Swing shift

[algebra_demystified]

If the administration at my facility knew how much I loved working swing shift they'd cut my pay in half, and I would GLADLY take it just to spend my time there. There is nothing I enjoy more than working swing shift as a psych nurse. Can I please have more? There is a sentiment out there that if you love what you do you never work a day in your life. Swing shift on an acute ward is that for me. If there was a way to physically synthesize swing shift into matter I would roll around in it every day for the rest of my life in ecstasy.

I really like swing shift. The AM meds have worn off, the patients are exhibiting the behaviors that are most likely to wind them up in jail.

I love not taking the bait. Every time I file away the mental picture of the staff who are shocked into disbelief when I tell a patient that blocking my way down the hall has got me and I'm done. I guess I'm going to have to go around the back way to get to the other unit. If you're blocking the door I'm certainly not going to force you to do anything. That's fine.

No manual restraints on my shift tonight. Not a single one. On other units I saw things that made me cringe, but I'm not a supervisor so I don't have to do anything about it. That is not to say that if I saw abuse I would not report it, I certainly would. I have in the past. That was how it was with my previous employer. The shift supervisor was famous there for taking patients down and putting them in restraints for any one of a number of reasons. When I was the charge nurse we had no restraints. Zero. Month after month, we had no behavioral problems that required a patient to be strapped down.

I'm not a pollyanna on this subject. If somebody needed to be restrained, you had to run if you wanted to beat me to the takedown. I had violent criminal adult men who could kill you if they wanted to. Sometimes they did their best and caused serious life-changing damage to staff. There is no way I would tolerate anything like that. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times I struggled with everything I had to make sure that somebody didn't get an eye ripped out. I am not exaggerating when I say that mental health patients can be dangerous. There was a staff who suffered permanent damage to her eye in a relatively recent event, so this is not just me talking, it is real life.

Maybe that's the experience that has caused me to think differently about the kind of power I have as a psych nurse. It's really something to be able to tackle somebody into the corner and force them to comply with my orders. I am a jailor to a certain extent. Who does that? It's a ridiculous thing to pass the handcuff keys to somebody and hope they will be responsible with them.

I no longer have any urge to use the power of my position to force anyone to do anything. It's a beautiful thing to strip myself of authority. A patient said to me recently that I could throw my weight around a lot more than I do. That was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said about me. This patient had recently threatened me with violence and I backed down until something happened and he found a way to get out of it all. I relish that experience.

There was a security staff who taught me to calm down and not engage. He was a giant. His physicality made anyone cringe at the thought of going toe to toe. I had the opportunity to take a patient down from the back, and I would have had 30 of my closest friends available to help me with this. I was so sure I was right in exercising my authority that it seemed ridiculous for him to back all those staff down the hallway yard after yard until it all spun out and the patient was ready to rest. I wanted to fight and win, the security guy wanted to end things with nobody getting hurt. I'm really embarrassed that I wanted to engage. I must have looked like an ass to all those people, and I would apologize to them all if I still had the opportunity.

Maybe this is something that can't be learned from a book.

There is so much left for me to learn. The further I go in my education the more gaps there are to fill.

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

Swing shift is pretty much my nirvana. I hate getting up early in the morning, and I'm not crazy about trying to sleep just as the rest of the world is waking up. I liked it because we saw a lot of behaviors. Our physicians usually made rounds then, and we also had visiting.

When I interviewed for my first job, I was asked for my shift preferences. I told them, "In order, 3-11, 11-7 and 7-3." They probably thought I was nuts, because everyone seems to want day shift. I wanted no part of it.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I LOVE swing shift. However, swing shift isn't really compatible with a school-ager and an infant in the house, so I have had to stick to day shift for the time being. But first chance I get to go back to 15-23, I'm there.

[PeacockMaiden]

I do the 1500-2330 shift too, and I love it! Waking up without an alarm clock is a luxury!