shift [AS, sciftan, to divide] , 1. (in nursing) the particular hours of the day during which a nurse is scheduled to work. The day shift is usually 7:00 am to 3:00 pm or 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. The evening shift is usually 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm or 4:00 pm to midnight, and the night shift the remaining hours. The evening shift is also called “relief,” presumably because nurses originally worked 12-hour shifts and the evening and night shift was thought to be relief for the day nurse. Many innovations in staffing practice currently allow variations on the traditional 5-day, 40-hour work week, such as nurses electing to work a shorter week, preferring longer hours for fewer days. 2. an abrupt change in an analytic system that continues at the new level.
