Starting out in a hospital?

[Nurse2BeCam]

Good morning everyone! Quick question.. I'm in school to pursue my dream of becoming a CNM. My main goal right now is to get into a BSN program and then go to work until I can figure out where I'd like to go for the midwifery program. We're talking many years away. Anyway, this conversation comes up a lot between my husband and I about how nurses who are just starting their careers (at a hospital specifically) usually pull night shifts. How common is this? He seems to think that every nurse in the world or at least the U.S. starts out by working the night shift. Is he right?

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

Dayshift is fairly easy to come by at my hospital owing to generous nightshift differentials, no managerial presence at night, and chaotic day agendas. Nightshift is far more appealing for anyone that can tolerate it. Most people start at night, but those that want it are usually able to transfer to days within their first year.

[happynurse49, BSN]

i am a new grad and was recently hired day shift at my hospital.

[kalycat, BSN, RN]

My hospital hires new grads to days on nearly every unit. I personally love nights, though.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Wow, I'm surprised at the amount of nurses expected to work nights/days, which is not great for one's health and sleep cycles.

When I was a new nurse, we ALL had to work nights until we got enough seniority to switch. I am just not a night person, and it soon became clear that I wasn't the most safe night nurse. I would get light headed, dizzy, and nauseated every night at 2:00 am. After six months, my unit manager moved me to days, much to my relief. Everyone worked EITHER days or nights, never mixed.

[FlyingScot, RN]

I don't understand the day/night rotating either. It's hell on the body. Nights are bad enough. When I worked PICU we had the d/n rotation but if you found someone who wanted to work straight days/nights opposite what you wanted you could trade. Pretty much everyone did this. You still had an occasional week when you had to work opposite but it was doable.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

I have a family member who became psychotic and was diagnosed as bipolar. His behavior was scary crazy. He even killed his daughter's beloved cat. When his daughter came home, she saw her father sitting in a chair, scratched and bloody. The discovery of the cat came soon thereafter.

It turned out that he wasn't crazy, he wasn't bipolar. He had been working staggering day and night shifts. His sleep schedule was so disrupted that it resulted in psychosis. Once he got on a regular sleep schedule, he became the nice, normal person I'd always known.

These kinds of schedules do NOTHING for the employees. I can't imagine any reasonable rationale to prevent workers from gravitating towards the shift which most compliments their normal rhythms. The night shift nurses I knew said they would never want to work days. I was all too happy to let them do so!

[canigraduate]

Getting on dayshift as a new grad is rare, but it happens. It varies depending on region and healthcare system.

Call around to your nearby hospital's HR departments and ask them.

Personally, I believe going to nights first is an easier transition for a new grad. Days are more hectic and everyone expects you to know everything RIGHT NOW. You get a little more time to learn and think at night.

[PA_RN87, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

I was hired as a new grad for days/evenings (7-3 and 3-11). Then again, they'd lost a ton of staff under the director that hired me. She was fired, then the new director bullied new grads and hires into working night shift instead (not me though, I stood my ground). I'm sure all that was totally unrelated to the multiple job openings...

[NV Nurse]

I started in critical care as a day shifter... Basically, the experienced nurses did not want to move from nights to days...I was lucky. Most new grads start on nights...as many people mentioned, nights is probably a better place to start... Often times it's slower paced (few families, procedures, doctors😉)with more time to learn...downsides: less support (doctors, fewer staff....)

Both shifts have positives... As a new grad, be happy if you can get into your area of choice.

Good luck

[Trauma_drama14, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN, NP]

No not necessarily. When I was hired onto my old floor last year, I was hired onto day shift. There was also two other new grads who were hired on day shift around three months later. When I transferred to SICU last year, I ended up taking a nights spot because they did not have a day spot open. The units do tend to prefer new grads on nights because its an calmer and its an easier environment to start off. Our hospital just started a program for new grads where they are in orientation for like 16 weeks throughout the hospital and some work nights and some work days.

[ohiobobcat]

I started as a new grad orienting on days with the intent that once my orientation was done (6 or 8 weeks- can't remember for sure), I would move to nights. This was on a med- surg floor in a small critical access hospital. They hired 2 new grads that year, and the other new grad went to days after her orientation.

I think it depends on where you work. My kids were young when I was working nights. I came home, brought them to day care, and then slept while they were off playing and having a grand time. Then I picked them up in the late afternoon and spent a little time with them before I went back to work. We lived with my parents (I was a single mom) so they watched the kiddos when I was working. I stayed on nights for 1.5 years.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

New hires start out on night shift. Always. Sometimes the wait for day shift is months, sometimes years.