Students: Prefer morning or evening clinicals?

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--I'm wondering what clinical shift students prefer more, and why??

I personally think morning shift would be better because i want to get it out of the way and have the rest of the day to myself. But I get to chose last because i'm turning in my paperwork late. I'm hoping there will still be space left for the morning shift!

morning shift: 6AM - 2:30PM:yawn:

evening shift: 2PM -10:00PM:zzzzz

--what are the pros and cons of each?

--which should i chose!!?

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Having done both, I much prefer evening clinical. I've always been a night owl, and it was always really hard for me to wake up so early and function. I had to wake up at 3:30 or 4:00 AM in order to get to my clinicals on time, since they required driving 1 1/2 hour to get there. And if it were in the winter, the roads were nearly always slippery and snowy because the plows had not come out yet. (Sometimes I got stuck in my own driveway!) And then after I got home from the hospital, I always spent the next 6 hours doing paperwork since they were due the next day. By that time I only had one hour to myself before I had to go to bed again. I was exhausted, pretty much the whole day. It was rough. I hated it.

This semester I am doing evening clinical (4-11 PM) and it is amazing!! I can wake up at a normal time (for me), usually around 7:30 or 8:00, I relax a while before heading to the shower. Then I do my homework (which is much less than last semester). Around noon I get to eat lunch or exercise, and sometimes I can even fit a movie in before having to leave for the hospital. Or occasionally, I'll drive to town early and meet up with my carpool buddies to study for any upcoming tests. It is awesome. I am so much less stressed this way! And less tired. I am definitely going to be looking around for afternoon/midnight shifts once I graduate this Spring!

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Specializes in L/D.

I also loved the evening shift. We only had the option of doing it 1 semester, but I would have done it the whole time if I could. I don't know about anyone else, but when I had clinic from 700-330 I would be use less after because I was so tired. But with the evening shift I was able to get up at a reasonable hour and get things done in the morning/early afternoon when I had some energy.

Amber

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Specializes in Home Health, Education.

Day shift 6:45am-3:15pm for the reasons the original poster stated.

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Specializes in ED.

I love evening clinicals, the staff seems more calmer on evenings than on day shift. I want to work evenings when I graduate.

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Specializes in Home Health, Case Management, OR.

I love evening clinicals! I don't feel so stressed about my paperwork when I know i have an evening and most of a day to complete it rather than just having one evening to get it done for the am clinicals. I also prefer the atmosphere of 2nd shift.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CRRT,.

Depends on where you are working. This is my last semester, and although i hate having to get up at 330 am to get there, i prefer morning clinicals, because i get more information. I get to sit in on procedures and tests, and sometime surgery, since those happen generally during the day. Also, i get a chance to talk to most of the doctors because around here they usully round before 9 am. So i just feel like i get more..on nights they do more baths, linen changes, and everyone is lax and less informative.

The only exception is ER.which i prefer in the evenings, because you get more in. 3-11 is great there, because your physician offices are closed, and people tend to get more "rowdy" in the evening.

But, in all, on the unit and in med surg, unless you would rather spend more time bathing and changing and putting patients to bed, i would suggest that days are more beneficial.

It is good that you get the choose. We never got to..we were told when to go, what hospital, what time, etc etc, And because i lived an hour from campus and 2 hours from most the hospitals we practiced in, i hade to drive alot. But it was worth it

And I Graduate in December 18:twocents:

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Specializes in Pediatric ED.

I prefer evenings because I'm a night owl and looooooooooove sleeping in. It makes me feel more alert so I feel like a better nurse. However, mornings are good because there's more to do and I get bored very easily.

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This is a great question! I'm eager to read all the replies...

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Specializes in CTICU/CVICU.

I'm not even in nursing school yet (hopefully, this fall) but I took in consideration whether I wanted to do morning or evening clinicals..to decided if I wanted to apply for the morning or evening program. For the same reasons people preferred evening clinicals..that's why I applied for the evening program.

I also want to work nights as a nurse..so I figured I'll start getting a feel for that in nursing school!

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I prefer morning clinical even though getting up early is no fun. If I have evening clinical, I never get any work done before it's time to leave for clinical, so basically the whole day is gone.

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I have only done evening, but people in the morning seemed to have done things that you just dont do at night...i.e. making beds, doing bed baths...I only did that once all last semester.

But I want more experience, so I am doing a morning shift this next semester. I am going to HATE getting up at 4:45 am to get there by 6:30am.

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