What to do on a night shift.

Posts: 112 · Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 112 Location: Coastal Georgia

When I worked night shift years ago we were always busy. You can always find something to do. You can bathe patients that are confused or those that are having trouble sleeping, you can help straighten up supply rooms or the nurses station. This is a novel one.. you can take care of patients Laughing

. I am sure your unit manager can think of things for you to do when it is not busy.

Posts: 27 · Joined: 10 Jul 2005 Posts: 27 Location: Texas

meooooww!!! Wink

Posts: 43 · Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 43 Location: alabama

You must be kidding. I wish our night shift crew would stuff charts, clean charts, replace gloves and needle boxes. There is plenty to do, but most nurses don't want to do extra stuff. We do all baths, three meals, all doctor orders, admits, transfers and discharges on day-shift. Night-shifters complain but do nothing.

Posts: 56 · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:37 pm

Lets see, what can one do on a night shift? Work on an invention, write that novel, solve the greenhouse effect, implement world peace, etc..

But, lets go out on a limb here and suggest something totally off the wall.

HOW ABOUT YOU DO WHAT YOU ARE HIRED TO DO!!!
DO YOUR JOB!!!!

Sheesh, I really hope that whoever asked this question and those of you that replied with non nursing duties are joking me with this post!!

Update on nursing and healthcare:
Nursing is a 24 hour a day job. 7 Days a week

It just blows my mind that people on the night shift get extra money to work that shift and are responsible for less work, and can still find room to bitch about it! Hey night shifters.....try and make it through a shift withour your supplies being stocked, your rooms being cleaned, your patients bathed. Seems like those things only get done on day shift at your workplace.
I am the type of person that will stay after my 12 hour day shift to make sure all my charting is done and that I dont leave anything for the followong shift to do with my patients. If I get new orders at the end of a shift, I make every effort to complete them beforeI leave because I feel that if it was ordered on my shift, I am responsible for it. Also, I have had medication ordered at 630pm and when I am ready to leave at 730 or 8pm and the medication is not available, I ask the nurse following me to give it, and I have come back the next day and the patient still had not received it. I know that I am NOT soley responsible for that, however I still feel bad if I dont see it to completion.
Nurses need to realize that nursing care does not stop after a certain hour or even after your shift ends. Patients are sick 24/7 and it is our responsabilty to meet those needs 24/7

If you chose to work night shift for the extra pay, but cant or wont actually do that work on your shift, you need to find another career as you are doing nothing but cheating your patients and hindering other nurses from their patient care if supplies arent stocked, orders not done, or any other nursing task that you are too "bored" to be able to do on your shift.

If you want to sit and not do much on nights, take up asecurity guard job or something where you can watch video camera surveillence and maybe only have to do "walking the grounds" twice a shift or something like that.

So, invent something, read a book, solve world hunger, or get up and take care of the patients that you are paid so well to take care of.

I am sure I am going to get a few nasty remarks about this, but I have worked both day and night shifts and the quality of my care has been the same on both. Day shift is a little crazier because I spend lots of my time getting and restocking suppplies instead of taking care of my patients....stocking and ordering supplies is a task all nurses should do, but granted, it is most times easier to do this on the night shift when the pace is somewhat slower.

So, fire away all your comments. I am ready for them...I worked nights last night and I am refreshed from sleeping through my boredom!!

NOT!! I know I am not the only one that feels this way,so back me up guys. Very Happy

Posts: 8 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 8 Location: South Carolina

There is always something to be done ...... assist your coworkers on the next shift , get creative about dispersing some tasks from the day and evening shifts to yours... I have to wonder about this...Really!!!

Posts: 1 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1 Location: colorado

I can't imagine not being busy. We bathe our patients at night and they are usually so critical, there is not much time for anything else. We are in a new unit so we are discovering the larger size is taking more time as well. I suppose it depends on what kind of unit you are working on. I work on a 22 bed ICU.

Posts: 5 · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 5

you can talk to the patients who are still awake ang get to them. Befriend everyone, in that sense your helping them for a while not to think of their illnesses. Smile

Posts: 46 · Joined: 01 May 2006 Posts: 46 Location: Illinois

Look, I've worked every shift out there and I remember working am's and when I would get to work as tired as I might of been, I felt so sorry for the night nurses because they looked twice as tired and I don't blame them one bit. But now that I'm going back to a night perdiem shift, I do expect more money for working those godforsaken hrs and I do look forward to not having so much responsibility during those hrs of the night. I believe that any nurse who bum raps the night nurses should take on another perspective and think about what it's really like to work that shift f/t or even p/t. There's nothing crazier to me (my own view) than expecting another human being to take on the world of patient care to the inth fold at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. Most people are in the midst of dream world at that time or getting up to pee in the middle of their night. So any nurses out there who don't think that night nurse should be respected just as much as their am nursing peers is ridiculous. I know how much responsibility there is on the am's, and yes, it's alot, but I chose that shift so I could benefit having a normal sleep/wake cycle and have the evenings to myself like the rest of the world. So when I choose the night shift (as of now) I am choosing it for hrs that aren't so demanding and more pay to spend more time with my family.

Posts: 1 · Joined: 05 May 2006 Posts: 1 Location: Jersey Shore

Girls, it's a joke, they're pulling our combined legs, that or they work nights in a Long Term Care Facility. Personally, I work the "right hand' side of the country and nights are busy. I'm sure it's the same way in "La-La Land".

Posts: 2 · Joined: 05 May 2006 Posts: 2

Hey to the day nurse that was putting down night shift workers, DON'T put down all night shift workers. Just like we shouldn't put down day shift workers. Nurses need to ban together and work TOGETHER!!! Come on there is always nurses that are gonna bitch about the other shifts. I know that EVERY shift has some downtime and it's just nurses human nature to say that they have been busy. I have worked night shift for 11 years and there were nights we ran all night long and nights we did absolutely nothing. I also know that most of the bullshit work is done on night shift because the day shift is too busy, or in my opinion too lazy!! We are the ones that change the IV sites, do the tubing changes, stock gloves etc... all usually at 3am...why you say, because the day shift who is ALWAYS better staffed and has far less patients to carry chooses not to do it. SO, QUIT RAGGING ON THE NIGHT SHIFT!!!!!!!! And feel free to come work with me, I'll keep you busy!!!!!!!

Posts: 1 · Joined: 06 May 2006 Posts: 1 Location: RI

i find myself wanting to stay on my feet for the greater part of the shift (currently 8's) on slower nights to stay awake and i end up getting a lot of things done. aside from the obvious (i.e. pampering the patients, stocking, stamping progress notes/flow sheets, etc.), i walk around the unit, looking at it through a patient's or visitor's eyes. i find myself doing a lot of little things like straightening out pamphlets/waiting rooms/patient rooms/bulletin boards/hallways/equipment and utility rooms, as well as cleaning of course if time allows. less clutter is better for everyone. for me, the more organized the area is around me, the more organized i am mentally. this is especially helpful for those quieter nights when that unforeseen emergency walks through the door. yes, its difficult to think on your feet when you are "half asleep"... Idea

Posts: 82 · Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 82 Location: florida

Working night shift in the ICU is just as busy as working days. We just dont have the doctors constantly like days. My night shifts are almost always constantly busy and I bath my patients on nights. On the rare night when I have time., I carry my palm pilot with me. I have games downloaded, CEU classes from epocrates, a tabers medical dictionary downloaded. Dont you just hate it when someone who has never worked nights talks about how little we do on nights.

Posts: 1 · Joined: 07 May 2006 Posts: 1 Location: South Carolina

I've got nothing "smart" and probably nothing that hasn't already been
mentioned here, but I'm writing to say that as a "night" shifter for many years and as a "day" shifter (when I choose to enter the real-life work world again) there's plenty of work to do on both shifts. That is to say the
"focus" is just different on both shifts, so both shifts tend to lean toward each's own perspective. The thing is, we DO NEED TO WORK TOGETHER
and complement each others shifts, rather than working against each other
and tearing things down and never getting anywhere. Ideally, where one shift leaves off, the next shift could step in and finish things up (whether that be stocking supplies, linens, etc... or finish up with a.m. bathes, surgical check lists, consents on charts, charts copied if a pt is being transferred, etc...) and who cares what shift nurse initiates the task at hand, as long as the continum is maintained and followed through?
It's "NURSE WEEK" this week and I applaud all my fellow nurse coworkers for continuing to work in this field, and for any attempt we each make to WORK TOGETHER, LEARN from each other and GROW together so we're all winners. Then, perhaps we'll be able to truly provide the CARE and HELP to someone who may really need that from us. Then, we've all done our job! HAPPY NURSE WEEK ALL!

Posts: 5 · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Buea

surfgirl wrote:

I often find myself with nothing to do on my night shifts. Let me know if you've come up with anything creative.

During my night shift when i often final myself doing nothing draw (puton) nursing care plans, so that i can easily inplement on patients the following morning. I draw up my teaching plan on any health education topic, go through patients file to identify any missed procedure or treatment undone.
Keep the immediate enviornment clean by sweeping, dusting and keeping hospital beds in order. there is always something to do help my colleagues get finished on time and presently i am working with the Holy Trinity Foundation hospital Ekona Town Buea. I did my intership course at the Bamenda provincial hospital. P.M.I. Nkwen and Ndop Districts hospital.

Posts: 5 · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Buea

sn wrote:

You could catch up on a lot of reading! There is a self learn book for just about everything, maybe sign language.

--You chek the caller ID on your day off to see if anyone from the hospital is trying to call and ask you to come in to work.

--You notice that you are using more 4 letter words than you did before you started nursing and know some that even a sailor dosn't know.

-- Your lunch break does not exist and you can't remember when the last time you actually sat down except to chart.

-- You can actually read a doctors handwriting and are starting to write just like them.