All 11-7 nurses, what do YOU think?

Read this on Yahoo, and had to share. What do YOU all think?
Graveyard shift work linked to cancer - Yahoo! News

I don't know, maby it's because we think harder. What do you think?

hehe- I agree, orion! ;) Night shift nurses ROCK!

The findings described in this article don't surprise me a bit. I always felt that working nights took years off of my life so once the kids didn't need me home during the day and after nearly twenty years, I went to days. It's been almost five years now and I have no regrets at all. Some people can sleep well during the day but I was never one of them

R

I can see a link between depression and working 11-7, especially if you are NOT a night person. Heck, I can relate: I hate 7-3's/8-4's. I do NOT function well that early. 3-11's my shift. Can work 11-7's if I have to.

Maybe a study should be done on whether the person prefers that shift, or got suckered into it?

Over the long term, the night shift has a devastating effect on a person's health. The article points out some of the things that our bodies feel working the shift but our mind doesn't want to acknowledge. How many times have you finished a night shift and felt like a zombie the next day? How many times have you tried in vain to get an extra hour of sleep while the sun is beating down on your bedroom window?

Unfortunately, healthcare is a 24/7 business, and we'll always need night shift RNs. We need champions in this industry to help facilities and RNs devise strategies to keep RNs healthy on overnight shifts. Even little changes can make a difference - for example, there needs to be other food options for overnight staff than just the crap in the lone vending machine at the end of the hall.

My hospital doesn't have 11-7 shifts. It's all 7a-7p or 7p to 7a. (occasionally if census changes dramatically, they'll float someone to the floor at 11p, so I've heard).

I'm a day nurse. I've always been a day nurse. I could never be a night nurse - Not even if you paid me a zillion dollars. I have the utmost respect for the sacrafice that the night nurse makes to actually work those hours. Thank God we're all "wired" differently because it certainly takes all kinds!

Put it this way, even on my days off I routinely get up at 5 am (bright eyed and bushy tailed!). I can't imagine sleeping during the day and working at night...can't imagine it! Those nurses are very special!

I canNOT function at 7 am. Been there, tried that. I am NOT civil until 9-ish. Thus, the 3-11 shift for me. Oh, yeah, I've done my share of 11-7's. BTW, had to stay over alot because one 7-3 nurse could NEVER get in on time. Another would crawl in about 8:30, AFTER I've already done the vast majority of her med. pass.

I have shades in the room, and have used Benadryl to help sleep. Tends to help some.

'Cat'

In my current position we do self scheduling. Our base shifts are 6-6 with the oncoming shift arriving 30 min. early so it's really 5:30-6:00. This seems to work the best and many different arrangements are made. While they are rare, conflicts do arise and when this does happen, things are quickly resolved as soon as the parties involved consider what other more rigid schedule arrangements could be employed. A few years ago, I worked in a hospital that had several "creative" schedule otions to cover those overnight and schooltime hours. Traditional 8 and 12 hour shift options were offered along with 3-3 and 11-11. There weren't as many of those positions available and working them required that you collaborate with your mirror person on the schedule. Split shifts; either 6 or 4 hours could be worked as well. Flexible scheduling does work and goes a long way to improve morale but there has to be a solid team with which to do it.

R

I'm a person who doesn't wake up well and does best working evenings or nights. My most productive time of day is probably 8PM to 2 or 3AM. I do laundry then, I write then, housework, etc. I usually wake up about 9 or 10AM and am "just" functional about 11AM.

I've worked off-shifts for most of my worklife. I'm glad I am a nurse for that reason; a 9 to 5 job would have killed me by now! :D

JennyP wrote:I'm a person who doesn't wake up well and does best working evenings or nights. My most productive time of day is probably 8PM to 2 or 3AM. I do laundry then, I write then, housework, etc. I usually wake up about 9 or 10AM and am "just" functional about 11AM.

I've worked off-shifts for most of my worklife. I'm glad I am a nurse for that reason; a 9 to 5 job would have killed me by now! :D

God bless you!

Question: What do you write about? (I'm reachable if it's too private)

What do I write about?

At this point in time, just about anything that I feel like! ;)

Seriously, I'm trying to get back into the habit of journaling again. I used to journal every day back in the 80's and 90's; but got out of the habit when my kids (pre-teens at the time) found my journals and started reading about how their latest behavior was *really* affecting me! :11:

I've also always enjoyed reading and researching in my nursing specialty and would like to see if some of my "vast knowledge" in nursing is something that would be of interest to others if I could ever get it organized coherently.

Recently, another nurse and I have challenged ourselves to write *something* each week for the other to critique; we are just starting this so we will see how it goes. We have very different types, styles, and topics of writing, so it should be interesting (to say the least).

I've reached a certain point in time where I'm starting to feel that we should be telling our stories to the general public. The problem we have is somehow maintaining privacy and respect and telling the story all within the HIPAA rules and regs.

Part of the problem with our professional nursing image is that most of the time our work with patients is very personal and almost intimate (in a professional way); and because of this I don't think many people know exactly what it is that nurses actually DO unless they have been hospitalized and quite ill themselves.

I do wish we could collectively "find our voices" and speak out as to what we do.

Sorry about the thread hi-jack here; we should get back to the topic on hand I guess.

JennyP wrote:Sorry about the thread hi-jack here; we should get back to the topic on hand I guess.

For me, the topic of writing, creativity and the activities we do to relieve stress in our lives fits right into the original topic. The first post/newspaper article talked about how night shift work could post a danger to your health. That's a scary thought!

Well, guess what? Night shift work (and especially night shift nursing) is never going to go away!!!!!! We are always going to need people to work the night shift. So what can we do about this? We, as nurses, must take care of ourselves!

I suppose if nurses aren't careful about how they take care of themselves and how they cope with the stress of their jobs, it could kill any one of us. Not in the short term...but in the LONG term. I write about how I cope with nursing stress in my blog.

The idea of using writing or creativity as a coping tool is intriguing to me. I encourage all nurses to find an outlet that incorporates personal expression into their lives. The reason I believe personal expression, in particular, is important for nurses is because the stress of nursing in my life has literally left me MUTE at times. I desperately needed to "process" some of the "stuff" that went on at work but I literally was too drained to do it. Guess who suffered? Me. I'm not willing to anymore!

On my floor, the night nurses work 3 in a row. They do this so they'll be able to cope better "sleep-wise" for the 3 nights that they work and then for the 4 days that they're off. They do this so that they'll get the same patients over and over again (familiar mayhem). They do this to cope.

However, the fact is that working 3 nights in a row can be VERY isolating with regard to friends and family. You get a nice flow and rhythm going in your life with your friends and family and then it feels like you drop off the face of the earth for 3 days...between work and sleep, you are just NOT available for 72 hours straight.

Therefore, it comes down to how are you taking care of yourself mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually! For me, personal expression is no longer optional...it's mandatory.

Wow...I guess I'm passionate about this:).

Don't worry about the hijack bit, folks. Gives us food to chew on, so to speak, and makes us wonder what all could be causing things.

Nurse_Advocate wrote:...Well, guess what? Night shift work (and especially night shift nursing) is never going to go away!!!!!! We are always going to need people to work the night shift. So what can we do about this? We, as nurses, must take care of ourselves!

...Therefore, it comes down to how are you taking care of yourself mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually! For me, personal expression is no longer optional...it's mandatory.

I think we need to take care of ourselves financially, too. This topic needs further research and follow up by our community. If indeed there is a relationship between working night shift and cancer (and the theory is very plausible)then night shift jobs are hazardous to health. As such, it follows that night shift workers should get hazard pay comparable to the risk. To me, the risk of exposing myself to a "carcinogen" that increased the likelihood of my getting breast cancer is not worth any money but for those souls that are putting themselves in danger and serving others in the process, well, they should be recognized and compensated.

I could work 11-7 without much problem as long as I could ge my break around 6 am. My body goes into shut down for about 30 mins at that time. I couldn't think, I fought sleepiness. I guess that was how my clock ran. Once 6:30 passed, I was good until 9 or 10 am. I have always liked the 3-11 shift though, and I would stay up until 5 or 6 am after working eves. Now that I am a manager in an outpatient dialysis clinic, I can set my own hours most days. I come in between 8 and 10 depending on the day (some days I have 2 shifts, some days 3 shifts. I do come in to cover for staff at 5 am if needed, but it isn't my prefered time. I agree that my brain isn't fully functional until 9 am unless I hit the caffeine hard. ha-ha:shades_smile:

Their findings don't surprise me at all. After I work 6-7 months on midnights my body gets all out of whack. I get terrible mood swings, I gain weight, I never feel quite right... It's proven that working midnights effects circadian rhythms and cortisol levels, I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg.

i couldn't agree more with TrishLPN. I feel like working 11-7 has done irreversible damage to my body. My sleeping patterns are a disaster. Sometimes when i get off work in the morning i won't go to sleep until 6 or 7 in the evening. i can't lay down early unless i'm just exhausted. but the funny thing is, is that i'm exhausted all the time. before i became a nurse i tried to work 11-7 as a data entry operator for a major bank. i kept that job less than 2 months because i am a natural early bird. i normally get up in the morning at about 4 or 5 and go to sleep at 9 or 10 at night. not anymore. my eating habits are absolutely insane. when should i eat. i'm hungry just before i go to sleep which isn't the time to eat. i'm diabetic and i've gone from being hypotensive to hypertensive. i'm always cranky because i miss my bed. i'm actually in the process of getting an mds certification so i can go to the day shift and not work the floor at the same time not to mention that i'm in school taking RN prerequisites for a bridge program. i've been a night nurse for almost 5 years and YES IT IS KILLING ME.

Well, I had to bump this thread up some. Look what the heck got written up in Nursing Spectrum: Nurse.com - Cancer Risk on the Night Shift

In December 2007, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer declared that shift work involving disruption of the body’s natural circadian rhythm is “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

This conclusion was based on published evidence that includes data collected from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Nurses’ Health Study II. A summary of the evidence was published in the December 2007 issue of The Lancet Oncology. According to the article, 15% to 20% of people working in Europe and the U.S. have jobs that involve night work, and this type of work is prevalent (above 30%) in industries that include healthcare, industrial manufacturing, and mining, to name a few.

“Among the many different patterns of shift work, those including night work are the most disruptive for the circadian clock,” according to the article, and this disruption may be carcinogenic to humans.

Despite this news, nurses and other personnel who staff the graveyard shift should not become alarmed, says Sue Hankinson, RN, ScD, principal investigator of the Nurses’ Health Study and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Other researchers concur.

“It’s too early to panic,” says Eva Schernhammer, MD, DrPH, coinvestigator for the NHS. “The risks that we see are modest compared to other risk factors for cancer, such as smoking.”

In October 2007, a WHO working group met to review the published literature on the topic of shift work, circadian rhythm, and the risk of cancer. To date, most studies in humans have focused on breast cancer in nurses and flight attendants and have found that long-term night workers have a higher risk of breast cancer risk than women who do not work at night.

“It’s largely because of the breast cancer evidence that the International Agency for Research on Cancer committee changed the classification of night work to a probable carcinogen,” says Hankinson.

Researchers also are examining the possible association of shift work to colorectal cancer and endometrial cancer risk.

“We came to the conclusion that while human data are still limited, animal data are fairly consistent and support a mechanistic link between light exposure at night and eventual risk for developing various forms of cancer,” says Schernhammer.

It is believed that artificial light exposure at night does its damage by initiating the suppression of melatonin, also known as the “hormone of darkness.” Melatonin is produced in the brain’s pineal gland during periods of darkness and is believed to inhibit cancer growth.

“Melatonin is produced in a very distinct circadian fashion,” says Schernhammer. “There is almost no production throughout the day in people who have regular circadian rhythms. Most production occurs at night when they are sleeping.”

Other mechanisms that are theorized to lead to a higher risk of cancer in night-shift workers include vitamin D deficiency because of a lack of sun exposure. Sleep deprivation also may negatively impact the immune system and the body’s ability to mitigate the production of cancer cells. Plus, disruption of the circadian rhythm may disregulate genes involved in tumor development.

Researchers have a long way to go to answer questions raised by current evidence. Although they suspect that the longer a person works the night shift the higher the risk for cancer, it is yet to be proved. Scientists also are questioning whether the timing of light exposure is more important than the duration.

“It is possible that there is a certain time in a woman’s life that she is more vulnerable to developing breast cancer from that sort of exposure,” says Schernhammer.

Based on biological principals and current data, researchers hypothesize that working rotating shifts may be more detrimental than maintaining a consistent night-shift schedule.

“We think people who work a stable night shift may be more able to adapt, and ultimately that would mean their melatonin levels are probably more normal than in someone who switches between day and night shifts,” says Schernhammer.

Another question is whether it is the night shift itself or other attributes of women who tend to work the night shift that increases the risk of breast cancer. NHS researchers have been able to account for higher family risk, but not some other variables.

“It’s very difficult to sort out other factors that play a role, such as body mass index and lack of exercise,” says Hankinson.

Researchers also are studying the possibility that some individuals are genetically better able to cope with nighttime exposure to light. It is hoped that someday subgroups that are more vulnerable to the risk will be identified so screening tools can be developed.

It is too early in the research process for experts to make recommendations to minimize the impact of shift work on the risk of cancer. There are, however, a range of possibilities that are not yet proved. One benign, common-sense option is to use black-out curtains when sleeping during the day.

“Melatonin secretion is very sensitive to the amount of light, so sleeping in a darkened room is a good idea,” says Hankinson.

Other possibilities include working a consistent shift and limiting the number of years worked on the night shift. The use of oral melatonin is not recommended because of a lack of current research about potential long-term side effects. Both Hankinson and Schernhammer agree that, at this juncture, it is most important to address the controllable factors that are proved to increase cancer risk.

“This is good reason to pay more attention to the things that are influential in cancer risk, such as maintaining a lean body weight, [engaging in] physical activity, eating well, quitting smoking, getting regular physical exams and mammograms, and minimizing alcohol consumption,” says Hankinson.

Because of the increasing consistency of the evidence, much of it from the NHS, more studies are expected to be funded soon by the National Institutes of Health.

“The nursing profession is clearly very affected by this type of research, but it is also actively contributing to it — so stay tuned,” says Hankinson.

Thanks Cougar, I read this and all of the replies. I have found that in my case working nights for a long period of time my cortisol levels were elevated along with other labs that were just out of wack. Cancer is a big concern along with depression and other risky behaviors. I honestly believe that there are those who enjoy the night and prefer those hours, and folks like you who like the 3 - 11, but for those of us who no matter what we do to adjust to working nights, it is not going to happen and it causes damage, weight gain, irregular menstrual cycles and other issues. Yet hospitals are a 24 hour 7 days a week operation. Managers should listen to their employees if they approach them and tell them that they are having issues working nights, cant sleep, just do not feel good what harm is it to let them have a break and work days for a spell. Dont know just a suggestion.

I love working 7p to 7am. I know the drag feeling in the wee hours of the morning BUT I use Energy C! It gives you a lift with vitamins. Easting heavy sugar; all those lovely cakes, sweets and those terrible chips we eat can be changed to bringing fruits and veggies to share! Exercise. Your doing these things for you not the patient, though the patient gets a better alert nurse. No one else will take care of you but you-the best nurse for yourself is you!

Hannah there is something I know about night shift workers which surprised me, that is, that they take anti-depressants! I was also amazed the number of doctors also take an anti-depressant. It does help the sleeplessness and mood swings in most.

Rethaeros wrote:Hannah there is something I know about night shift workers which surprised me, that is, that they take anti-depressants! I was also amazed the number of doctors also take an anti-depressant. It does help the sleeplessness and mood swings in most.

I am a night-shift worker, and do not take anti-depressants or other medications. Nor do I use any type of energy supplements, etc. Occasionally I will have a cup of coffee, but that's it.

With all the other health effects of working nights, I wouldn't be surprised if cancer risk was one of them. Would work nights if there was nothing else, but not happily.

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com