Weaker nurses at night?

talaxandra · May 24, 2009

There are very few permanent night nurses where I work, hospital-wide not just on my floor, so the doctor the OP write about would be getting the same staff whenever he worked.

SweetLemon · May 24, 2009

Some of us just work, think, function better at night. Definitely their is the occasional slow night but more often then not I am running from the moment my feet hit the floor to the moment I am getting back into my car heading home (best to run out the door that way no one can catch you to do OT :no: ). Also when things go wrong we are left with a skeleton crew to work with, that is if we are well staffed that night and still have to provide the same level of care that earlier shifts do. Not to mention calling the docs at 3am sucks and regardless of how important it is that I contact them I still feel a bad waking them up and never do it without it being necessary. All this being said I have no doubt in my mind (from first hand experience) that day and evening shifts are also working very hard. I think weather or not you are a strong or weak nurse all depends on your character and theses types of nurses can be found on all shifts. :twocents:

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · May 24, 2009

At my place, most of the nurses with 20+ years' seniority work nights. I would not call them 'weak' in any sense of the word.

nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN · May 24, 2009

I would say that the doc is a horse's rear.

In fact, what I'd love to tell the dear doc is: You may diagnose the patient and prescribe meds. But at 3 am, when you're sound asleep and your patient starts crashing, I'm the one that keeps them alive until you wake up and straggle in. So we'd both better hope I'm NOT a weak nurse, for the pt's sake.

86toronado, BSN, RN · May 25, 2009

How fat is fat? I often hear much higher than we get...just curious....Night shift nurse rock!

We get $4.50 weeknights, and $8 weekends...

As for night nurses being weaker, I think the perception is that only new nurses with very little seniority would work nights, but where I work several of the nurses with the most experience do nights, while days has a mix. The newest nurses tend to get stuck on 3-11's for the most part (I have no idea why).

boggle, ASN, RN · May 25, 2009

Night nurses weak?... no way. There is a problem though with the facilities where the only open positions for new grads are night shift. You need experienced nurses on shift to mentor them and help them grow from novices to independent nurses. Shame on facilities and supervisors that leave new grads mentor-less!

(Could that be what that doc was referring to?)

oramar · May 25, 2009

Oh no, I've been found out!!!!

Yes Bonnie you have been busted, how is Clyde these days anyway?

JavaMama98 · May 25, 2009

I work the night shift so I don't have to pay for daycare for 3 kids. Saves me thousands of dollars a year and I don't feel like I'm a weaker nurse for doing it. I don't like day shift anyway...too much stuff like CNAs with attitudes, folks coming and taking charts that you need, family members thinking they their family is the only patient who deserves medical attention....I love nights! But mostly, I save literally thousands on childcare.

begonialpn · May 25, 2009

in my ltc facility it seems as though the mantra is "ask the 7-3 shift tomorrow". or leave it for the 7-3 shift to call ambulette for md appt, families for incidents or consent. our 3-11 charge nurse didnt know what to do with a consent form for the flu vaccine or how to answer families questions regarding it. our day is planned when we walk in because of the ridiculous things they "dont know what to do with" and are left for us to deal with. i go nonstop from the moment i walk in til i leave. one time i obtained an order to insert a f/c on a man @ 2:55pm. i had just finished writing the order and told the next charge nurse the foley needed to be inserted and she said well you have 5 minutes before you have to leave and then went and complained to upper mgmt. i could go on. in my experience and im sure this doesnt happen everywhere, they are lazy.

RN1982 · May 26, 2009

This isn't about day shift vs. night shift, it's about are nurses who work nights weaker. The fact that this goes on at your facility is not only the fault of all the nurses who work there but the management who fails to resolve the problem. And NO not all night shifts nurses are lazy but I do agree that the oncoming nurse could have handled inserting a foley.

Roy Fokker, BSN, RN · May 29, 2009

in my experience and im sure this doesnt happen everywhere, they are lazy.

Like you said, it's your experience.

And I'm sorry you have unsupportive colleagues and management.

I agree, it makes your day that much harder.

Just as it makes my shift harder when I have to "follow" one of the 'lazier' nurses on 'day shift' (to use your example).

Vitals haven't been updated in 4 hours, "now" orders haven't been carried out even 3 hours after the orders have been written, patients have had a bed assignemnt for a couple hours but report hasn't been called yet, admitted patients waiting for a bed in the ED have repeat lab values that are abnormal but no one has addressed them in an hour....so on and so forth.

Personally, I work a lot of swing shifts (on top of my scheduled 7p-7a shifts). I've done day shifts, I've done IInd shifts. My opinion? It isn't so much as "day/eve/night shift nurse" that matters in as much as "who is the nurse".

In other words "the shift doesn't matter, who is working on that shift DOES matter..."

IMHO, of course.

cheers,

Lady Shmoe · May 29, 2009

I have worked both shifts and like nights better. The night nurses tend to be more seasoned and when the "stuff" hits the fan they handle it, with less resources than the day shift (ie, transport, MDs all over, PT, OT, ST, manager, pharmacist, etc).

As a new grad I dreaded working night shift because I valued my precious sleep. After a few months of day shift, I quickly learned that I would have more time to review H & Ps, establish rapport with my patients, and bombard the seasoned nurses with questions about Policy and Procedure, health issues I'd never heard of, procedures, etc.

Now there is no question about it: I am 100% night nurse.

One more thought: after working on day shift, you could not pay me to work days due to the increase of people around and the noise level.

As they say, "thats why we have two shifts in a day."