When I sat down last night to try and relate my first overnight working experience, I didn't mean to get all autobiographical on everybody. I wanted to relate what it was actually like to be up all night working in a hospital... but I didn't get there. Hence the slightly ridiculous act of splitting this innocuous post into two parts.
Up until yesterday, I've only worked the day shift. A twelve-hour day shift, but daytime nonetheless. So after a few weeks of that, it seemed time to get some experience at night.
So far it's been slow. I've seen some interesting things (one patient had a brain bleed and now is missing part of the skull, given it a sunken in appearance), but the night nurses are much more independent, and everyone is much more laid back. The whole pace of the hospital is different. During the daytime, there's a much more harried feeling: Do it now! I need that, stat! Move, move, move! Not to invoke a cliche, but the difference between the shifts really is night and day.
These tenured Polish women keep insisting that I've simply been "lucky" - that normally it's non-stop action from 7 PM to 7 AM... haven't seen that. Granted, this is only my second night, but still... it seems safe to say that although the night shift is harder on you biologically and socially (I actually had to say to my fiancee when she was leaving to meet a friend at 4 PM, "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow morning"), it is not any more difficult in terms of the amount of work or the range of tasks.
The most difficult part, really, is dealing with the biological effects. It's dark, it's quiet, I'm underslept and overworked, and from midnight to 4 AM, there really is not much to do for a PCT (obviously - how else do you think I have time to write this?)... and from about 2:30 AM to 4 AM, it just gets brutal. At that time, unequivocally, the only people awake are employees. It just drains you. I try coffee, soda, sugar - anything to get the energy up - but after a while, my body just says, "No, you go to hell; you can't fool us. We're tired and we want to sleep." I don't know how people do this for years.
I imagine that while I'm employed here the majority of my shifts will be during the day, but there will be a fair amount of night work... Just need to maintain some semblance of a schedule, that way I can keep up with school work and work work, all while getting as much sleep as possible.
The worst I ever had it, when I was studying to be a paramedic, was a 16 hour ambulance shift, which ended with just enough time for me to make it to UPS for my shift there, after which I had to head back to Ridgeview for another 16 hour shift. My boss at UPS took pity on me and let me have my next shift off, so I could sleep some. I almost fell asleep behind the wheel on my way home.
ReplyDeleteJust keep your end goal in mind, and jump at the chance to sleep when it approaches. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go change the oil in my wife's car. Who would have thought I would end up being interested in cars?
You sound like my dad... he doesn't have a second job, but he works stretches of overtime like that. A few days after he and my mom got married, he actually did fall asleep at the wheel. Nothing too bad, thankfully - he just rear-ended a cement truck. Does that mean you literally worked like forty hours in a row? ...and that you almost worked forty-eight? You're insane, Dave. Utterly insane.
ReplyDeleteSo are you a paramedic these days? I remember you were doing some of the training back when I was still applying for police jobs.
It was an internship, so worked yes. Paid, no. I never went any further than that. I am still at UPS and I just started a weekend job at Holiday to make a few extra bucks as Lisa and I are trying to buy a house.
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