Nursing-RN

Ah, the night shift....

I have been an RN for almost a year, and have worked the night shift for nearly as long. People do seem to have some misconceptions about the night shift that I just wanted to clear up:

  1. People sleep at night, so night nurses aren't busy. 
      Fact: Sure you might get the occasional patient who sleeps during the night. But we are constantly waking people up to do vital signs, draw blood, and give antibiotics and other medications. But many of our patients are confused, which means night time usually worsens that confusion (ie sundowners). Then there are the patients who cannot get up by themselves and they need help getting to the bathroom. There's patients who are in pain who require pain medicine every few hours. And if their vital signs are out of the normal range, we then have to monitor and deal with that. (If you or any loves ones have ever been in the hospital overnight, you probably know you aren't able to get much rest in the hospital).

  2. Night nurses have more time to complete tasks than day nurses do.
      Fact: Refer to #1. Not to mention that we have to work our shift with less staff than the day shift does, we tend to be very busy.

  3. It must be nice to have days off.
      Fact: I have to admit, there is a benefit to having days off: I do not have to pay for daycare! But I sacrifice alot of sleep. I come home at around 8 or 8:30 usually, and I often do not get to bed until after 9. Then I have to wake up by 1:30 at the latest to pick the kids up from school. By the time I get home, it's around 2:30 and I have to get the kids settled with snacks and homework. I might go back to bed around 3:30 to try to get another hour or so of sleep if I have to work that night. So the MOST sleep I get when I work a couple days in a row in maybe 5 hours between shifts. And it leaves me NO time to get anything done, which is not different from a day shift nurse. But I literally have to sleep in split shifts, which can be very exhausting.

  So I am lucky; I work on a great floor with awesome nurses and techs. And I love the people I work with at night. But I look forward to when I can work during the day and feel like a normal person. Until then, BreadCo, keep the cafe mochas coming! :)