I work with quite a few docs who work only nights. They love it because they pretty much get to choose their own schedule for the month. I don't know if all hospitals are like that, though. I wouldn't mind working all nights once I finish my residency if it means a more consistent schedule.
If only nights didn't make you feel like crap so much. Of course, some would say rotating back and forth makes you feel crappier than steady nights. If you can get like 3, 12's in a row on nights, and then at least 3 offs in-between (Remembering that you are sleeping part of the first day off), it's not so bad. But too many get only 2 days off, and half of the first day is lost getting at least some sleep. Personally, I find I need more sleep overall during the week (catching up somewhere) when I work nights. My body gets pizzed at me--and frankly, having only 2 days off in-between when you work nights sucks. Gives you really only one day and maybe part of the day you're sleeping to get things done.
Some people are better with it than others, and in general, I am one of those people. Having said that, I did prefer my 90% day job in mgt; but the hours started sucking too much time away from school and other things. Plus, if you work > 70 hours per week as a nurse-mgt/sup, plus take call on certain weekends, your financial compensations should be a lot better. When you do all the work >70 in physician residency, you suck it up, b/c it's part of your education, so your income is really a stipend--you know it's not going to last forever.
That other job was not like residency-GME. I was teaching and handling urgent peds situations and evals--sometimes till 3am, having to be back at HQ offices for meetings by 8am, then seeing patients all over the place, coming back to document my butt off and contact docs and insurance case mgers, and you name it. Family concerns were huge-pediatrics--well, a number of the cases were complicated, so, it's understandable, so this could suck up a lot of my time. Getting clinical data was huge. Faxing out data for authorization- huge. Working up plans of care and treatment--huge--w/ software that was less than optimal and not meant for the purposes in which we were made to use them.
But I've digressed. Generally I liked doing mostly days; but I didn't get to see or cook as much for my family and the hours got too much in the way of school. Plus, when you divide out the hours, I was making only a bit more than a new grad. Doing all of what I was doing, in non-stipend mode, given my ultimate goals and experience...Nah. Had to let it go.
So yes, to your point, yes, now, having to do more nights; but it works better at getting optimal schedule for school. Looking at some other things, I am probably going to have to go to all nights and stay up for classes and pray I continue to do well next term. But even if you are more of a night owl, after 3am, the headaches and nausea kick in, and heck, that's also when something slams you from the ED or a fresh post-op decides to go ahead and crash, even though we busted our butts to try to prevent that. Thank God for the adrenaline boost. But then you have to make sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed documentation wise. And by that time, the adrenal rush has just moved to exhaustion and worrying that you are gonna miss something in the documentation, somewhere.
