I feel I am doing an increasing amount of nights, it's the turn around between nights & days that's doing me in and the numbers speak for themselves. So far during 2013 (since returning from my brief sojourn as the paediatric orthopaedic support nurse, sure to be mentioned in the future) I've worked thirty-three shifts; of those thirty-three nineteen have been nights. That's over 53% nocturnal working. The gold standard was to work five night shifts during every month, five out of thirteen.
During that two month change the wards shift patten changed to just two shifts- 7am until 7.30pm and 7pm until 7.30am. There was a short trial of a further middle shift, the highly unpopular 11.30am until midnight, but that was sacrificed to allow greater staff cover on the core two shifts. Whilst no doubt the simplification of the shifts is a sensible more and that shorter day shift is a benefit, the new longer night is brutal (especially when it makes up over half of your allotted shifts!)
Life stops when you're on nights; you go to bed, get up, shower, eat, go to work, come home, go to bed, get up ... it feels relentless. That extra two and a hour hours at work snatches all the time that was spent preparing for the shift. Now a run of nights almost requires militaristic planning to ensure they go smoothly, until of course you actually get to work of course!
ET is much better now with me being on nights, I'd say braver but that makes her sound vaguely pathetic, which she certainly isn't. She just doesn't like to be in the house alone by herself, which doesn't sound a particularly difficulty thing to understand to me?
All she has ever known me as is a nurse- a senior staff nurse on a busy acute admissions / short stay area, a deputy ward manager on an orthopaedic ward, then the acting manager (five difficult months) and now as canon fodder, a drone, storm trooper ... a bog standard nurse.
So she often stays at her parents overnight, five miles away and closer to her school. It makes sense to me on almost every level; I never like driving away leaving her and I still find it difficult on occasion returning to an empty house in the morning. But on every other level it makes complete sense.
I seem to struggle to sleep pre-first night shift, it was always a case of having a productive or at least active morning, then having a brief afternoon sleep before preparing for that nights shift. Now I just don't seem to be able to grab that essential pre-shift doze, so tend to get up and just sit about, fighting off guilt of being overtly sloathenly and neglecting essential chores. Which doesn't make me feel restful at all.
This afternoon I could have (should have) just stayed in bed reading, perhaps then a further period of sleep would of occurred? But I was eager to write, my brain was desperate to get my thoughts down on cyber-paper. At least I'm being restful, whilst my body is certainly at rest my brain is going ten to the dozen.
