I am content with my own company.
Always have been.
Not having a crowd around me is a fine day.
I am what kids in middle schools would classify as a loner. Except they wanted to shame me because I was okay being alone. Jokes on them.
Some people find this lonely. I do not. Alone is not lonely.
That’s fine. I’ll do me and you do you.
Part of me is wondering if that is why I like call so much.
Less people.
Less fuss.
Less interruption.
Certainly less phone calls than when I was the evening shift charge nurse.
Just pure focus on the job at hand.
Pure focus on the patient on the table. And what the field might need in the next breath. And what the patient might need immediately after surgery.
Until the case is over. And then it is on to the next case or on to home.
Some might say that this leads to a sense of self-reliance, of grit.
They would be right.
But I’ve been training for this my entire life.
Others may not be able to hack the solitude or the pressure of not having an immediate back up. But I love the puzzle solving elements of a challenging surgery.
Just me and my scrub tech and the anesthesia team solving the unique problem of every case.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 