I got rostered quite a few nights when I started - oddly enough. I've never "pleased" my managers enough to be allowed to play on days. Tho I know they were confident that I'd see the night thru with little problems. Working in a private unit where weekend medical cover was mostly by telephone meant nurses were required to be more aware - as Julie says - of the things that really required urgent or necessary medical intervention. It also meant I got away with a higher level of decision making - if it meant the doc not having to get out of bed. But that went both ways - if the docs didn't play nice with me I'd call them 4am every weekend night for a Paracetamol order. :-)
Medico is also right - no suits by night and a very single layered management style. I think this was more to do with people being able to get on with the job and not tied to bureaucracy as well as no one wanting to have to stay behind and do the long winded reports to everyone - so let's get it done and get home to bed.
I don't do nights anymore tho was meant to rotate as J-Bee says. I just told them I can't stand them anymore and someone else was only too glad to pick up the extra money.
Now I'm moving jobs to community mental health and it's all 8-4 there - tho I'll probably get the joys of on-call...