Why do night shift nurses get paid more when day shift clearly does MORE work?

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I work 7a-7p on a busy ICU step down/cardiac unit. All day long we have countless orders to take off, discharges to do, admits, MANY more meds to give, cath lab patients to deal with (along with sheaths to pull sometimes). Sometimes I only have time for a 15 min lunch if I don't want to stay and chart until 9pm.

Then shift change happens, if I pass along one thing like a UA that the night nurse needs to get from the pt or an order that needs to be taken off that was written at 1730 I get annoyed looks, and they generally treat it like I haven't done anything all day. When in reality I've had 5-6 pts, a full admit to do, and have dealt with an emergency or 2.

On top of all that I get paid LESS than a night nurse who passes 2100 meds along with a sleeping pill to each pt then relaxes most of the night?

Rant over.....No diss to night shift, but if you haven't worked days in years you should learn to understand what we go through at times. I know it can be busy on nights at times, but sheesh, I think the night shift on our floor shops online most of the time.

Specializes in Adult Oncology.
Oh jeez, sorry, I knew that, I didn't mean to come off snotty! Sorry!! :heartbeat

You probably need some sleep ;)

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Oh jeez, sorry, I knew that, I didn't mean to come off snotty! Sorry!! :heartbeat

And sorry for apparently missing the sarcasm in your first post! :)

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Specializes in pediatric critical care.
You probably need some sleep ;)

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Classic, especially after a 3 hour "nap" post 16 1/2 hour shift, very busy, I might add, no breaks, but, I'm sure I was probably shopping online when my patient was bucking the vent and satting 69%.;)

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Specializes in EC, IMU, LTAC.

I have worked both shifts. With day shift, the job is definitely crazier, but the rest of your life is pretty normal. With night shift, your whole world is upside-down.

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Specializes in ICU.

I have worked days and nights in the ICU. Night shift is not a sit on your ass type of thing. Pt's go south at night and you know what, there are not many Dr's who want ot answer the phone and help you when you work at a non-teaching hospital!

But that isn't why they get paid more. They get paid more because they are going against their circadian rhythm. Because they risk their lives being up all night long then driving home, nodding off at the wheel. Because they are like me who have been diagnosed with shift-work sleep disorder,which doesn't resolve itself right after you go days. it can take years to get your body back in shape.

Like I said, I worked days and nights. I would take the business of days over night because I actually have the energy to be busy during the day as opposed to nights, forcing my body to stay awake and feeling awful. I would rather drive home not having to pull over to sleep and having to catch cat nap in a parking lot.

Think about it.

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Specializes in MICU - CCRN, IR, Vascular Surgery.

I'm still just a tech, but on a typical night shift I'll walk/run between 5 and 9 miles in a 12 hour shift (12 patients) - not exactly sitting around and shopping online.

I don't get to go to sleep with my day shift husband, even really on my nights off when I'm getting ready for night shift. And since I live in an apartment, I can't do much in the middle of the night except study and watch Netflix because anything else would disturb the neighbors. Then when I'm sleeping in the day time, I have to deal with all of the noise from the kids in the apartment complex.

I worked Christmas night, so I had to waste my whole Christmas day sleeping instead of being with family, and then get to work at night. I ruined my whole holiday for only 4 hours of holiday pay, when the shift, and sleeping for the shift took up the whole holiday.

If you need to do something in the day time, you have to rearrange your whole sleep schedule, which isn't as easy at it sounds. Day shift people never have to go in for a meeting at 1am when they should be asleep.

All of that being said, I do like night shift, and I fully expect to work nights for several years once I graduate, but I think I'm more of a morning person, and I definitely understand why we get paid extra on nights!!

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I like money, a-lot!!!

but I don't want to work night shift.

Nursing tasks may be less during the night shift, but I can't imagin how hard it will be on your body.

I think it takes certain person to work night shift.

that is why I don't complaint small stuff to night shift nurse during the shift report.

Even if they missed something, as long as pts are still alive and stable, I just cover it for her. :nurse:

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Specializes in ICU.

I Then when I'm sleeping in the day time, I have to deal with all of the noise from the kids in the apartment complex.

If you need to do something in the day time, you have to rearrange your whole sleep schedule, which isn't as easy at it sounds. Day shift people never have to go in for a meeting at 1am when they should be asleep.

OMG, I live in an apartment complex with alot of kids too, and in the summer I get to hear them scream and play right under my window while I am trying to get some sleep!

And yes, I would often sacrifice sleep to do things in the daytime because nothing is open in the middle of the night. I think the differential is more than well deserved.

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OMG, I live in an apartment complex with alot of kids too, and in the summer I get to hear them scream and play right under my window while I am trying to get some sleep!

OMG, I hated this about apartment living and trying to work nights! So loud, especially during school breaks. Also, management always sent notices saying they would be entering apartments between the hours of 8am and 4pm to check fire alarms/water heaters/whatever else. I tried asking them to give me a more specific time but they said they couldn't. I'm sure they wouldn't like it if strange men let themselves into their home while they are dead asleep. :mad:

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Specializes in Critical Care, Patient Safety.

Let's see...

On night shift you:

-have less staff, so you (the RN) get to do more work with less support

-get to wake up grumpy docs in the middle of the night who proceed to yell at you for something they need to be notified about

-may or may not get to take breaks, depending on your workload

-have a sleep cycle that is never in tune with how 90% of the world operates, so things like dental appointments are a real pain the butt to make and keep

-may have no real social life to speak of, because most of your friends & family keep banker's hours, or wonder why you are so grouchy all the time (from lack of sleep)

-for 12 hour shifts, we commute to work during the busiest commuting times, adding time onto one's already long night shift

-attempt to sleep during the day, when noisy neighbors keep you awake

YES! The night shift is where it's at. It's why so many people can't wait to switch to days when there's an opening.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I've worked days and nights on ICU and Days,Eves, and nights on Tele. The atmosphere on Days on a tele floor is definitely the most chaotic, although to be honest was the easiest in terms of workload; usually at least 1 or 2 of my 4 or 5 patients were off the floor for a test or in the cath lab. Evenings had a less chaotic atmosphere after about 1600, but it wasn't unusual to get 10 or 12 admits (on a 30 bed floor) between 1500 and 2200. Nights was quieter, but consistently busy, and with 6 or sometimes 7 patients. There's less support on nights in terms of getting patients admitted, entering orders, transporting, etc. Some patients do sleep, but it's usually the ones you wouldn't mind if they stay up all night, it's usually the high maintenance ones who are up all night and on their call light the whole time. Anything done daily seems to fall to night shift such as chart checks, care plans, etc. Pain control tends to be more of a 'pain' on nights as well since patients tend to notice pains they don't during the day.

The main thing about days vs nights, is that to me a 1.0 on days is equal to about a 0.8 or 0.85 on nights, which is sort of hard to explain but basically for every amount of time spent working nights, a certain amount of time off is lost to night shift jet lag. To put it another way, it takes 3 nights off to equal 2 days off, so really night shift gets paid pretty much the same, except night shifter get sick more often, see the sun less, have to go to meetings at times that to them is the middle of the night, etc.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Telemetry, Stepdown, ICU.

Dear OP,

Please quickly and kindly get over yourself. Now, let's have a real discussion because this is something us night nurses were chatting about one evening after one of our day shift nurses made the mistake of uttering similar words. Firstly, you should know better than to pile everyone into a stereotype as you did in your opening shot across the bow. I think day shift and night shift differ in the different KINDS of tasks and stress, but not necessarily mean one is better or worse than the other.

On my unit, we do not have any techs/CNAs/(insert other equivalent here)... it's a pure nurse to patient relationship. The night shift is responsible for bathing 85-100 of our patients at night. If an IV is to expire, we start new ones. If a patient has a CT or XR, we have to take the patient to radiology. You mention working a stepdown unit, so do I. Don't be so naiive to believe that we only give 2100 medications. I would say that between drip titrations and piggybacks, I'm in a room admin. medication at least 3-6 times during my shift, which is fairly comparible to a dayshift. We stock and clean the unit because day shift purports to be too busy to actually clean up after themselves.

I get that it's "hectic" but it can be that way on nights just the same. We don't get the luxury of having half of our patients in dialysis or in surgery or elsewhere for a nice length of time... we are with them all night long.

Frankly, the majority of the nurses on days that complain about being so overwhelmed are those with poor time management and organizational skills. They show up mere minutes before their time to work and aren't really prepared for the assignment so they get blindsided right away. Show up earlier and really get all of the information you need before report that way report is just a confirmation or clarification process instead of the only means of getting information. You'll find your day runs a great deal more smoothly.

Good luck with your mentality about night shift. And while you're thinking about all the extra money we make... think about this... 3 nights a week I don't get to have my wife cuddled up in bed with me, I have to often go without enough sleep due to family interruption, and my first and last days off in the week are usually a wash because I wind up having to get back into a different sleeping cycle. It's rather unhealthy.

I choose to work nights because I feel I am able to deliver better care to my patients, not because I'm looking for an easy ride. Something else you might consider before slandering people.

Cheers,

Jason, RN

St. Louis, MO

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