Join in on our 'Guess the Rep' Competition! >>

What are your experiences of doing night shifts as a student nurse?

I am researching how student nurses and newly qualified nurses experience night shifts. Are they useful in your studies? Are you taught how to deal with night shifts in your course? Do you have a set amount that you need to do?

Reply 1

Muttly

Just general advice. You will find your body system can either cope with night shift work or it can't - some people cope easily with body clock upset without any issue. Others find it wrecks them totally and they never survive (I think there are some drug studies of meds that can help) It is easier working into the longer night (staying up) Usually when you finish at 8am you don't need much rocking to get to sleep. It is the sleep of the exhausted 'dead' once you get horizontal - but if you want to max the sleep get blackout blinds. Two nights is do-able but if you do much more nights (ie 3+) your whole body system gets chucked about. The return to a normal 'day' is horrible. It is like getting up at 3am. Total Jet lag without the party. But you have to do it and make yourself get up early to recondition your system back to daylight hours. The NHS is abysmally bad at swapping shifts suddenly from nights to days to nights in 12 hour lots without a lot of thought for biological clocks and the welfare of staff involved (only agency costs matter!!)

Quick Reply

Latest

Trending

Articles for you

What university is really like

Try out the app

Continue on web

What are your experiences of doing night shifts as a student nurse?

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Articles for you