewhere in dayshift land. I run into my NM about once every two to three weeks, and its usually just a casual hello in the hallway, nothing formal.
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
I work in a large tertiary teaching hospital with a thousand beds -- and my manager shows up at 6:21 every weekday morning for face time with the night shift. Evaluations are done by the assistant managers or other senior nurses, and they're done before, after or during the night shift. Staff meetings happen on the day shift, at 0730, so it's easy to stay after work to attend. They also happen at 1730, so you can go home and sleep and come back for the meeting. Honestly, it's tougher to get to the staff meetings when you're working day shift!
I've worked weekends, rotating shifts for years. I know my manager well. (Like her, too!)