To ask if i can come off nights?

[EachandEveryone]

Ive been a nurse for over twenty years and im fifty. Ive already cut my hours down to 33. Im doing two weeks of nights a month. Ive come to hate them. My blood pressurecis going up my weight is spiralling amd im getting about four hours sleep a day. They are short on nights and ive written complaints for the past two nights were we have got by without doing and proper nursing care just going through the motions and keeping our fingers crossed. They arent short on days because thats when the managers are around. They say we need less staff on a night but the patients are the same!. When people come back from mat leave they more or less demand their hours which is fair enough. I dont have a family. I feel like everythings getting on top of me and i would be much better going to bed at a normal time. AIBU to ask if i can do days for afew weeks? Or should i look for another job?

I would look for a nursing role which is day shifts only. Pre op clinic, outpatients, day surgery. Might not be as interesting work but at least you wouldn't be exhausted.

I work nights and it works for me because of childcare and tbh I'm so used to it now I have no problem sleeping in the day and then going back to work but I think I would really struggle with switching back and forth from days to nights. I don't think yabu at all to want to stop doing the night shifts and it obviously is affecting your health and in turn your ability to do your job. I can't understand why it's so difficult to employ people who only want earlies or only want nights etc because ime lots of people (eg young parents) struggle with childcare and want a particular shift pattern to fit in with nursery or school runs so they would still be able to get all the shifts covered without their staff burning out.

Because they say you don't get enough experience working permanent nights

Which is a bollocks reason because I attended far more cardiac arrests and emergency situations on nights than I ever did on days and you had to deal with them and get involved because there were so few of you you had no option .

Agree that Occ health can only recommend. I don't do nights or work more than 2 consecutive shifts as per their recommendations but only because my manager agreed and because there are enough nurses asking for permanent nights. A lot say it's easier and I agree money is better but I found it awful, I was regularly left alone with agressive and abusive patients for nine - ten hours on special obs with no break. 4 or 5 staff to care for 34 highly dependant adults , it was hell most nights . Mentally exhausting. I'm leaving nursing just before September and never plan to do it as a FT job again.

You must be permanently jet lagged when switching from day to night all the time. You sound totally burnt out and need a change.

I'm a nurse of 15yrs. I've been bank nursing for five years. I can't cope doing nights. My request waa refused My dear friend made a mistake, her patient made a full recovery but the outcome could have been different. Was enough to scare me and I won't do them ever again.

I agree that the NHS should offer night contracts again.

I did years of nights and became very skilled at dealing with emergency situations and had to use my own clinical judgement an awful lot without back up from others, more so than my colleagues who just do day shifts. I do days now and love it because there is more support and you are less isolated.

My years of nights taught me a lot about management of serious incidents and as a result I'm very calm in a crisis and not easily stressed.

Certainly there are aspects of our role you don't participate in as much if on nights but you certainly engage fully on a clinical level.