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Discussion

The Nightshift is getting to me!!!

I have decided why I feel so crumby lately, why I can't make a decision without changing my mind 20 times, why I'm so down alot and just a plain pain in the *** lately. It has to be the night shift! I have felt yucky lately and can't seem to get enough sleep, no matter how long I day sleep.

I just don't feel like doing anything anymore, just lay around the house, play on the computer, sleep and work. I'm tired of whining and complaining. The thing is...I would have to look for another job, because there is no day shift opening at my present job. I love the place, but it is either stay there and maybe become ill or find something during the day and leave a place I love. I haven't even seen Portland yet, because I don't want to go anyplace, after work or on my nights off. UGH!!! I have lived here for one year now!!! I'm so confused. :confused:

The VA has a day position for a LPN in their Specialty Clinic, M-F, 8:30 to 4:30, with weekends and evenings off. I live about 20-30 minutes from the VA. Also there is a position with Multnomah ESD, but it pays only $14.15 an hour. I prefer the better paying VA job. I had my clinicals at a VA hospital and loved the place!

Do you think I should try for it? I polished my resume tonight and it looks good. :D I need a change and this may be the right move. What do you think?

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Let me think about it? Monday through Fridays 8:30 to 4:30 with weekends off. hmmm..... GO FOR IT! I would love those kinds of hours!

I know what you mean. I constantly feel like I'm in a fog and don't sleep well. The last several days I've taken naps of about two to four hours at a time, but not a good 8 hour sleep.

I'm very concerned about school. Because when I was taking EKG and PCU recently whenver I would read those books I would fall asleep instantly. I'm drinking too much coffee.

Nights is one of the worst things I do to my body. Right now though I need that differential for at least another four years to pay off a big loan consolidation that I borrowed from 401K, silly me.:( Plus working days getting up at 5:00AM, I feel just as bad. But getting up later to be at work at 8:30 instead of 6:45 would be a dream.

You are not whining. I feel your pain. Best of luck to you! :)

  • Author

Tweety, I totally understand about falling asleep while reading textbooks. I do that while reading my Sociology book. I can't take it to work to study during lunch break, because if I do I may fall asleep at work and that would be awful. I'm the charge nurse... LOL. I haven't submitted my application and resume yet, but will tomorrow or Monday. I can mail it. I really hope I have a chance. I would like to enjoy life again. :)

Good luck to you. Can't hurt to go for it.

  • Author

Are you working tonight Tweety? I took the night off. I'm glad I did, still feel kinda yucky. There is a buggaboo going around, have had a few sick residents lately due to it. Families visit and pass it to their grandma or grandpa.

What is the worse that can happen if you don't like the new job? You can always go back to nights, right?? If your place is like most, your job will still be open. I love nights. I love the people, the type of patients that come in the ER, the lack of admin breathing down your neck, the extra money.....but it is a killer on your body even if you get "enough" sleep during the day. I am definately NOT a day person, geeting up at 0500 is worse and I feel like crap all day, so it is no better. But, in the ER there are variable shifts, so I work 1000-2200 or a variation of later day shifts. Even 1500-0300 is OK. Look around and see what you can find. That is the beauty of nursing, we are not trapped in a 9-5, M-F world.

Are you working tonight Tweety? I took the night off. I'm glad I did, still feel kinda yucky. There is a buggaboo going around, have had a few sick residents lately due to it. Families visit and pass it to their grandma or grandpa.

Nope. I'm at home. Was reading a book on the couch waiting for the rain to stop and typically fell asleep. :rotfl:

I would go for the day position. I was in the same spot four years ago. I was working nights in LTC and a position opened up in surgery at a clinic. The position was for 30 hours (same as I was working in the nursing home) no evening, weekends or holidays. I went for it and only wish it would have happened sooner. The only downside was salary, I just now make what I used to working nights.

You are lucky you love what you are doing now, I was really burned-out with LTC. Which made working night shift even worse.

Good luck with whatever you decide. ;)

i know what you mean...i work nocs too...also, i have a 2 year old son who keeps me awake the whole day...i'm thinking of either changing to eve shift or find a 10 or 12 hour/day shift...at least i'll be working less days...more time to sleep :)

Seems for me, working nights and summer make for hard times.

My kids are home from school, so I don't sleep as much. It's hot and humid and we don't have air conditioning. That robs quality and quanity of sleep.

Then there is road construction, lawn mowers ect.

Can't wait until fall.

It's not easy here to find day positions, so for now it's nights and school for me.

I worked nights for a year and I never felt right. I'm on day shift now and am a happy camper. Feels good to sleep at night and wake up to the birdies in the morning.

  • Author

I have worked on my resume, to where I'm happy with it. Filled out the application for the VA and did a cover letter. It looks good and I'm pleased with myself. My husband told me to go for it. He said I gave the nightshift a good try and he's proud of me.

The VA is hiring in other areas of the hospital, so if I don't get this one, there will be others. I want to work either days or evenings, so I'm open to either. Just not nights anymore. Maybe if I get a job with them they can pay for my LPN to RN program too, when I get accepted in a year or two.

I have been so tired and stressed lately, I'm behind in a Sociology assignment, better get working on it some, before I go to work tonight.

I let everyone know what happens with the VA. I really want this, the hours are great, plus it's a clinic position. :D

  • Guides

I wish you the best of luck!

I loved working nights.......loved the autonomy, the teamwork, the lack of families/visitors/'suits' etc. But after hitting 40, my body decided that nights didn't love me back, and I began to experience what I feared was the beginning of early-onset dementia: I forgot things, sometimes woke up confused as to time and place, blew off appointments, and had such bad mood swings that my family was ready to throw me out of the house!

I went on for an entire year this way, wondering why I couldn't remember things and thinking I was on the verge of burnout.....then I took a two-week vacation, during which I woke up at 7 AM every morning and was asleep by midnight, and suddenly I felt like an entirely new person. Yes, I was on a much needed vacation, but it was more than that: I felt good for the first time in a dog's age. My former mental sharpness returned, my mood stabilized, and I began to actually look forward to getting up in the morning. And I knew what I had to do: get a day job!

Now, I've never been what anyone would call a morning person......in fact, I HATE getting up early with a pink and purple passion! So I've been working the 3-11 shift for the past year and a half, which has been much kinder to my body than either day or night shift; now, on the 15th, I'll be starting what to me is THE perfect shift: 11 AM to 7 PM, four days a week (no weekends, ha-ha!! :p ). This way I STILL don't have to be up at the crack of dawn, but now I'll get to be home with my family in the evenings (and see the good TV shows!) plus I can get to bed at a decent hour instead of coming home after midnight and then not being able to go to sleep until 2 AM.

I have worked the occasional 7-7 or 11-7 night shift in recent years to help out, but since it takes me 2 full days to recover from a single NOC shift, I prefer not to do it very often, to say the least. I'm great when I listen to my body and obey its limits.......and when I don't, I pay dearly for it. :uhoh21:

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