Night shift: the hours that many nursing students are intrigued about, but rarely get to experience. I was one of those nursing students who dreamed about being on night shift one day but thought I would never get the chance to experience it in nursing school.
That all changed my fourth semester of clinical.
For my first round of critical care clinical there were seven clinical groups, all being sent to different hospitals or having different clinical leaders. There was one night shift position and I wanted it so badly but I had been placed in a normal day shift group at a local hospital. Thankfully, at my school you can ask your classmates if anyone would like to switch clinical groups with you, and if you find a match you can talk to your faculty and they'll make the switch for you. So, I did just that and landed a spot on overnights, working 7pm - 4:30 am.
Now, beginning my first shift I was very nervous because it was critical care! For the first time in my life I would be in an actual ICU, dealing with extremely ill patients and getting to see all of the new and interesting topcis and medical equipment discussed in lecture. Having learned about vents, medication drips, and varying changes in patient conditions, I wasn't sure what I was going to walk into.
For this rotation my teacher decided to split up the group into pairs, with each pair going to a different unit each week (the ER, and then four different specialty ICU's).
I thought, "I have nothing to worry about - I won't get sent to the ER my first night."
Do you know that saying about how God laughs at your plans?
Well, I was in the ER my first night.....
I was so nervous to be in the ER, but I tried to jump right in to the experience. I was paired up with a nurse for the night and on we went jumping in and out of different rooms, assessing patients and seeing if there were any unit beds open.
This night the hospital was packed, and at one point throughout the evening they had to stop accepting ambulances because they had no more room for anyone else.
There are still a few patients from that experience that I can remember dealing with, but other than that the night is a blur. The ER is such a fast paced environment that I did not eat at all that night, and when it was finally time to break for post-conference I was shocked at how fast the time had gone. I don't think that the ER is the right position for me in this time of my future career, but maybe one day I'll dabble into the world of trauma nursing.
The subsequent weeks I spent in the 4 different ICU's. Each specialty had it's own pace to it - which either made the night go faster or slower. The most difficult ICU to stay awake in was the neuro ICU, in my experience.
Now, the reality of floor nursing during night shift hit hard when all of the patients were stable and sleeping and I quickly needed to find ways to stay awake. The majority of my time was spent gathering patient data for my nursing care plan assignment, and forming a chronological account of my patient's stay for when my teacher asked me questions.
Night shift nursing is very different than day shift nursing. Naturally, all of the patients are asleep at certain points in the evening! However, there are things that are done and not done on night shift that I found interesting to experience.
1. Bed baths are give on night shift [at least where I was]
2. Patients still have to be woken up for their medication if one is prescribed at 3 am [This is self-explanatory, but I always had "questions" about how to properly wake up a patient to give them their overnight med]
3. There are a lot of new-admin's coming in from the ER overnight
4. There is not an actual nurse manager overnight, so the charge nurse is really the head honcho
5. Night shift downtime is a great opportunity for night shift nurses to get real life things accomplished
6. Despite what was written in number 5, night shift nurses do work just as hard as day shift - it just depends on the night, patient load, and situation. Just like any position or specialty.
7. The cafeteria is closed and that's not fun at all. I'm a firm believer in 24/7 hospital cafeterias.
8. As a novice health care provider, it's somewhat refreshing not having family members visiting while you are working
9. After experiencing day shift for so long, it's very different not seeing other health care team members bustling around and making their rounds.
10. Self-care on night shift is so important - you already have a messed up sleep schedule, so taking care of yourself in other ways is important to remain healthy and balanced to adequately perform an emotionally taxing job.
I am not really a coffee drinker, so I relied on water to remain hydrated throughout my shift. I snacked occasionally, but did not eat an actual "lunch" on shift. Once all of my clinical paperwork was complete I would find a nice area to sit and try and study class material that we learned the day prior. Although notable things happened early on in the evenings, the early morning hours of 1 - 4 am were not very eventful. As a nursing student and a nurse, you are grateful for those nights because you know the next one could be completely chaotic.
Throughout the weeks I figured out that a good time to go to the gym was after my shift, at 4:30. Conveniently the gym that I go to is a block away from the hospital and opens at 4:30 am, so I really had no excuses. Although some mornings I would be so sore from the night at clinical, but I pushed through and got in my "Wednesday workout" bright and early. Working out right after my shift allowed me to wake up a little more for the drive home, and allowed me to cross of a big to-do list item for the upcoming day, considering I knew I would only want to remain in bed for the rest of it.
After night shift and the gym, I would get home around 5:30 or 6am, and climb right into bed. There were plenty of mornings where I would just take off my scrubs and leave them in a pile on the floor, throw on some pajamas and feel as though my bed was the best bed in the whole entire world.
Now, I would essentially make myself only take an extended nap after clinical. Having an on-campus job at the time and worried about studying, I would sleep from approximately 6 am to 9 and then wake up to start my actual Wednesday. This system actually worked for the one day I had to do it, but I'm not sure if it would work long-term as an actual nurse.
When I work night shift someday, I'll keep you updated
Overall, I really enjoyed my experience on overnights. First off, I thought it was really cool that I got that experience. Second, I was able to prove to myself that I was able to stay up and "nurse" at a time when I would normally be sleeping - although I know it'll be much more involved when I am actually a RN. Third, I was able to see what night shift is actually like. It is very different then day shift, I can recognize why they put a lot of new-grad nurses on night shift.
I hope that this post was interesting and gave you a small glimpse into the night shift world!
Thank you so much for reading!
- Michelle
#BSNbabe
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