Things to do on night shift

[epg_pei]

After everything else is done and you have some downtime, how do you productively use it? I do my CE but I feel like I could be doing something more useful. Comments?

[ArwenEvenstar]

Downtime??? I worked night shift for many years, and downtime was rare! Yes, sometimes it got "quieter" for a couple hours in the middle of the night, but we had lots of extra paperwork on nights - the 24 hour chart checks, checking the MARs, etc. But too often when things got quiet, all heck would break lose....a confused pt would become uncontrollable, someone would go bad and we were transferring them to CCU, etc! And, of course, as soon as you transferred the pt to CCU, an admit would come up from the ER to fill the empty bed.... Most of the time, we were busy all night long.

[showbizrn]

no disrespect but...

i do my work!!!

sure

there's downtime...

that's when i do the

home-based ce courses

that are work-related

so that's work to me:nurse:

i do consider

my job

paradise...aahhhhhhh!

:onbch:

[SweetLemon]

We are currently switching our systems from paper to computer charting so I am attempting to learn the system before we go live but it seems the hospital education department always has some new obscure online competency that has to be done. Between that and keeping up with the insane amount of email I receive daily I am rarely without something. I have to admit though their are nights when everyone is sleeping and I am tired of the paperwork that I am tempted to go "accidentally" wake up some of my favorite patients.... I never do it but I want to. :chair:

[Freedom42]

I start running at 6:45 p.m. I hope it's all done by 6:45 a.m. Between PICC dressings, tube feeds, ostomies, and IVs, plus all the scheduled meds, topped off by nonstop PRNs, it's usually not. On a good night, I'll get to skin care for my most dependent patients. There's no meal break, and I've got to be desperate to hit the bathroom. When the day shift arrives, it's like the cavalry has moved in.

One thought: If I had down time, I would be careful about where I went on the Internet, if at all, and that includes allnurses.com. I wouldn't want my employer to know that I spent my free time surfing, and I wouldn't want my employer questioning where I went, either, no matter how legitimate I thought the visit to that particular site was. If you have free time to spend surfing, that suggests a great argument for downsizing the staff on your unit. I'm not saying you're on the web for hours on end. I'm just saying that your employer more than likely has a record of what you're doing. (I've been startled by classmates who have actually posted on Facebook during their night shifts. They're not thinking.)

[RN1982]

When I have downtime, I will organize my patient's room and tidy it up. Sometimes I will check out AN for a bit after checking on my co-workers. This fall I will be going back to school, so I will have plenty of homework to do on downtime, the only problem is everytime I bring in homework, I end up being busy all night.

[truern]

During any downtime I straighten patient rooms, restock the nurses station pyxis area, wipe things down with antiseptic wipes...you know: mindless tasks that are productive, but give me a break at the same time