You may recall how, in a prior blog I compared and contrasted the pros and cons of working the nursing night shift. While most of my experience as an RN has been working the night shift, I have worked enough day, afternoon and evening hours to have an equally unbiased and hopefully informative viewpoint about the pros and cons of the day shift.

As a new nursing school grad, regardless of the shift you are hired for, much of your orientation and training hours will take place during the day shift. This is to provide you with the most access possible to your nurse manager, colleagues, your floor and other departments and learn policies and procedures during the light of day. If you will be ultimately transitioning to the night shift, your day shift orientation will help you “walk in the shoes” of the nurses you will be giving report to in the morning after your night shift.

Here are some pros and cons of working the day shift.

Day Shift: Pros

• Getting to Know You: The day shift gives you the opportunity to work alongside your nurse manager and your more experienced colleagues – all excellent sources of information. As a new grad you are, of course, required to stand on your own two feet and be an independently minded, critical thinking, care provider. However, during the day, when the hospital is at its busiest, you have more resources at arm’s length when you need them.

• Crash Course: No matter what department you work in, the day shift at a hospital is always full of surprises, action and quite often, unpredictability. For those who love a fast-paced work environment, where the hours fly by and every moment is a new learning experience, the day shift is ideal.

• Teamwork: Working during the day, tests your ability to work in harmony with multiple other hospital departments – from lab technicians drawing blood, to the constant parade of doctors and specialists seeing (and writing new orders for) your patients.

Day Shift: Cons

• See Pros: Seriously, review the pros above. If any of these work attributes do not sound appealing to you, consider a nighttime position.

• Banks Close at 5 pm: Well actually they are staying open later these days, but you get my point. While you are working the day shift, so is the rest of the world. However, as I mentioned in my previous “night shift” blog, 12 hour shifts, 7am-7pm in this case, require you to work fewer days per week.

Whether you choose to work during the day or into the wee hours of the morning, remember that, as a nurse you have the opportunity to work a rewarding job in a recession proof career.