# What's the graveyard shift called in hospitals?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 20, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844 "2010-06-20T04:50:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/1 "2010-06-20T04:50:11Z")
I’ve heard, and I assume it’s true, that the midnight-to-eight shift\* in a hospital is not referred to as the ‘graveyard shift’, for obvious reasons. What’s it called, then?
When my dad was with the FAA, he called that shift the ‘graveyard shift’ or the ‘midwatch’.
\*Or whatever similar span. Dad was FAA, so had 8-hour days.
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### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/2 "2010-06-20T05:00:02Z")
Technically, it’s the “third shift.” But I’ve heard people call it the graveyard shift, probably more often than third shift.
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### Author:  [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/3 "2010-06-20T05:36:53Z")
1st shift- days
2nd shift- evenings
3rd shift- nights
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### Author:  [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/4 "2010-06-20T06:14:36Z")
When it was on a form it was “third shift”. But everyone on the mid shift called it the mid shift or the grave yard shift.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/5 "2010-06-20T06:16:43Z")
Every shift is the graveyard shift at the cemetery.
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### Author:  [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/6 "2010-06-20T06:18:12Z")
Every place I’ve been called it nights.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/7 "2010-06-20T06:21:47Z")
In the printing industry it’s called the “lobster shift.”
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### Author:  [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/8 "2010-06-20T06:34:29Z")
Why wouldn’t they just call it the night shift? That’s what it always was in fast food (back in the day).
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### Author:  [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/9 "2010-06-20T07:56:43Z")
At the mental health facility where I work the three shifts are referred to in casual conversation as the AM, the PM, and the 11/7 (or “the eleven to seven” if you are not into the whole brevity thing).
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/10 "2010-06-20T08:50:27Z")
Ever since I was nursing in the 70s I think in NSW they have been C shifts or nights. The standard A is 7 - 3, a B is 3 - 11 and a C is 11 - 7.
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### Author:  [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/11 "2010-06-20T13:44:43Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> I’ve heard, and I assume it’s true, that the midnight-to-eight shift\* in a hospital is not referred to as the ‘graveyard shift’, for obvious reasons. What’s it called, then?
>
> When my dad was with the FAA, he called that shift the ‘graveyard shift’ or the ‘midwatch’.
>
> \*Or whatever similar span. Dad was FAA, so had 8-hour days.
Usually, “nights,” to distinguish it from “days” and “PMs” but I really just want to post on the idea that Hospital workers are somehow sensitive souls who don’t want to offend by using the term “graveyard” since so many patients circle the drain on nights and end up exiting in the horizontal mode instead of being returned to [Death Camp](http://www.messybeast.com/dragonqueen/medical-acronyms.htm).
In the ED, at least, we sort of invented political incorrectness and callous disregard for emotional human suffering.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/12 "2010-06-20T13:56:15Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#):
>
> I really just want to post on the idea that Hospital workers are somehow sensitive souls who don’t want to offend by using the term “graveyard” since so many patients circle the drain on nights
Oh, I know that hospital workers have macabre senses of humour. But I’ve been told that ‘they’re not supposed to use “graveyard shift”’. So it sounds like a policy thing, rather than people trying to be sensitive. (For whatever reason, I was never able to ask the question.)
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### Author:  [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/13 "2010-06-20T14:46:26Z")
I used to call it money. Double differential over day pay and, being a young healthy idiot at the time, a per deim in lieu of benefits. Worked out to about quadruple over base.
As I recall noone out on smoke break had any qualms against graveyard. But the scheduling term was nights.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/14 "2010-06-20T15:29:34Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> In the printing industry it’s called the “lobster shift.”
Why?
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/15 "2010-06-20T16:09:54Z")
That TV drama about late-night emergency services called it “Third Watch” but “third shift” is what I personally have heard more often.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/16 "2010-06-20T16:29:31Z")
Perhaps political correctness has creeped in, but I personally worked “the graveyard shift” at a Dunkin’ Donuts and a convenience store in West Texas back in the 1970s. Possibly it was a more common term than today?
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### Author:  [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/17 "2010-06-20T16:32:46Z")
What industry does use “graveyard shift” as a formal term? I work in a toxicology lab, and the term “night shift” is the formal term for the 11pm-7am shift. After all, who’s going to apply for a job posting for a graveyard shift? Of course the workers when talking to each other use “graveyard” and “overnight”.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/18 "2010-06-20T16:46:09Z")
I don’t think I’ve ever seen it used as a formal term. It’s just what everyone said way back when. Perhaps it’s gone by the wayside more today.
At the convenience store I worked, 7am-3pm was “the morning shift” (despite three hours of it being in the afternoon), 3-11pm was “the swing shift” and 11pm-7am “the graveyard shift.” But none of those terms was used formally.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/19 "2010-06-20T16:55:15Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Perhaps political correctness has creeped in, but I personally worked “the graveyard shift” at a Dunkin’ Donuts and a convenience store in West Texas back in the 1970s. Possibly it was a more common term than today?
I’ve heard it called the graveyard shift all my life, so it’s not surprising that you’d hear it at a doughnut shop. But the term seems to be frowned upon (at least officially) in hospitals because people die in hospitals.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-graveyard-shift-called-in-hospitals/543844/20 "2010-06-20T17:02:35Z")
People have died in doughnut shops, too. 😉
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