Nursing on the Night Shift...

When I became a nurse, I was a day shift girl... 7a-7p was it for me. I didn't know how those girls survived the wee hours of the morning! I spent 2 years as a day-shifter. 

I loved the "organized chaos" of days--tracking down patient charts after the doctors just left them everywhere, trying to remember which patient was in surgery and which one was at MRI, discharging patients home and admitting new ones, coordinating care with our case managers and talking to worried family members (and oh yeah, don't forget to hang that antibiotic on time).  However, there's ALWAYS something new to learn from the sea of residents, doctors, and interdisciplinary team members that you are around on day shift.

Last spring, I filled in a few shifts when we were super short on nights....J was deployed, so I wasn't missing out on any time with him. I never knew that hospital could be so quiet, lonely, almost desolate.

Night shift is a totally different world....things get busy, it can definitely get hectic, but it's just different. Aside from emergencies and late transfers/discharges, no routine tests or scheduled surgeries means that your patients stay put for the most part. Most nights, there's time to breath, time to actually read your patient's chart and put the puzzle pieces together. Sometimes, there's even time to talk to patients who aren't sleeping....just learn about their past. 85-year-old little ladies can teach you some life lessons!!!

Of course on the night shift, there's always that chance of getting sleepy... especially around 3 am... when ALL of the rest of the world is sleeping. There's very little movement in the hospital. That's when you get to know your co-workers... you keep each other moving through the shift.

Now that I'm on my new unit, I'm 50/50. Half my shifts are days, half of them are nights. Although it means I'm on no set schedule at home by any means, I also get the best of both worlds. However, I still rely on a few things to help me make it through each shift, especially my first night shift back (like when I took these photos!):

Diet Coke = love

I'm convinced that cute socks help me make it through my shift sometimes! Oh, and cute underwear too....but a pic of that would be inappropriate!

Tomorrow, I start Operation House Hunt with my trusty sidekick named Mom....Stay tuned....