Nights

Midnight to 8 am is a funny shift: it sounds awful, but is actually pretty great. I dont mind nights at all: you get to miss most of the bullshit that parades through casualty in the day, and actually help (mostly) sick people, and you get to take guilt free naps all day. It gives me a secret thrill when I get into bed at 09h30, knowing that most people are just starting their working day.

Doing a week of nights does warp your perspective of time a bit: usually I'm not sure what the date or day is, someone has to tell me at the start of every shift. I am a great procrastinator, and this gets worse on nights, where, before you realise it, its the end of the week and you have done NOTHING productive except work and take numerous naps in the day. My running program takes a pause during my weeks of nights, and sadly, I end up eating the same thing 5 or 6 nights in a row (usually make a big dish of lasagne or whatever... ).

I quite like the vibe at 4 am: casualty never sleeps, there is always something happening....I always wonder about people who come in to hospital in the early hours of the morning: obviously if you wake with crushing chest pain, thats one thing, but people who come in with say, a recently twisted ankle, at 5 am. What were you doing to twist your ankle at 4 am? Why weren't you SLEEPING?Anyway, I dont really mind, it keeps things interesting.

The only other down side of nights is that it really buggers up your sleep pattern for a couple of days.... I usually cant get to sleep for at least 2 or 3 nights after nights... its quite frustrating!

Last night was a good night: wrestled with a man's shoulder until it popped back with a satisfying clunk, helped 3 MVA victims (they were all fine), listened to numerous old grannies and their dodgy hearts and lungs, reassured patients and their families, referred on all my patients without any arguments with the admitting teams (I'll write another post about this another time...), and still had time for coffee and a hot cross bun at 4 am. Sometimes I REALLY love my job:)