Night Shifts At The Swiss Cheese
I just finished four night shifts in a row. They were the first night shifts I've worked at this hospital, and possibly the last. I didn't see any night shifts on the upcoming tentative schedule, although the tentative schedule might just be that and change.
The first night was a little rough. Since I haven't stayed up all night (or really past 1 am) since leaving Connecticut, it took me a little to get used to it. That was the hardest 3 AM that I have had in a long time. The next night was easier, my body had gotten back into the late night routine.
I fell in with the night crew pretty easily. By nature, night shift folks tend to be fairly independent, dark in humor (bordering on obscene), and fairly judgmental and grumpy, at least until they have gotten a chance to know you. Coming into a unit and getting people to trust you is a different process for day shift and night shift. A lot of day shift folks tend to be Type A personalities, meaning that they are very much about doing procedures just like the nursing manuals tell you how to. I tend to think that these people are so rigid in the proper procedure because they literally have an audience--they have the doctors, the families, the management, and here in the Trauma Unit at the Swiss Cheese, the eICU Big Brother cameras monitoring their every move. It creates a feeling of paranoia, having so many observers, so it's little wonder that they do things by the book, even by the paragraph, the sentence, the letter.
On the other hand, in order to get the night shift people to trust you, it is a little more straightforward. You just have to demonstrate that you are capable of handling yourself, that you can do your thing without having to get help every five minutes. Again, there is a strong sense of independence on night shift, the lights come down, the doctors scurry off to their holes, the families (hopefully) drift off to sleep in the waiting room, and management, well, they aren't there and that is what really matters. So, you need to demonstrate that you can get all your work done, walk around to ask if anyone needs any help, and still spend at least fifteen minutes of every hour reading CNN news. Then the night shift people trust you.
It was actually unexpectedly busy this last weekend. There was a big university home game on Saturday, meaning there were throngs of drunken students everywhere, so we had some MVAs (motor vehicle accidents), some car surfers, lots of lacs (lacerations), and a fair amount of blood and broken limbs. Then there was an alcoholic who was going through withdrawals, and the best way to get people to like you is to step in with your cuffs rolled up and say, "Hey, if there's a type of patient I can handle, it is these drunks." I guess my time in Connecticut at the Y didn't go to waste, for they gave me at least one drunk per shift. At least one.
And this guy was a cherry. He was literally drowning in secretions, could barely breath much less talk, but that didn't stop him from using his last few breaths to call us f-ing $@%@% and @$@%## and @%%##%. He could barely summon the strength to inhale, but he could still pinch and punch and even try to bite my finger. I've said it a million times, but Propofol (and ET tubes) are proof that God loves us (that, and beer, of course, but that's proof more that God wants us to be happy).
Good times.
In more exciting news, I just purchased tickets to China for December. We are flying to Hong Kong on December 4, will spend a few days on the island, then hopefully spend a little more than a week in mainland China before flying back to the States on the 18th. That depends on our success in getting visas, but luck has it that we are a two and a half hour drive from the Chinese consulate in Chicago, so with another $260, we should be good to go. I managed to get the tickets for $1100 after taxes and fees, which I find to be quite a deal, especially given that tickets for identical dates to Sydney, Australia, are going for $1500 (recently down from $2000).
Anyone want to backpack in China for two weeks? It's gonna be fun.
Until next time, be safe.
