Would you switch to nights for alot more money?

[Maco]

I work dayshift and have for over 4 yrs now on a surg floor. I have tried nights and at first loved then but after several months started to hating to go to work.I was ok once I got there and actually loved the people I worked with but it was almost like I was getting depressed. All I wanted to do is sleep all the time.So I went back to days. Now there is a flex position open and pays alot more money-15 more on the hour.I would also get more experience because I would be working all over the hospital.The problem is it is nights. Im scared that I will get like I was before-depressed...but for that much more money maybe I can get over it..lol. Any advice!!

[rotteluvr31, ADN, RN]

I suppose it depends on your reasons for doing the switch. And I say this as someone who has worked NOC shift on/off over the years and I am getting ready to start a new NOC shift position. I don't particularly like NOC shift, but I can do it. I am taking this new job for the experience it will provide me with the hopes that in about two years I will be able to move into something a little different, on day shift, with great clinical experience. The money is tempting, but it isn't sustaining enough to stay at a job that you might wind up despising because you don't like the hours.

[RNKel, ASN, RN]

I'm a night person, and I loooove working nights. But whoever says that nights are easier than days is waaaayyyy off. I've done both so I know. To me, days were easier. Patients often left for tests, PCTs are there to help, families visit and occupy the patients. On nights, we have no PCTs or CNAs, same patient load (or greater), constantly have to wake patients to do labs, meds, vitals, etc. So of course, the patients' sleep schedules get screwed up and they are often up all night.

I wish I got paid $15 more to do nights, I only get $3 more per hr. But hey, I am a night person so I would take it even if there was no shift differential.

It all depends on where you work, obviously. I have done both as well, and days are FAR more difficult and busier than nights on my unit. The night RN's ask how the day RN's do it all. If my pt leaves the floor for a CXR, they're maybe gone 15 minutes, big whoop. And if they're gone longer, getting them caught up on meds, etc when they return is a pain. At night many of the pts slept all night and there weren't 58 meds to pass, ambulating to be done, returns from heart caths, pacers, surgeries, etc. Our night shift has PCAs just like on days (in fact the night PCAs on my unit rock). Families are not always a plus, let me tell ya. LOL Then there are the doctors in and out all day, writing so many new orders your head spins. Don't have that on nights, either. Oh and let's not forget all the discharges on days - nights doesn't have that. And days gets way more admissions. Pt load is the same on nights as on days in my unit, also.

So, it really does just depend on your unit.

[RNandRRT]

I sure hope this thread isn't going to come down to petty "we do more on soandso shift then the other shift" crap.

[RNKel, ASN, RN]

I sure hope this thread isn't going to come down to petty "we do more on soandso shift then the other shift" crap.

My reply was definitely not in that vein. I was just stating to the other poster that you can't generalize that way and that it really all just depends on one's unit.