Do I hate nursing or do I just hate night shift?

The question

1. MNMaya on nightsRN, 8 months in, med surg

   Nights genuinely changed my life, but only after I stopped flipping back for everyone else's brunch. I sleep 9am to 4pm every day I'm off too, no exceptions. Blackout curtains, a fan for the noise, phone in a drawer across the room, and a real dinner at 5pm instead of a vending machine at 0300. Month 3 was the worst of it. By month 6 I stopped feeling sick all the time.

2. SDSkyler on days nowRN, 2 years, moved to days at 14 months

   It was the nights. I spent a year telling myself I hated nursing, switched to days, and the crying stopped inside three weeks. I told my manager at my 1-year mark that I wanted the next day line, and I took it the week it posted. I gave up the differential and I have never once missed it. Your first job isn't your forever job and neither is your first schedule.

3. PBPriya between shiftsRN, 1 year, ED nights

   Fix the drive before you decide anything. Driving home at 0800 after twelve hours is its own hazard and nobody warns you about it. Sunglasses live in my car for the sunrise, and if my eyes start going I sit in the garage for ten minutes before I pull out. Someone in my cohort put her car in a ditch on the way home in her third month.

4. HPHarper past the first codeRN, 10 months in, PCU

   Give it one honest test before you call it. Pick a single sleep block and hold it for six straight weeks, days off included, no flipping. If you're still miserable at the end of six weeks, it's the unit or the job, not the hours, and then you have real information. That test is the only reason I didn't quit at month 4.

5. CNCharlie after the night shiftRN, ICU nights, 2 years

   Some of us are not coming to days, ever. Nights is two patients, a quiet unit, and a charge nurse who leaves me alone to work. I came off orientation faster than my day shift classmates because at 0300 there is nobody to hide behind and you learn fast. It gets better, and it gets better on nights too.

6. Nursing Mastery

   The schedule is a variable, not a verdict on the job. Run Harper's six-week test before you decide anything, and keep your locker current while it runs so a day line, a float pool spot, or a different unit is a same-day move instead of a three-week scramble. You are already building the thing that widens your options, tele nights on your record at the 1-year mark. Experience is experience, including the part you cried through.

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