You know you work nights when.......

anilasimon · Oct 25, 2006

when you get "evening blues" instaed of "morning blues"....specially after two days off...

elthia · Oct 25, 2006

You have to go to days for a few days, just for classes and recertifications...and find yourself highly resenting the fact that you are waking up at what should be your bedtime. Why the heck they can't teach dysrhythmia and ACLS classes at night.

Also, in trying to sleep at night, even with benadryl 50 mg, flexeril 5 mg, warm milk, hot bath, and staying up for 24 hours, you toss and turn from 11p to 5a, forcing your poor husband who is an extremely light sleeper to take refuge on the couch. Once 6a rolls around, you start sleeping like a baby, just in time for the alarm to go off at 0630. :lol_hitti

Nurse`Chief~Chickie · Oct 25, 2006

You have some medications you're supposed to take in the morning and some to take @ night--and you're not sure what to do because maybe the ones @ night make you sleepy, and so should you take them in the morning before you go to sleep or?? and then when do you take the morning ones? Will they keep you awake?
aaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkk

BWAHAHA.. .exactly!:smackingf

texas_lvn · Oct 25, 2006

[[bANANA]QUOTE=elthia]You have to go to days for a few days, just for classes and recertifications...and find yourself highly resenting the fact that you are waking up at what should be your bedtime. Why the heck they can't teach dysrhythmia and ACLS classes at night.[/bANANA]

THIS IS SOOOOOO TRUE. :angryfire :angryfire

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Oct 25, 2006

When you answer the phone and it's family on the other end saying "Oh you are sleeping." And you want to say so badly "Yeah I'm sleeping so if you don't want me to call your house at 1 AM then don't call mine at 1 PM."

I had a classmate in nursing school that did this EVERY Saturday morning for a couple of months. And still wouldn't get a clue after i said repeatedly that i worked nights.

After graduation, she started working med-surg night shift. I called her for 3 Saturdays in a row at 12 pm. The lightbulb came on.

cota2k · Oct 25, 2006

you and your friends are crowded 'round the bar at 0800 -- right next to the unwashed alcoholics and degenerates. and you all know each other!
you've ever called your insurance agent (who works from home) back at 0200 to make a point.
you've ever hung up on your father because when he said "don't you know who this is? i used to change your diapers!" you thought it was someone making an obscene phone call.
your friends (the triage nurse in the er, the local sheriff's department dispatcher and a guy who drives for the mortuary) call you at midnight on your days off because they aren't sleeping either, but their families are.
you've ever woken up with the portable phone in bed with you, not remembering who called or what you may have said to them.

i'm the new guy in the ed so i get all the shift changes. it never ceases to amaze me the calls our dept gets all hours of the night, the phone never stops. the night shifters that are off just call to say hi! and there i am with a maxwell house infusion wide open. never a dull moment.

chuckaye · Oct 26, 2006

ahh us night-shifters we call ourselves vampires here in savannah,ga, cause we never get to see daylights and have dark rollers on our windows wear dark shades all the way home

StNeotser, ASN, RN · Oct 26, 2006

OMG. The first time I went to a bar at 0730(so conveniently close to the hospital) I made sure I changed out of my scrubs so I wouldn't give the nursing profession a bad name.

Turns out everyone else was in scrubs. Bloody Marys and beer everywhere. I'm lucky I'm only a mile away from my workplace - and the bar is only 0.75m walk from home!

Unfortunately a lot of my social life has taken a nose dive as nobody wants to bother me because they have no idea when I'll be awake or sleeping.

Nurse`Chief~Chickie · Oct 26, 2006

besides the meds quandry( my noc or real noc? omg when do i take them.)

i haatte birds. there is nothing good about the ungodly singsong noise in the am!

i can set my alarm to make daytime business calls, not know why it is going off, turn it off, wake up at my normal time and think d@#$! i did it again.

p.s. has anyone else noticed the sleeping disorders ads around this thread? lol

TazziRN, RN · Oct 26, 2006

You've ever woken up with the portable phone in bed with you, not remembering who called or what you may have said to them.

Oh my.....my first year as a nurse I did all shifts except days. One afternoon I woke up and had a weird feeling that the phone had rung earlier but I wasn't sure. I called my best friend and asked her "Did I talk to you this morning?" Cracked her up.....she didn't know I'd worked a night shift and had called to say Hi, had a lengthy conversation with me, and I didn't remember a word of it.

Jamesdotter · Oct 26, 2006

You tell the school to call your husband at work. He did actually have to come home to tell me when my mom had a stroke--we had the phone in the kitchen and "white noise" in the bedroom at the other end of the house.

asher315 · Oct 26, 2006

...if you have ever had a pt call and say "I'm sorry to wake you but..." Yes, dearie, I go to sleep after I tuck all my pts in.

..the best thing ever is Sonic being open at 0700 and serving hamburgers all day. I love a hamburger and a coke on the way home.

...as far as phone calls, I tell my family, call if you need to and if I'm awake I'll answer, if not, I'll get back to you. My first year after graduating and starting nights...I bought 2 2-year subscriptions to the same 4 magazines by answering the phone while sleeping.

I love night shift. Someday I want a t-shirt saying "Night nurses do it from dusk til' dawn" Ain't it true!!!