Night Shift Nurse Essentials – What You Need to Get Through Your Night Shift

Being a night shift nurse is hard.  There are many sleepless days and long nights and if you’re new to working the night shift, you might even find yourself wondering, “how am I going to stay awake all night?”.  Or, “how do I prepare for an overnight nursing shift?”.  After working the night shift on and off for nine years (and even working the dreaded “rotating” schedule), I’m here to share with you my best tips for working the night shift.  And most importantly, the night shift nurse essentials.  Exactly what you need to get through your night shift!

 

Benefits of Working the Night Shift

The night shift isn’t all doom and gloom – of course, there are some benefits to the night shift!  For starters, working the night shift is a great place to start as a new grad because shift work is slower so you really have more time to learn and practice your skills.  Not to mention, there are generally less people around (family, guests, and doctors) so you can really focus on what you’re doing, learn how to chart, etc.

Another benefit to night shift is it’s generally much quieter than the day shift.  Even if you’re a nurse that thrives on chaos, it can be nice to have a slow night every now and again and chances are you’ll get that much more often than you will working day shift.  The reality is, only emergent orders and procedures occur at night and everything non-emergent will happen on day shift.

Lastly, night shift nurses get paid more than day shift nurses.  This is a huge draw to working nights!

 

Drawbacks to Working the Night Shift

In my opinion, 95% of the drawbacks to working nightshift are all health related.  We know that lack of sleep is damaging to your body and mind for many reasons.  We know that long-time night shift workers have health related issues.  We know all of these awful things that staying up all night can to do you, and to me, that is the biggest drawback to working night shift.

Another drawback however, is that you can also start to lose some of your skillset or you might not advance as quickly on nights.  That’s just because less goes on a night so you’re missing out on a lot of procedures that happen during the day shift.

 

Night Shift Essentials – What Every Nurse Should Pack for the Night Shift

To the good stuff – what exactly you should bring to work if you’re working the night shift!  Below you’ll find what I consider “essential” to take with you to work, plus optional accessories that I think are useful on your shift (non-essentials), and my favorite snacks to munch on during the night shift.

 

Night Shift Nurse Essentials

• Scrubs
• Tennis shoes
• Compression socks
• Lunch box (this is especially important for night shift because some hospitals don’t have food options at night)
• Backpack
• ARMRA Colostrum (to stay on top of your health and support your immune system; use code “KYLEENELSON” for 15% off)

 

 

Night Shift Nurse Accessories (Non-Essentials)

• Badge reel
• T-shirts (when working the night shift, comfort is key and wearing a t-shirt is so much better than wearing a scrub top)
• Advil (it never fails that I get a headache when working the night shift)
• AirPods (to drown out the noise and alarms while on break)
• Blue light blocking glasses
• Mouthwash
• Floss
• Water bottle
• Coffee mug
• Kindle (I love to read in my downtime to help me stay awake)

 

 

Night Shift Nurse Snacks

As far as snacks go, I always try to eat protein and healthy fats throughout the night to keep my self satiated and from snacking too much – on things I don’t want to be snacking on.  But with that being said, I also crave salty and sweet foods when I’m working the night shift too, so I try to have a variety of things on hand so that when my cravings strike, I have something ready.

• Justin’s Organic Mini Peanut Butter Cups
• Justin’s Nut Butter Squeeze Packs
• Smartfood Popcorn
• Macadamia Nuts
• Fairlife Protein Shakes
• SkinnyDipped Almonds

 

 

After Night Shift Work Essentials – Items to Help with Sleep

While I still haven’t mastered the art of sleeping during the day, I have managed to get more and better quality sleep with a few simple changes to my routine.  Below you’ll find what’s helped me get some sleep during the day after working a long night shift; my “night shift nurse sleep essentials”!

• Eye Mask
• Ear Plugs
• White Noise Machine
• Unisom
• Blackout Curtains

 

 

If you’re working the night shift, don’t miss:

• 6 Tips for Sleeping During the Day if You’re a Night Shift Nurse

 

Nurse Essentials

 

I hope that this post helps every nurse working the night shift.  I know for me, these nights shift nurse essentials have truly been a game changer!

 

If you liked this post, you might also find these posts helpful…

• How to Prepare for 12 Hour Shift Schedules as a Nurse
• 10 Tips for Working Night Shift
• 30 Companies that Offer Discounts for Nurses

 

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