Nightshift woes

6 Ever since my hospital shut down the cafeteria on nights, I've started throwing around the idea of opening up a night shift food delivery company. Basically, I would prepare 2 or 3 dishes every night and have an online ordering system that staff can order from. The meals would come ready to eat or maybe 20-30sec on the microwave. I'm thinking healthy, light meals, maybe paleo options also.

Kind of like www.spoonrocket.com but for night shift workers. I think we deserve better than vending machines and chinese take out as our food options.

What do you night shift nurses think?
interesting idea.....i hope health regulation etc to not place many constraints

You should look into the state health regs and possibly the regulations of the facilities you are planning to serve. Some facilities may not want deliveries occurring. I think this is a great idea. With hospitals cutting costs, the cafeteria services for night shifts are diminishing. I have worked at only one facility that supplied a full cafeteria for night shift. I typically bring my own food, so people like me might actually be interested in more of a choice for my meal break. Do most night shifts have a designated meal time? Unlike day shift where lunch is usually from 11:30-1:00 pm, I believe nights have a more flexible meal time. Might be something to consider when making deliveries.

My hospital also closes the cafeteria for all shifts but dayshift. It is open only until 5 pm Monday thru Friday. If you don't work days, you can forget it. It also is closed on weekends! It is like they cater to the hospital administration, but the rest of us don't count. Good luck in your endeavors.

Sounds like a great idea. I think getting through the regulations is going to be your biggest hurdle. Good luck!

Thanks for the replies! Yeah, from my research - night shift nurses generally have very few food options. I do feel like admin is forgetting about us sometimes, and it's kind of frustrating if you think about it.

I think a catering company specifically for night-shift workers is a GREAT idea! There's only one facility I can think of (an LTC) that actually makes up 'dinner plates' for its night-shifters; they toss them in a fridge with the employees name on them, so I guess that means they have to be pre-ordered. But it is, after all, facility food, so I can imagine a service like you are thinking of would be very welcome. You can only eat so much pizza and chinese, so variety would be nice!

I'm not being smarty, but there was the SAME kind of post here not too long ago. It was very interesting as so many of us all agree that odd-shift nurses are all but forgotten for food service needs. In LTC we have NOTHING avail, even for pts who just want to knibble. And don't even talk about trying to feed a diabetic in trouble.Everybody thought your idea was great (myself included). But there were some salient reasons why the idea probably wouldn't fly with management. And there were really good alternative ideas how to make your idea work.Along the lines of No Stars' post, I've known some Jewish facilities to have made provisions avail for staff in order to maintain kosher regulations.

Thanks for all the replies guys! I'm gonna put a plan together and run with it. I'll keep you all in the loop regarding the progress!

Oh please tell me you're in Michigan, my coworkers and I would be your biggest customers lol.

No.. But hopefully I'll be there soon

Hello again! I just wanted to update everyone. I've started the business like I said I would. The website is up and we're doing a few dry runs right now. We should be fully operational in late Early February.What do you guys think of the site so far? -> Bitenite | All night gourmet, delivered.

Quote from forchunetHello again! I just wanted to update everyone. I've started the business like I said I would. The website is up and we're doing a few dry runs right now. We should be fully operational in late Early February.What do you guys think of the site so far? -> Bitenite | All night gourmet, delivered.