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

GaGal777 · Oct 9, 2010

Mattress surfing...shhh....

Too Funny!

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

NCindasun21 · Oct 10, 2010

I don't know where you (previous posters) work, but I seldom had any down time when I was working psych, at least not on days and evenings. If I got meds, treatments, admits, discharges, groups, way too much paperwork done, I went out with the patients and talked with them as a group or individually. Eating a meal was a luxury.

Eating, or rather wolfing down my meal, before the next crisis comes along. I'm in acute adolescent so trust me, there is no down time unless they're asleep. Now some of the MHW still find time to do word searches but that's a whole other thread.

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · Oct 16, 2010

There's a lot to do. I did read, did work crossword puzzles, took required online education classes, tended to insurance renewals (relevant now that it's time to choose for next year), attended required inservices and meetings, took the initiative to make sure our clients' labs were correctly updated, cleaned the nurses' station and med rooms, reviewed H & P's, meds, therapies, care plans, and diagnoses, read a lot on Medscape, talked to coworkers and any patients who wanted to interact, made myself available in the Day Room for visiting with patients, planned my future, took my meal break at the desk - almost never left the floor. Those aforementioned meetings and classes were as rare as a hen's teeth. Always a lot to do.

Noah'sRNMom · Nov 24, 2010

Hmm.. let's see.. I have a lot of down time after my patients go to bed at 9pm till 11:30. I will usually do homework (I'm in a BSN program now), puzzles, crosswords, magazines, etc. Sometimes I will bring in my scrapbooking supplies lol.. When my son's birthday was coming up, I worked on invitations, and then thank you's! We recently got internet *thanks the lord* but we are ONLY supposed to use it for nursing related things.. yeah right. So, I usually surf the web while keeping my email minimized incase my nurse supervisor decides to pop up! I mean if you have everything done and your patients are in bed, what are you supposed to do?! :yawn:

kristen38 · Nov 28, 2010

I work on a busy acute care psychiatric unit, and I am often busy, nights can be busy as well.

However, I find that I still have lots of downtime and during that time I like to play on my ipod touch. There are so many mindless games that I can download on to it. They take no concentration and are perfect for night shifts. I can also watch movies on it, which is also an activity that is conducted often during my down time. Of course being on the computer kills a lot of time as well.

Kristen

kiwipsychnurse · Dec 9, 2010

I learnt that if your busy on nights and I'm excluding admissions then dish out the PRN. Having patients up all night drinking tea and coffee watching TV is not promoting recovery as all they do is sleep the next day. Also avoid talking to them on night shift. Sounds counter productive but 2.00am is not the right time to cover issues of feeling picked on when they were at primary school or how old they were when they were potty trained. Plenty of time for such conversations during day and afternoon shifts.

Just finished a month of nights. Must have tools. A laptop or macbook. Wireless internet connection and a Facebook login and a heap of downloaded TV shows to catch up on. Hey at least I'm awake!! Anyone here sleep on nights. Come on be honest!!

Noah'sRNMom · Dec 18, 2010

I'll admit that we take 2 hour breaks on nights, and some of us sleep in our cars. Some people sleep in treatment rooms. Yuck!

sarmedic70 · Dec 18, 2010

I work on one of the most violent and busy units of our entire psych hospital. I switched to night shift recently to get a break from day shift (of which we average 10-15 PIRS/day and it's become much more active since), and it has become way too stressful. However, it does extend over to night shift (since our shift starts at 1800 hours-0630 hrs). It is nothing unusual to walk onto the unit, and it is utter chaos. On night shift, on our unit only, the RNs do all of the RN weekly notes and the Treatment Assessment Notes (TANs) of which keeps one busy enough along with some other things. Granted it is not nearly as busy as Day Shift (of which will usually have two RNs on (unless one gets pulled to another unit), but we (night shift) are on by ourselves (currently have over 20 patients). When I worked days, the way my shift was set up, I was on alone MOST of the time. At any rate, if I am doing my job correctly (during night shift), I will have some down time around after 0300 hrs, IF I am lucky. Generally I do NOT get a break. On day shift, I NEVER EVER got a break. Nobody to relieve me, etc. The other NS RN who is counter to my shift doesn't do nearly as much as I do in the way of charting (i.e., it is required that per shift all DOS and 1:1's be charted on in addition to any of whom may be on home visits). I do all of that. Just a habit I got into. In my down time, since I am working on my Masters and my Psych/Mental Health RN certification, I do some studying. I will, just for a break, check out my personal emails, et al. Facebook is essentially blocked (although we all know the "back door" to be able to access Facebook except for the games of which are totally blocked).

GHGoonette, BSN, RN · Dec 18, 2010

I haven't worked night duty since my student days, and there is rarely nothing to do in PACU! But sometimes the hospital's quiet and we get time to play, or mooch around, or read books-whatever.

Normally we just sit in a circle and talk, but sometimes we pull out the portable cd player and dance. Good for the circulation!

The funniest is when a few get together and do "aerobics".... many of my colleagues are large and we end up laughing at them laughing at themselves!