The night nurse

I've been working overnights now for almost three years. When I first started nursing I thought I would hate the night shift and decided I would try to get on the day shift as soon as possible. My first job was on a surgical floor and the day shift was really busy, always running around to help patients out of bed, assisting with or giving baths, passing meds, passing more meds... and then the patients' families were always there, asking questions I had no answers to (hello, new nurse!), doctors were rounding... Seriously, it was all I could do just to keep up. When my orientation was over, I switched to the night shift, my new home. And... it was quiet. Sure, I was still running around like a crazy person, but sometime around 2 am there was this blissful period of quiet. Most of the patients were sleeping, the nurses were all charting, and the only noise was the tap, tap, tap of fingers on keyboards. I had time to look up the multitude of questions that had come up so far in the shift. I had time to finish my charting. I had time... to shop on the Internet. Now we're talking. Night shift it is then.


Nurses work the night shift for a number of reasons, some of which I have already mentioned. One of the primary reasons is money. Night shift almost always includes a differential of 10-25% on top of the base pay. Where I work night shift gets 10%. Weekends gets 25%. Night and weekend? You got it- 35% more money. I do like the money, but that's not my primary reason for night shift. Really, it's just... quiet. Now that I work in the ICU I take care of 1 or 2 patients a night. Unless something bad is happening, the goal is usually to maintain until the morning. No trips to imaging, no doctors coming by changing orders around, no families asking all those questions, just me and my (preferably) sleeping patient.


Since I started nursing, I've also started a family. I now have two little boys at home that are in my husband's capable hands while I'm at work. My youngest is still an infant, still breastfeeding as I write this, and it takes some effort on both ends to keep that up while I'm away. The hardest part is being away for so long- a 12 hour shift plus 8 hours at daycare so Mama can sleep plus commute time means I have approximately 2 hours with my boys on days I work. Fortunately, I only work 3 days a week and can make up for it the 4 other days I don't work. I think family reasons are another major reason nurses move to the day shift, but I don't know that I would really get any more time with them if my schedule was switched, seeing as how we'd all be sleeping. Or not sleeping. My poor husband.


So here I am, it's almost midnight. My patient is sleeping, and the only sound is the tap, tap, tap of the keyboard as I type this. Night shift rocks.