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Not to say that night shift nurses are a totally different breed, but you do tend to relate to the werewolf thing!
10 ways you know you’re a night shift nurse
1. Caffeine is a basic food group.
2. Any light of any kind hurts!
3. You completely dread lawnmowers.
4. When a patient asks you why you’re still awake, you wonder the same thing.
5. You can say, “I’ll try to let you rest” to a patient while thinking That’s really hard to do at night.
6. You completely get the werewolf thing.
7. You love that the traffic is so much less.
8. Breakfast specials…need I say more?
9. The sun comes up and you get restless.
10. The thought of leaving the best shift ever makes you feel like you’re going to die.
This list by Christine Blair, Staff Nurse, is the winner of our “Win Your Top 10 List on a Mug!” Giveaway. See all of our winning mugs here!
Love it! The shift that will shorten you lifespan the fastest, but this is truly survival of the fittest, and yes, the strongest do survive and guess what? THEY WORK NOCS!!!
This is the best shift ever! no stress at all! I can do everything I want in the daytime too.
11. You have no idea what your department manager, the DON or the CEO truly look like and you don’t especially care.
12. You giggle uncontrollably when someone new to the shift asks how to contact transportation or if dietary is available.
13. You see absolutely nothing wrong with eating a steak or lasagna and drinking a beer at 0800.
Awesome additions
You ask bill collectors for there call back number so you can call them back during your day time.
Nights…oh, how that was the creator of never ending gritty eyes, never ending need to sleep, 13 patient to nurse assignments, I still say…” I don’t know how I got through it.” Bless all nurses, but night nurses are a very very special breed!
RN
Registered Nurse
12. And, although you’ve worked there for years, the department manager,DON, or CEO has no idea what you look like either–and that’s a good thing!
RN
Registered Nurse
You no your a night shift nurse when caffeine is not needed to get you through the night.
RN
Registered Nurse
13. You come to “all staff meetings” in jeans, T-shirt, and oversize sunglasses
14. Your shift description includes: testing all nursing equipment, cleaning client wheelchairs, ordering all needed supplies, etc., and by the way, take care of the patients in your free time!
15. You get asked if you are a vampire by friends
Student
Nursing Student (you can change this when you graduate!)
…When you are as pale as a ghost.
…When people think you are older than you actually are because you have bags under your eyes.
…When you eat breakfast at 2am, lunch at 7am, and supper whenever you wake up before work.
…When your friends ask you if your a vampire.
I use to work 6p-6a as a CNA. I gained almost twenty pounds because I would snack the whole shift. It got to the point where I couldn’t sleep at all, even on my days off. I switched to evening shift, lost the weight, and got back to a better sleeping schedule. I pick up midnight shifts sometimes, but I would never do it full-time again.
CNA
Certified Nursing Assistant
Yes yes yes, I totally get this! I’ve worked noc shifts as a CNA and I’m finally down to the wire, I only have 12 hours left of noc’s and then I get to go to full-time evenings!!!
Love it, but need to add………you know you are a night shift nurse when you dread the time change if you are working that Saturday night.
I am a night nurse and I agree only the strong survive! It is tough at times! Love it when my residents where I work say “before you go to bed” and tell us what they need or want us to do.
Being that I have had a loved one of whom had a gall bladder operation, hernia and brain operation, this has been the biggest impact on me! Also a recent relative has had strokes & heart attacks! All in all I love being there for them as they are a part of me that will remain in my heart!