What do you do in the nursing station in your down time?

[SlightlyMental_RN]

I honestly have very little down-time on my unit. I generally work the noc shift, and I'm the charge RN with an LPN and CNA for company. We get admits, intake calls, patients freaking out/puking/craving a fix at any and all hours. When I do get that precious hour or two that's slow, I catch up on my work emails, do CEUs, shovel some food in my face, and MAYBE chat with my 2 co-workers. I swear, my last shift it was like all the cops out there decided to bring in their arrests for that night.

[hotnurse84]

when i worked psych i got on internet and did word puzzles/ crosswords.

Now i do home health and there is so much down time its crazy. AND YES I DO GET ALL my work done..hehe. it's very laid back there and my staffing managers have even told me i could study during downtime there. so thats good.

[binnurse]

Bubble shooters on gamegarage.com, hours of brainless fun to be had but definately have all nurses open on another screen!

lol lol lol

[nursebrandie28, BSN, RN]

Well....I work ER and psych and with my down time I managed to go back to school and used the downtime for homework. When I finally got through my masters, now my down time is planning trips via internet, all nurses-and I am serious-i could spend hours reading on this site!!! I also bring books, magazines and occasionally I text message my other night owl friends (nights only). At one hospital, we brought in games such as card games, jenga, etc.

I do think med/surg is completely different and I agree with the other poster-I choose my work environment on how busy and how much work does this require. If I am at a place where I can say I have repeatedly not gotten a lunch break, do not have time to go the the bathroom, feel worn out and exhausted, then yes I move on. I am an RN and can find a better work environment!!! I use the nursing shortage to my advantage.

I think this post was suppose to be light and a fun post, however, some people cannot relax even in a chat room!!

GOod Post!!:yeah:

[kiwipsychnurse]

Well....I work ER and psych and with my down time I managed to go back to school and used the downtime for homework. When I finally got through my masters, now my down time is planning trips via internet, all nurses-and I am serious-i could spend hours reading on this site!!! I also bring books, magazines and occasionally I text message my other night owl friends (nights only). At one hospital, we brought in games such as card games, jenga, etc.

I do think med/surg is completely different and I agree with the other poster-I choose my work environment on how busy and how much work does this require. If I am at a place where I can say I have repeatedly not gotten a lunch break, do not have time to go the the bathroom, feel worn out and exhausted, then yes I move on. I am an RN and can find a better work environment!!! I use the nursing shortage to my advantage.

I think this post was suppose to be light and a fun post, however, some people cannot relax even in a chat room!!

GOod Post!!:yeah:

And Kudos to you.

That was the idea, to get people talking about there down time and some of the antics they get up to. Some of the replies just paint the picture that your area of work place is too busy to have "down time". However if your happy grinding out a shift from the moment you hit the floor till the clock hits home time then kudos to you too.

We all know that night shift can be pretty quiet after everyone's in bed. It doesn't take everyone staff member to do every room check every 15 minutes. Anyway...

We read, play games on our phones, talk (quietly of course), etc. One particularly annoying girl likes to play with the broken wheelchair that goes in circles, but I think she's a bit excessive. :)

We all know that night shift can be pretty quiet after everyone's in bed. It doesn't take everyone staff member to do every room check every 15 minutes. Anyway...

We read, play games on our phones, talk (quietly of course), etc. One particularly annoying girl likes to play with the broken wheelchair that goes in circles, but I think she's a bit excessive. :)

LOL LOL LOL....love the wheelchair comment. Oh, the images that are going through my mind...thanks for the laugh!!!

[PsychLPN2000]

When I do get down time, I like to read, surf the net, or talk w/my coworkers. I work 12 hour shifts so my first 4-6 hours are usually pretty busy so it's nice to chill out for a while before waking everyone up. If some patients happen to get up, I'll talk to them until they get bored or tired and go back to bed. Now that I'm back in school, I love the downtime since I can get my studying/assignments done. I've never knitted at work for fear that a patient would try to take the needles and stab me with them (I don't sit in the nsg. station, I'm out on the unit). It's happened w/inkpens before so I don't press my luck!

A patient tried to stab me with a crayon once. Everyone laughed at me when I refused to get near her after that. I don't care if it was a crayon! You should have seen the look in her eyes. Geez... We don't let them have pens.

[iwanna]

When I worked in psych facility, I never had down time. In fact, the time really flew by. We were involved with the patients when we didn't pass meds. I am an LPN and we assisted the mental health techs, as well as pass meds. Even working nights, the paper work was enough to keep you quite busy. I preferred it that way, or the night would drag on. Although, one time I picked up a midnight shift and was reading. I was to monitor pt. outside of their room. Unfortunately, I found myself dozing off. I vowed to never work midnights monitoring pts., as that would be a great way to get fired, if you fall asleep.

Night shift highlights: Of course the newspaper! If we are not busy with admissions, I usually try to organize and clean the nursing station. (I know, OCD, right?lol) I also try to restock supplies. If there is absolutely nothing to clean, I will get caught up on my online CEUs. We talk quietly, read books or magazines. Play videos on our phones- funny ones like America's funniest videos. You have to have a sense of humor to work psych- sometimes it gets too serious and your down time should be refreshing.

[aura_of_laura]

When I'd work nights I'd bring a book with me. Days and evenings? It's rare to even get a bathroom break! Now that I do mainly office/paper work, I count myself fortunate that I can squeeze in some homework between my other responsibilities...

As a Ψ RN for the Sate of Californai in one of their State Hospital (ASH), I have no down time whatsoever. If I do my job as required, there is not enough time in the day, even in a 12 hour shift, to complete everything. I spend that vast majority of my time in a 12 hrs shift (0630 - 1900) on the computer "treating the charts" so the heads hochos of the California DMH will be happy and the U.S. Dept. of Justice will tell us "Good Job" . Less treatment for the patients and more treatment of the charts "! We're "Cyber Nurses" not Registered Nurses,

Edited Apr 25, 2010 by cwishes

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

line dancing and wheelchair races in the hallway....

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, RN]

Usually I sit there shocked that I have down time to actually be sitting there :)

[bekindtokittens]

On days and evenings, I rarely get down time. When I do, I like to go out into the milieu and check in with the patients. Sometimes I'll start a team-effort crossword puzzle, or participate in a board or card game.

On overnights, I like to chat with my coworkers. I'm sometimes seen as too serious, so it helps me build rapport with my fellow nurses and the techs I work with. I work with a supportive team and I want to keep it that way.

Mattress surfing...shhh....