ne of the joys (NOT!) of being a nurse is working at odd hours just like doctors, call centre employees and the like. Every nurse gets the dreaded graveyard shift.
This week is my “lucky” week where I have to be nocturnal and work night shifts. Where I work, we are rostered on for 4 to 8 ten-hour night shifts each month.
So for those suffering the same fate as me, I want to offer you all 5 important truths about night duty;
- A sleep-deprived boast fest ensues – Everybody starts counting how many hours they sleep for and tells this information to anyone who will listen.
- You look forward to cold and rainy days even in the middle of summer because you get to sleep.
- Things that are hilarious at 4 o’clock in the morning are not actually that funny.
- You suddenly need to use a calculator to add up your fluid balance chart, even when the IV infusion has been running at 5ml/hr.
- You get to learn things about your colleagues and have conversations with them you never expected to have.
What about you? What is your experience in night shifts? Any other “truths” you’d care to share? 
Image credit: Flickr
‘nights’..AGAIN ??!! selection to do nights if on cas pool is great! 3-4 per week . Frid-Sat-Tue- Wed = 40 hrs..great rates folks. Downside is poor social life, trying to sleep days, that most others think is ‘your day off’! Staying fully alert as most times your short in mumbers, or have ‘iso’ or ‘special’ or MET calls: an Rn how rides you..ai’nt life great @ nights;poor lights, wondering Pts.and just 4 to cope with 35 Pts.Not to mention the effects of Daylight Saving!!Oh Da day Light..or lack of it.You soon believe, feel and do get ill..no wonder n/staff cancel out..try calling a NUM @ 3.45AM..we need you on yoour floor NOW like PRONTO..see how you get on!..just loooov nocte meds..let me have a few..PLEASE Dr ..my feet are killing me, my eyes hurt, this chair is crap, my husband and two kids are home ill..will you go see them for me now like man…NOW..
posative aspect of night duty. There is nothing more rewarding on night duty than 0715, when you venture outside at knock off time and breath in your first lung full of clean fresh air, so invigerating.
Night Duty! Love it!! I love night duty as an EN because it allows me to attend uni to become an RN and i can earn a good wage just doing 3 nights per week. Mind you they have to be the good nights, Fri, Sat and Sun. No social life but it will be worth it in the end and I’m past the social butterfly stage anywho!! I was so lucky in the first session of second year as I had those nights and it went fantastically now my work has decided they only need one RN and the former super numery supervisor on our ward so it’s bye bye to the EN. I hope there are no emergencies. So next session at uni should be very interesting less money less time oh the joys of nursing!!! Makes me wonder sometimes why we bother. Luckily the patients and your workmates make it a litlle easier to overcome idiot managers who actually believe that night duty nurses function well during daylight!!!
I love nightshift. Hi, I love nightshift and work permanent fulltime nightshift by choice. I began doing nightshift because it worked well for my family when my kids were little. I was able to be there for them to get them off to school and when they got home and their father was there at night. At the time i was an AIN. When I went to uni, nightshift still worked for me. I studied part time and worked full time nights. Now, nightshift has become such a way of life for me that they are my preferred shift. I am one of the lucky ones who is able to sleep during the day and i consistantly get 7-8 hours. I have also found a way to knock my body clock back into place so that I am “normal” on my days off. I have now been doing nightshift for about nine years and have no intention of giving them up anytime soon.
Nightshift Nightshift is a great if you are a EEN trying to become a RN, uni throught the day and work at night, only frustrating thing is some shifty nurses take all the frid sat and sun nights every week to obtain all the penalty rates, maybe they can be a little fairer and allow another colleague one weekend a month. I do night shift 3-4 during the week, same workload, same patients, same hours for a lot less money. I dont voice sad stories to obtain favours from other staff membes or the NUM to obtain the a weekend night shift, I just love my work, I love helping others less fortunate in health than myself and when I walk out at up to an hour past knock off time because morning shift nurses are late, I still feel self satisfaction knowing I left my patients as comfortable as possible. Think how these ill patients feel, awake all night, unable to sleep, waiting on pain relief or a nurse to assist them to the bathroom, one thing is for sure those buzzers go all night which allows the shift to go fast.
The sixth food group for night duty nurses Diet coke!
Night duty who needs it!!!!! night duty has to be the worst!!! I eat all night just to make it through. The only positive is cuddling, bathing and massaging beautiful babies all night. And working in Birthing Suite the babies come so easily in the middle of the night with little intervention/interference it’s magic OK OK so there are some positives to night duty. If I take them two at a time I cope better too!
night shift Lizzie always brings vegetable crudites and some healthy dip
Tracey always bring caramelised onion and rocheforte cheese chips
Liz always brings cheeses that she has made mmm yum!
Ang always brings sourdough bread, avocado and lime to make toasted sambos at 3am
Ksenia always brings chips of some sort!!!
Night sift food and excersise The other night, we realised that there are a few different types of eaters on night shift. Those who eat their three square meals over the time they are awake, those who binge eat, those who fast and those… like me… who will graze all night and eat to stay awake.
I once met a nurse who recommended having a gym available in the hospital to use on your breaks or before shift when on nights, does anyone think this is a good idea?
Having a gym available is a brilliant idea. I am member of a 24 hours gym and often go straight from a 10 hour night shift before I go home. On my days off with my sleep pattern shot to pieces, I am often in the gym at 1am – 2am or other weird times. Very relaxing doing something purely physical when you spend the work week as an RN working essentialy with your mind. Plus at 1am – 2am when you are the only one in the gym it is so peacefull
Pay rates for night duty Hi all,
The NSWNA argued that 15% is not fair compensation for the social, domestic and health disadvantages suffered by nurses working mandatory night shifts.
check out the full article;
http://www.nswnurses.asn.au/news/19652.html
any comments?
So what progress has there been (or will there be) in having consideration given to raising the night shift penalty rate from 15% to 25% as outlined in the linked NSWNA article? Any time frame or has it been shelved? Didn’t see any mention in the Lamp and I never received a response from my enquiry to the Association (other than an e-mail acknowledgement that it was received). Curious to know as a permanent night shift worker.
Another truth about night shift – the rollercoaster! Somewhere about 2 am you begin to question why you are awake and everyone else is asleep
Then about 3am you question why you chose nursing as your career
By 4am you are pondering the meaning of life and how you fit into the universe
By 5am, as dawn approaches you seem to now have a hope for the future.
And finally, at 6am when light fills the morning sky, you rejoice that soon you too can slumber, and you know that the world is not so bad after all.
I all,
Just thought of a nightshift story that a lot of nurses can relate too.
Driving home after a particularly long and brutal nightshift. I made my way inside the house and quickly dropped off to sleep.
I awoke refreshed and invigorated by a healthy 9 hours sleep. After walking into the kitchen to greet my wife she smirked at me with a knowing smile and innocently asked ‘were you a bit tired this morning love?’ I thought to myself a moment and said ‘no it wasn’t too bad why do you ask?’ she just smiled again and said ‘because when I woke up this morning your car door was open, the front door was open with your keys still in the door and your still dressed in your work clothes’ I looked down at my crinkled work clobber and could only offer a bemused ‘oh ‘
I’m sure everyone else can identify with me
Night shift in aged care short version lol Night shifts …cuppa in staff area catch up with fellow staff you will be working with tonight and work up the courage to go inside
start at 2100
Listen to how afternoon shift had such a hard day and are glad to be going home hmmmm
First round security checks and make sure everyone is in bed rails up or floor beds down
Outside lights on nothing in our way to trip over when we go in the rooms doing our night checks
Just sit down for a cuppa get ready to do next days roster buzzer goes off 3 times we all go running resident has dropped her box of tissues agh
Someone else is walking the wards looking for a toilet take her to toilet settle back to bed
Other has rolled on floor kicking and agitated wants to sleep on floor mat given pillow and blanket now happy go figure they have comfortable warm beds and want to sleep on the floor . We llok at the beds thinking we know what we would rather be doing
Ward rounds ….. Plucked pads all over floor full bed changes , someone not breathing properly make the descision to move to Palliative care now we are furniture removalists too 2 other residents want to go for a walk forgetting their legs don’t work now 2 low line beds are empty so bed shuffle begins trade the high beds for the floor line beds lifters bought in resident up in lifter and beds changed over after linen change and disinfecting its now 0300 time to do progress notes then stock up linen trolleys grab a cuppa something to eat and relax for a minute starting to feel yuk as hibernation stage has started wanting to make you sleep you start to feel cold go for a walk put people back to bed that are crawling out in the hallway as they want to go do their washing or its time to mlik the cows . 0500 ward rounds again feel like a zombie working on auto pilot .Quickly alert with residents needing full bed changes medications at 0600 palliative needing meds to be signed out by RN then going with her to check and witness it given to the resident comfort the family finish off rounds as day staff come on duty making sleep time become more of a reality .Say goodbye to all head off in the car sun coming through to windscreen pulling up in the driveway at home wondering how you got there car must be on auto pilot ???
The ‘rollercoaster’ truth about night shift I will have to agree with what angeb14 said. I felt that way when I did 4 nights in a row in ICU.
@shell44 – i too work in aged care – but don’t do night shift unfortunately….onli do day shifts – but i guess day and night shifts are pretty similar, huh? ;P but i hear the girls from the night b4 grumbling about how many beds and residents they had to put back to bed, and how many pad changes they’d done to this one lady…who kept ripping them, thinking that the pads were trying to suffocate her…lol.
btw, hai @ ruthguevarra!! =) (i think i went to tafe with you many moons ago – how are you, chooky??
:*D
x
We deserve this pay rise>>>>>>>> The NSWNA argued that 15% is not fair compensation for the social, domestic and health disadvantages suffered by nurses working mandatory night shifts.
check out the full article;
http://www.nswnurses.asn.au/news/19652.html
Yes please we need and deserve more pay for night shift it interferes with our health is harder on us mentally and physically is more dangerous as there are less staff my place of work had has several attempted break ins and being an older facility now in the middle of renovations nights are getting harder to do security rounds will be much bigger with further to run hmmm yeah no walking on nights we will need skates when its finished wonder if they are tax deductible ………..
Night shifts 5 truths.
1) Working nights is not fun and you don’t sit on your backside all night contrary to popular belief.
2) We don’t sleep on night shifts either contrary to popular belief.
3) its damn hard to sleep in the morning because your body clock is so messed up.
4) The first day your up after a nightshift on your day off feels like your in a dreamland.
5) We deserve 50% penalties for nightshift!!!!! Not 25%…..go for gold and ask for 50%
Nightshift The definition of insanity!!!
Oooohhh…. this is just NOT natural….
How can anyone do more than about 2-3 night shifts in a row- if that!
How can anyone drive after nights? Heaps do, I am sure. I dont know how far they need to go on average. I nearly fall asleep on the train frequently as it is!!!I …. public transport….not always seen as the safest or quickest… but been okay so far. I am still here to talk about it…. but I wonder how many preventable car accidents (injuries/deaths) have resulted from someone driving after a night shift??????
I often wonder why they dont have the equivalent of breathalysers for shift workers as it is often said that working night shift is the equivalent of drink driving.! I believe it !!!!
I’m just hoping motherhood has me prepared for night shifts… That paired with my unusual sleep habits from high school where I used to sleep every other night.
angeb14 wrote:
Somewhere about 2 am you begin to question why you are awake and everyone else is asleep
Then about 3am you question why you chose nursing as your career
By 4am you are pondering the meaning of life and how you fit into the universe
By 5am, as dawn approaches you seem to now have a hope for the future.
And finally, at 6am when light fills the morning sky, you rejoice that soon you too can slumber, and you know that the world is not so bad after all.
This is soo true!! I work 12 hour shifts in an ICU and you couldn’t have worded it better. We laugh and ponder what the future will hold – here’s hoping for auto pilot modes on ventilated/sedated patients so we can half night shift nursing staff, therefore less night shifts. Take care all and travel safe.
Night shift – Danger area! Nights? Have done them on and off for over 30 years! I like them as they give me the day off! – but…. have learnt to avoid sleep! Co-workers call me a machine, ‘Superman’, or a maniac. My benefit is that I absolutely thrive on the work as a nurse. I spend most of my time teaching, amusing, motivating, morale-boosting others. I work at least 3-4 days a week from 3pm until 7.30am (16-hour runs!). I don’t sleep at night ( probably wouldn’t wake up) so often ‘give’ my break to someone else who is overtired ( there’s always several!). Often give it to a poor pregnant nurse – she needs it! Otherwise I visit emergency or another ward, or simply read. My conversations wake other staff, so keep them more alert – they love it ( or hate it , if they wanted to sleep). Is there a downside? – I drive 100km each way to work, and the drive can be a real bore when caught in slow traffic. Once I got so fed up with the drive, I put car in neutral, and handbrake on ( we weren’t moving) – some freaked out lady woke me, pounding on the window (thought I probably died at the wheel!). I tended to get from point A to B and then wonder : “I don’t remember leaving the hospital? How did I get here? Don’t remember crossing the Moonie Moonie Bridge, or even the Hawkesbury River?” – I realised I must have had the car on cruise control, so thank God the car knew the way home!
One day while driving, many years ago, I obviously fell asleep (microsleep they call it) when my daughter Ingrid screamed “Daddy!” and woke me, just as i was about to hit the back of a semi-trailer at 110km per hour. I swerved, missed, was TOTALLY awake for the rest of the trip, and on getting home, where my distraught daughter Ingrid raced out of the house to tell me about her nightmare. When I asked what she did in her dream, she said she screamed out for me to look out! – I thanked her for waking me up, and haven’t done this again, but….. I worked out a way that keeps us awake, and practice this constantly at work, and have numerous people on the same method, from police, to truckies, musicians, nurses. TAKE ICE CUBES to suck. Whenever your eyelids get heavy, immediately take an ice cube or two – you’ll immediately become alert, awake, and rational. One cup of ice gets you safely home over 100km. You will remember clearly the wole trip! HOW??? – because the ice in your mouth cools the area, and thus cools the blood travelling to the brain, wherein sits the reticular activating system. Cool it and you wake up! – have told this theory to hundreds, but no-one has taken up a study. I don’t have the time, so try it and get back to me at http://www.facebook.com/BernhardRacz .
PS- when I was off nights I was never booked for speeding. When on nights, I get booked at least 2-3 times a year (or more) for driving at “51km in a 40km/hr zone” – always on the way home after a night shift. As far as I’m concerned I am fully awake….. but obviously there are some small effects o
No nights ever again I wanted to be an Emergency Nurse for years. Everything I did was to assist me in my chosen field. I studied Paediatrics and Aged Care so I could care for all ages. After my new grad year, I was accepted as a full time nurse in a large ED. I worked for 10 months, using up my sick leave along the way. We did 4x 10 hour shifts monthly, but there were times it could be as little as fortnightly. The worst roster I worked nights and days one week each for 6 weeks. By the time my body got used to sleeping at night, i’d be due to commence night shifts again. I was a zombie day and night.
I ended up having a nervous breakdown. I was physically and mentally exhausted. I would finish work and re-live the shift for hours. A late then early shift would mean i lay awake in bed thinking about work. I would even get up and look up a textbook to answer a question I had.
I spent a total of 5 months in hospital over the following year. I had close to one year off work and returned as a casual doing only day shifts.
As much as I would love to work in ED, the shift work is not worth my sanity.
I work in Radiology, day only shifts. Miss out on penalties, but I know i’ll be home to cook dinner and that my sleep is no longer interrupted. I will never work nights again.
Night Duty I work full time night duty and have done so for over 20 years, i find it’s a wonderful way to get out of unwanted family gatherings, I have to go to work. On the bright side all nurses working with you know how you feel,when run off your feet all night and you are tired and grumpy.Four hours sleep then you have to go out for an appointment your mind is fuzzy, but somehow the day slips by and you are back on the graveyard shift.You also get unwanted callers, you say I was in bed I just worked nights, their normal answer then why are you in bed at 11am, and awful lot of explaining to do, and some still dont get it especially tradesman.So said i love my job i have great mates from all the years, and I have have had a wonderful career,Retirement is coming closer, all up I have been nursing for just over 40 years, and have not regetted my choice of career.
Nights o.k I would prefer to do nights than a late early anytime.Watch the poor buggers dragging themselves in,a whole day ahead of them,try not to let your smugness show as you bid them goodnight.The trick with nights is consistency,management should be aware that people cope much better with routine than the disorganised chaos of the usual run of shiftwork.I only do nights and I do the same nights every week,Fri-Sun.Yep the best penalty rates,all our night staff are permanant,we all have the nights we want so there is no quibbling about who does what.The day staff do everything they can to keep us happy as they dread going back to the old days of everyone rotating.Our management firmly believes in choice,hey letting nurses choose their own shifts to fit in with their own unique life situation seems to create a positive workplace.Management who do not allow this really should be taken to task and sent back to workshop the concept of staff happiness and let go of the paternalistic constraints that continue to foster the us and them mentality.
Got a speeding fine on the way home from night duty once…..te highway had recently changed from 100km/h to 80km/h and I was on autopilot (at the old speed, lol). The cop saw my uniform and let me off…….nice guy he was! (Cops do nightshift too so I’m sure he understood……)
Did anyone mention, the potential loss of credibilty ?
Did you know, that working nights prevents you being able to get a good reference when you next go for another job.
Night shift nurses are often told, that the NUM ‘doesn’t know you’ !! What ?
Yes, the NUM will deny they know you well enough to provide a reference. You won’t find this out until you need to. That is, when you are relying upon your recent NUM to give you the reference you need to land that new job you are going for. I’ve lost X number of really good positions, all because of the over-expectation upon the reference system. It totally SUX !!
GORDO