Any nurse's?

I work night I'm thinking about taking a day position. Is it really that bad? I expect it to be busier but is it like really crazy?

Re: Any nurse's?

I am not a nurse but I have been spending a lot of my days in hospitals with my father.

At night, its much more relaxed and peaceful. Half the team is gone and it's a lot more quieter. Less family members, less drs, and staff and phone calls.

During the day, the team of drs make their rounds, all management is around. More family members, more admissions, more phone calls. More transporters, maintenance, etc, etc.

I see the day being much more hetic than the night time. If you like to be busy, and deal with more staff, and family members, I'd say go for it. You get your evenings back, but its a whole different world in the day.

Re: Any nurse's?

I work with nurses in home care during the daytime hours, and I know they are crazy busy.

It's hard for them to plan too, because things are constantly changing.

You never know what is going to happen that requires you to drop everything and head out into the field. Sometimes not super close by either.

Because we are also very customer-service and referral-based as well, I've seen my RNs get suckered into having to go out and do stuff that they would not have to in a hospital or other type environment.

I know many of our RNs come in either super early, stay after business hours or work one day on the weekends when no one knows they are in, to catch up on their paperwork.

Re: Any nurse's?

Right now I'd stay in the hospital and on the same floor. I'd be working 3 12 hours shifts a week. Working nights just seems to be kicking my @$$ and I think going to days might be better for myself and my family.

Re: Any nurse's?

Can you ask some of your co-workers?

I'm sure they'd be pretty honest.

I can imagine it would be a little more hectic during the day, especially just based on the visitor component alone.

Re: Any nurse's?

I worked as a RN at Mather for many years (currently a stay at home mommy now) and I always did the night shift even though I was offered day positions. Number one reason was child care. I also liked the "less chaoticness" of night time. No social worker, phys. therapy, dieticians, and esp. family, lol!!! Not thay the night shift isnt crazy because it certainly is...all patients do NOT go nighty night and sleep, especially post-op! Another bad side is having to call a cranky doctor in the middle of the night!

Re: Any nurse's?

Interesting that the first thing you mentioned was "no social worker".

One of the RNs I work with hates me too most of the time, because she perceives me as bringing her problems.

Re: Any nurse's?

I'm not a RN but an xray tech. When we have to go on the floors during the day they are always busy, Dr's doing rounds, family members, pts awake and asking for things. The RN's are always busy. At night the floors are quiet, no vistors, no dr's, pts are sleeping the RN's seem less stressed. But the lack of sleep takes a toll. My Mom did nights for 20 + years & I don't know how she did it. To this day she is up late at night.

Re: Any nurse's?

Hey... I am an RN who recently changed from nights to days....so I felt COMPELLED to answer this question!!!

First off...would I switch again, knowing everything I do....yes!!

I did nights for a year and switched to days about 6 months ago. Here are a couple of +/- to think about...

Couple of differences-
1- days is MUCH busier.... I used to have the occasionally busy night (3 admissions and a heavy district) but in the end, you run around 10X more on days

2- I see my DS less now then when I was working nghts When I was on nights I would get home...bring him to Daycare and go to bed.....sleep 6 hrs or so, get up, pick him up, feed him dinner, get him ready for bed and DH would put him down.... Now,if I work 2/3 days in a row, I will see him monday, and usually not see him again until thursday. Its weird for me, but I am gone before he wakes up and he is usually in bed by the time I get home....

3- You learn SO MUCH MORE on days...You get to know the doctors better, you know the plans for the PT much better, in general, I feel like you have more chances to see stuff on days

4- It takes a solid 4-6 weeks before you stop saying "what the hell was I thinking"....for the first couple of weeks, I hated it!!! It was so buys I always felt I would never catch up...but you get there. You adjust to the additional crap you need to do on days and you get used to it

5- your days off feel like they are DOUBLE!!! 2 days off, feels like 4...its crazy!!

6- I felt like I was able to "attend" more functions while working on nights. We have to work every other weekend and for some reason, my friends ALWAYS planned stuff on my weekends on... On nights, I was still able to "stop by" and show my face at events.... Days can't do that...

Overall, I would still change to days again if given the opportunity now... I think it is worth it!! GOOD LUCK!!

FM me if you have any specific questions...

Re: Any nurse's?

Thank you for your honesty.

I think I started hating nights before I even got pregnant and now I'm miserable. I really only get two days off. Not 4 like everyone thinks! And I don't feel like the time is quality with DD. I'm always stressed about will she nap, will she nap long enough that I can too? etc... so much that it keeps me from napping.

I worry about not being able to handle the workload. I worry about not seeing DD when i work. I worry about holidays etc...

But then I think I'm so miserable I have to try and if it doesn't work out then maybe I should leave hospital nursing.

Re: Any nurse's?

Posted by Irishgrl13

Hey... I am an RN who recently changed from nights to days....so I felt COMPELLED to answer this question!!!

First off...would I switch again, knowing everything I do....yes!!

I did nights for a year and switched to days about 6 months ago. Here are a couple of +/- to think about...

Couple of differences-
1- days is MUCH busier.... I used to have the occasionally busy night (3 admissions and a heavy district) but in the end, you run around 10X more on days

2- I see my DS less now then when I was working nghts When I was on nights I would get home...bring him to Daycare and go to bed.....sleep 6 hrs or so, get up, pick him up, feed him dinner, get him ready for bed and DH would put him down.... Now,if I work 2/3 days in a row, I will see him monday, and usually not see him again until thursday. Its weird for me, but I am gone before he wakes up and he is usually in bed by the time I get home....

3- You learn SO MUCH MORE on days...You get to know the doctors better, you know the plans for the PT much better, in general, I feel like you have more chances to see stuff on days

4- It takes a solid 4-6 weeks before you stop saying "what the hell was I thinking"....for the first couple of weeks, I hated it!!! It was so buys I always felt I would never catch up...but you get there. You adjust to the additional crap you need to do on days and you get used to it

5- your days off feel like they are DOUBLE!!! 2 days off, feels like 4...its crazy!!

6- I felt like I was able to "attend" more functions while working on nights. We have to work every other weekend and for some reason, my friends ALWAYS planned stuff on my weekends on... On nights, I was still able to "stop by" and show my face at events.... Days can't do that...

Overall, I would still change to days again if given the opportunity now... I think it is worth it!! GOOD LUCK!!

FM me if you have any specific questions...

Re: Any nurse's?

I'm worried about not being able to see DD the days I'm working and also holidays. At night you tend to not lose your holidays and I'd see her even a little bit each day staying on nights.

I may get to try out days as a trial. They are really short! Down 3 positions so we'll see how it goes.

If I stay on nights I may rework how I do my shifts. I may need to work 3 in a row or something like that.

Any nurse's?

what kind of unit are you on? is it a med/surg unit? I did nights years ago on tele and had a love/hate relationship with it, but never could have imagined doing days on that unit- too ridiculous. I left when DD1 was 6 months old and went to homecare. The bigger problem was that i thought i could avoid child care, etc... so i was a zombie all the time... sticking the binky in DDs ear, etc. Do you send her to daycare at all before or after you work? It's not reasonable to think you can do it all full time. I loved homecare and thought it was a good balance for a few years... my sister was our live in nanny and i was only gone a few hours/day and really saw them all the time since she watched them in our house (i'd still have to chart, but i could do it from home and when they were sleeping).
I'm thinking about going back to the hospital now (more because of my long term goals) but am looking at ICU. Not sure if i'd prefer days or nights, but it doesnt matter to me as much as if i was going to the floor and had 7-9 patients for the shift. If you stay on nights though, i would definitely make sure you get childcare at least a couple of days/week. good luck!

Re: Any nurse's?

I work on a med/surg unit.

What home care do you work for?

I was thinking of applying for the part time position and picking up shifts or working home care on the side.

I already have DD in daycare. But i still feel like a zombie.

Re: Any nurse's?

I worked for North Shore LIJ- LOVED it. I moved OOS though- or else i definitely would have stayed there. It's a great job to have there when you have kids- very flexible and i could end very early if i started early, could make appt's whenever i needed to... most days i was done by 3, the latest. It's very different where i am now- on call overnight and on weekends, pt's are much more acute (because it's completely rural here and many of these patients dont have access to healthcare, otherwise). I just had a pt a month or so ago that was a LLE trauma, double VAC around an external fixator (with skinny legs and couldnt let the draping touch bc he was already a high risk for compartment syndrome), with PICC care, IV Abx (family did it but needed lots of teaching), vac was 3x/wk, lab draws 2x/wk (then still have to drop it off at the lab afterwards)- his visit was at least 2 hours everytime i saw him. i NEVER had anything like that in NY- most visits were 30 mins and done. The paperwork is ridiculous no matter where you are though- so that's one thing that's consistent throughout
Do you like med/surg? If you want to go to days, have you thought about a different type of unit? I think with 5 years experience, you would still do well on days and could probably keep up with the pace easily because you already have that strong foundation- to me, its just not worth it though (then again, i haven't worked nights in over 3 years, so i'm not clearly remembering how much that throws off your life, either lol). I would just consider all your options. What about Am/Surg? most are (4) 10 hr days with no nights/weekends/holidays. That aspect always appeals to me lol

Re: Any nurse's?

Am surg, PST, PACU, OR those are all difficult to get into. Eventually I'd like to get into case management so going to days may actually help that. Getting interdisciplinary rounds and seeing the patient through.

Re: Any nurse's?

I did 5 years of nights, then 5 years of days now back to nights in a new job.

I think it really depends on what specialty you are in (ER nights was no less busy than ER days), and now I am in the ICU at night.

I think it really depends on if you are an early riser or a night owl by nature. At this new job I was on orientation during the day and I could not sleep all night because I was so afraid of oversleeping since I can't fall asleep early and I normally don't wake up early. I am now on nights and although I feel like a zombie the day after a 3 night in a row stretch, I am less tired during my shift than I ever was on days.

I do not have kids, so I don't know if this would effect you, but the nurses I know who do had a hard time on days because they have to be at work by 7 am and have noone to bring the kids to school at 9 am since they are either a single parent or their spouse is already at work by then. The people who are working nights take the kids to school and then sleep all day while they are gone. Just something to think about. The other thing is losing the night differential by going to days. Not sure how much that pays at your job but at mine its a lot of $.

Re: Any nurse's?

Our night differential is 10%. Any tips to sleep better if I stay on nights?