Time For Another Days vs. Nights Debate!

[Vespertinas]

I had a suspicion that night shift hospital nursing was easier than days but I was afraid to say it out loud without personal experience first. Then I did a 2 year "investigation" and to be honest, my suspicions were confirmed. When I felt more confident to start bringing this up, my night shift co-workers replied that they ARE just as busy but in a "different" way. I even tried to have my close friend (whose nursing practice I respect) level with me but she INSISTED that she feels that day and night shift are equally busy. She's also worked both shifts.

I'm baffled at this difference in opinion but, at the risk of being excommunicated, I do declare that night shift is easy....er (less hard?)

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

I worked days for awhile and found that they thought they were busy mainly because they were wasting so much time. THis is of course, not the case across the board. Many of the nurses I worked with ate all three meals at work. If you're going to take 3 meal breaks, of course you're going to feel more rushed with you actually start working. While I started getting stuff done right out of report, many of them I found where chatting, eating breakfast, and making coffee for the first 90 minutes of the shift, saying that "The patient's aren't awake yet anyway!"

When we had some day shifters come to nights they had no idea how to make up a chart when an admit arrived, "The secretary does that." Others had no idea how to do an EKG, cause someone else did that on days. Sorry, not waiting on someone to come from downstairs to do an EKG on my chest painer.

There were parts that were busier, but all in all, I felt the day shifters were more disorganized and relied more on ancillary staff.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

I posed the question because after all, this is a public forum. We've had this discussion numerous times, and often, it turns into an "us vs them" debate, which it shouldn't. Each shift has its own challenges. As some have mentioned, you have fewer resources and fewer staff on at night. Furthermore, people are awake at night. They don't sleep. You're busy.

[Do-over, ASN, RN]

Night shifter here, gonna jump into the fray.

We get more admissions, hands down. Days gets the bulk of the discharges.

I bust my bottom between 1900 and 0000 to try and get done all the stuff I need to do for the patients in the (often vain) hope that they might get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. Then I have to chart it all. Then it is chaos again from 0500 to 0700 with lab and meds.

Our staff is less - both nurses and aides (not to mention housekeeping, no dietary). CN usually has a patient load. More new grads. We get pulled, alot. Bonus - no management. Plus, I always know where my patients are - because if they are off the floor, I am probably with them (although we do now have one transporter on nights).

Maybe nights are easier. In that case, lucky me. The trump card to the argument is as follows: We have to stay up all night and work against our body's natural rhythm and work opposite most other people. That alone is worth the shift differential.

I respect most of our day shift nurses, but the night crew is really a great team - wouldn't trade it.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

One thing about nights not mentioned so far....fewer administrative types. That alone is why I love nights.

Since the work is so much easier, I wonder why night shift gets the differential? Wouldn't most people want less work and more pay? Night shift should be overstaffed with a waiting list. Why do we have a waiting list for the lesser paid harder work on days?

At my (soon to be) former hospital, there is a waiting list to go to nights. Not because they're easier, because they're more pleasant to work because no one wants to have to work when our management is around.

I've rotated shifts for 4 1/2 years and I think both have their challenges and their rewards. On nights, we have 6 nurses including charge whereas on days there are 10. A high acuity patient that will be 1 of 2 on days could easily be 1 of 5 on nights if there's a sick call because we don't have the staff.

When the sH*$ hits the fan at night, it really hits the fan. Having had to take the same patient emergently to the OR on both a day shift and a night shift a few years back, it was much easier on days. On a day shift this patient (an infant with hydrocephalus who was acutely decompensating) started exhibiting signs that she was under pressure. Within minutes, the charge nurse, nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist and resident were in the room to assist and it took all of about 10 minutes to facilitate her transfer directly to the OR. When the same thing happened at night, she began decompensating around midnight (not waking up, bulging fontanelle, desaturations, bradypnea, sluggish pupils) and we didn't even get her to pre-op until 7am! By the time the resident had answered my page and ordered a stat CT, we'd already had her in the OR on that day shift.

When things are slow, days are more bearable because there are at least things you can do with your patients. If things are slow, you actually have the time to take your patient (a child who is not allowed to go off the floor without a nurse because she has an EVD) out for a walk or you can spend time talking to the child's parents. At night, they often just want to be left alone to sleep and a 12 hr shift can feel like it lasts about a week and a half.

[GuntherNP]

All I am gonna say on this one is, . . .

It would take an army, some good dirt on me, and a huge incentive to leave nights and go to days. Ever since I recieved my "ER neck bite," the light hurts my eyes anyway!

My Pet Pieve!!!!: Family Member Phone call at 3:OO PM = "Hey, did I wake you up?"

My Response: My Return Call, 3:00 AM = "Hi, what ya' up too?

Family Member= "Is something wrong?!!?? It's 3 in the morning, it's the middle of . . . . . . .!!"

Me= "Oh, Did I wake you?" (sarcastic voice)

I wish I could say this works!!!!!!!!

Wonderful Idea!

[prinsessa]

I have worked both days and night and while days and much busier I could never work nights again. On our floor the patient load is generally the same for nights and days. No admissions on nights. Less meds to give. The reason I didn't like nights is that I could never get enough sleep. It is really difficult to sleep during the day. Some people don't have a problem with it. I just couldn't survive long working night shift.

[Ted]

nights verses days debate

working nights rule!!! yea, night-shifters!! (i work the night shift.) nights are just as busy as days, just a different busy.

asn verses bsn debate

asn and bsn rules!! yea, asners and bsners!!! asners are just as edumicated as bsners, it's just a different edumication.

rn verses lpn debate

well. . . both rule!! yea, lpn and rn!!! lpns work just as hard as rn and both carry a lot of responsibilities, it just different kinds of hard and different kinds of responsibilities. both make a difference to the lives of the patients.

finally, there's no debating this: all nurses rule!!!

:yelclap: :thankya::yelclap:

cheers. . . . :cheers:

[color=#d3d3d3](i've never seen these debates before. . . . they're sooo new and soooo original!)

[MPKH, BSN, RN]

While I prefer night shift over day shift, both shifts are busy in their own ways, each with a different set of expectations and demands.

Days are busy in the sense that's when everything happens--doctors making rounds, procedures appointments and the patients themselves are up and about.

Nights are busy in that the charts are checked and paperwork done...and playing catch up with things not done during the day.

While I enjoy one shift over the other... I can't see myself working straight days or nights! I need both to balance my work life

[MomRN0913]

Different in a different way. I worked both in the same icu in a community hospital, so no residents. During the day, all your resources were there. You can page the doctor a bunch of times without them getting mad, ask for something and you get it. Nights is one hospitalist for the whole hospital and attendings that don't want to be awoken. So, while the pace may be slower at night because most tests are done during the day and no one is stealing your charts...... I fared better in days even though I felt like I was running around more, I was awake and not going against my circadian rhythm .

[2bTraumaRN2008]

Night shift is wayyyyyy less busier than day shift....I'm doing nights now to orient a new RN, did way back in the day, and had to switch to days. We run non stop on day shift, deal with doctors all day, phone calls, family members, back and forth to tests, tons more meds, etc.....

I switched to days because I couldn't sleep at ALL during the day. Now at night, I find I'm am literally almost falling asleep. I will walk and walk just to stay awake. Last med pass is generally at 2200 or so, then NOTHING until 0600, maybe an occasional IV abx, very simple to do.

We have several docs available at night, and our "hospitalists" cover for primary doc's at night, so we don't have to worry about calling him/her and waking them up...very good thing.

Just my 2 cents!!

[kool-aide, RN]

Night shift generally works with MUCH less staff....especially weekend nights.

[beckster_01, BSN, RN]

Weekend nights are the most sought after shift on our floor because...we have weekend contractors! So 3 of the 4-5 nurse minimum are automatically working, they all have oodles of experience, and you get the weekend/night shift differential :)