Night Shift Life

Holy hell. 7pm-7am… that shit is ridiculous. Do you wanna wake up every day feeling like you’ve got the world’s worst hangover without having to bother drinking the night before? Become a night shifter. Kiss normal sleep, a normal schedule, hell, a normal life in general goodbye.

Normal people, working normal jobs will never understand why as a night shifter you are ALWAYS tired. People wonder how and why you want to sleep ALL the time. Let me break it down for you. I am accustomed to getting anywhere from 3-6 hours of sleep a day… and that’s not necessarily consecutive hours. Maybe I slept for 6 hours today.. but I was up every 2 because the rest of the world functions while I’m trying to sleep. I then get my ass out of bed and drag it into work where I will be stuck for 12 hours. In those 12 hours, my brain and body is pushed to the limit. When I drag my ass home after work, not only does my body ache… my brain does too. So if you want me to be functional… let me fucking sleep when I can.

Sleep isn’t the only difference between a day shifter vs. a night shifter. Commonly, people think you will be less busy during the night shift. Sometimes that is true! Sometimes we don’t see but 10 patients after midnight. But most nights, you keep a slammed ER well into the wee hours of the night and morning. Maybe if you get lucky and you have a bitchin’ doc, you can keep the pace a steady flow rather than an all-out down pour. There are nights we see just as many patients as the day shift does… and we do it with half the staff and resources.

Most of the ancillary staff is gone after 9 or 10 pm, so when a problem arises, you gotta get creative. We pride ourselves on being self-sufficient and pulling solutions out of thin air, when most of the day shift staff would still be running around wondering what in the hell they’re going to do. They aren’t always perfect solutions, but hey, we get the job done.

There are some good things about being on the night shift. For one, all the administrators and big wigs have left and won’t be in until after your shift has ended… so no need to walk around, worrying someone in a suit is going to come down and slap your hand for something stupid. No need to be on extra good behavior, Joint Commission doesn’t randomly show up at 2am. Just walk in, do your job, and leave. I’d say it’s peaceful but… there’s really no such thing as peaceful in an ER. And if it is, in fact, peaceful for a moment… DO NOT utter those words. It’s like a law in healthcare. If you say the word “quiet” (or any variation/synonym of the word), you will surely become extremely busy.

Honestly, night shift isn’t the worst thing in the world. What makes it hard is when the people in your life don’t understand. My friends would get pissed because I would cancel plans more often than not. If I didn’t cancel plans, I say we will make plans to do something and half the time I forget, or fall asleep. Half the time, they just quit inviting me places or trying to make plans at all.

The failing of friendships was bad enough, but it also threw a huge wrench in my relationship. D is a mechanic… has always been a mechanic… has never had to work a night shift in his life. So him grasping the concept of night shift life is a constant struggle. He has come a long way in the understanding department… but it hasn’t been easy. There have been a LOT of intense discussions about it… with lots of yelling and bad words. But, he’s finally figuring it out.

At the end of the day… or I guess that would be the beginning of the day…? For fuck’s sake, whatever… the point is, night shift is fantastic sometimes.. but that shit is hard. It takes a toll physically and mentally. So if you’ve got someone in your life that works night shift… don’t bust their balls. Let them sleep.