Well, if you've never worked nights before, then you will have to give youself some time to get used to staying up all night, and working with less than adequate sleep. Some people never really make the adjustment to nights, and learn to tolerate it, and other people thrive on it. Eventually, however, most nurses find that they have to get off nights in order to really feel well. It's just a question of how long you have to do them before you can move into daytime hours.

Working nights will have a big impact on your family and social life, but if you are only working 2 or 3 nights a week, you will also have the bonus of having many days off to be with your family. But you will have to teach the people who care about you to leave you alone when it's time to sleep.

The best advice I can give you is to get some sort of set schedule where all of your shifts in any given week are consecutive. The one thing you don't want to do on a night shift schedule is have your days off split.

NIGHTS VS DAYS
i RECENTLY SWITCHED FROM 27 YRS NITES TO 12 HR DAYS. i HAD GONE TO NIGHTS YRS AGO BEC I HATED THE COMMOTION AND THE CONSTANT INTERRUPTIONS ON DAYS THAT I FELT KEPT ME FROM PROVIDING THE BEST CARE FOR MY PATIENTS.
OVER THE YEARS I MISSED ALOT W/ MY NUCLEAR FAMILY--I WAS ALWAYS THE ODD MAN OUT--TO FUNCTION AT TOP CAPACITY I NEEDED TO BE SURE I GOT MY SLEEP--CONSEQUENTLY I MISSED ALOT OF FAMILY EVENTS. I ALSO WORKED NITES AND WEEKENDS TO MAXIMIZE MY INCOME IN ICU AND ER.
IN RETROSPECT I FEEL THAT NIGHT PEOPLE ARE AN OUTSTANDING GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS TO WORK WITH. IT IS A MYTH THAT NITE NURSES "SIT ON THEIR ASSES" ALL NIGHT AND READ BOOKS AND PAINT THEIR NAILS.
I HAVE BEEN OFF NIGHTS FOR A YR NOW. AND IT TOOK 5 MINUTES ON DAYS TO REMEMBER WHY I'D GONE TO NIGHTS IN THE 1ST PLACE.I'M STAYING ON DAYS TO KEEP MY SANITY AND PROTECT MY CIRCADIAN RHYTHM. ALSO TO PRESERVE MY RELATIONSHIP W/ MY HUSB WHO SAYS I'M A MUCH NICER PERSON ON DAYS BEC I HAVE MY UNDISTURBED SLEEP BACK.
I WOULD SAY THAT DAYS IS BETTER FOR RELATIONSHIPS AND FOR YOUR HEALTH--TRY LOOKING AT INFO ON THE NATIONAL SLEEP FOUNDATION'S WEB SITE.
IT'S ABOUT SURVIVAL SOMETIMES. PERHAPS THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS IF YOU CAN FIND SUCH A POSITION WOULD BE TO SPAN THE HOURS OF 9-9 OR 10-10. TALK TO YOUR NURSE MANAGER. AND REMEMBER ANY DECISION YOU MAKE IS NEVER WRITTEN IN STONE--YOU WILL FIND YOUR WAY--TRUST YOUR GUT AND LISTEN TO YOUR OWN BODY.
BETH :wink:

shift work
My advice to RN2be, is to figure out what works best for your family life...nightshift can be a challege if you are depended on to do alot of the errands, taking the kids to and from school, things may get a little hairy for you and you will lose sleep...
If you have someone that will assist you, then you've got it made.....
On nights you have less interuptions than dayshift, but the work load in a hospital remains about the same, you will still admit and discharge pts....just not as much as dayshift....oh by the way...pts don't sleep...
It will take a while for your body to adjust, but you'll be ok....just think of the shift diff!!