The Night Shift Nurse – Comfortable or Totally Disoriented?
There is a good deal of lore that has grown out of that special nursing venue, the night shift. It has been reliably reported – for several decades now – that some people are ‘night people’ who always function well in the environment while others are ‘day people’ by nature and are always on the verge of going face down on a pile of charts and function poorly when they are moving.
The advantages of night shifts, according to a consensus of veterans, are
Differential pay (where available)
Slightly slower and preferable pace of shift
Simpler and more personable bureaucracy
Close knit working relationships
Higher levels of self-reliance and cross training among experienced staff
Increased autonomy
No commute and parking issues
Disadvantages of the Night Shift
Essentially, the disadvantages are the disturbances you encounter when you get home. As enumerated by a number of experienced nurses:
The meter reader/mailman/proselytizer that knocks on the door at noon
Barking dogs
Getting up at 4 AM on your day off for dinner
Figuring out a way to see your family
Watching the world go the other way – a sense of alienation
Getting manic at 5 AM and depressed at 5 PM
Advice for Night Shift Nurses
Compiled from suggestions put forth by veterans and survivors:
Eat and sleep well before reporting
Digital watch! You need a 24 hour clock on your wrist for accurate charting and perhaps, personal orientation
Decompress after work – just like daytime people
If you encounter drowsiness you can’t shake, go outside or find a hall and SPRINT for 100 yards. You’ll wake up.
If you are rotating shifts, rotate in forward fashion: nights>days>evenings
Live on day shift pay; don’t count on night shift differential to pay the bills
Use mornings for business, while you’re still functioning and businesses are just getting started
Have regular sleep preparation rituals that program your mind to “sleeptime”
Avoid relying on caffeine
Make time for regular exercise, despite the fact that no one else is out there with you
Realize that career advancement will require special efforts at recognition because night shift people are invisible to a lot of administrators
Say “Good Morning” on your way out the door. Maintain your astrophysical orientation at all costs.
Health Questions about the Night Shift
There have been a couple of studies that have linked higher cancer rates with night shift work, specifically night shift nurse’s work.
Nurses who worked the night shift at least three times a month for 15 years or more were 35% more likely to develop that type of cancer than nurses who never worked nights, Harvard University researchers report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The finding, from the ongoing Nurses Health Study, is the first to link night shift work with a higher risk of colorectal cancer, expected to kill 57,100 Americans this year, according to the American Cancer Society. Other research, including a 2001 report out of the Nurses Health Study, has suggested that working rotating night shifts raises women's breast cancer risk. Researchers suspect that lowered levels of melatonin, a hormone involved in regulating sleep, might hike night-shift workers' cancer risk.
