8 Essential Tips to Master the Night Shift Transition

Acclimating to the night shift is a challenging feat. Resources on this shift are scarce.  Being more autonomous with less information means more nerves. Not only are you working opposite of most of your friends, but you are also sleeping when they would want to be socializing.  Adapting to the night shift takes time and patience.

1. Set up a sleep routine: adjusting your sleep schedule will be the most critical and challenging. Guard your sleep! It’s easy to skimp on sleep when working the night shift. But it’s vital to protect your rest, to prevent burnout and illness.

• Set boundaries with family and friends to ensure adequate, uninterrupted sleep!

• Remember that your rest time is during the day. Keep the same routine on your days off, so if you sleep from 8 am to 6 pm, stay with the same schedule on your days off.

2.  Prep your bedroom for sleep. What worked best for me was prepping for my next shift right when I got home so that I could go straight to bed without worrying. You will want to keep yourself from getting behind on your sleep. You can use:

• blackout shades

•  a personal fan

•  earplugs

• a white noise machine

• and turn off your cell phone!

3. Plan your meals accordingly so you don’t wake up from hunger and then go on an eating spree. It’s often hard to find time to eat during your shift, so do this:

• bring snacks 

• eat a good lunch

• drink cold water to stay hydrated, and stay far away from caffeine. Caffeine will make it harder to fall asleep when you get home.

4. While on the job, utilize your CNAs during bed checks. It’s a great time to help them, and for you to be able to both check skin that you don’t usually see, and to turn your patients properly.

5. While on the floor, do as much as possible early in the shift. You never know when a death, a fall, or emergency send-out may occur.

6. Stay hydrated! Night shift brain is a thing, and dehydration makes it worse.

7.  Give yourself ample time to do your final/morning med pass. You never know what issues that your patients didn’t want to “bother” you with, will come up.

8. Take care of yourself and be open to making mistakes during orientation. The first few months will make you feel forgetful and "dumb", but it’s normal and the mistakes we learn from help you to gain experience.

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