I started this post in June after we got home from vacation.
I don’t write that to scare people. Or to scare my mother. But being exclusive night shift call can sometimes make you feel like you are out of step.
You live a life split between days and nights, sometimes with an evening thrown in as well. Sometimes it can be exhausting. For example, I’ve been up at dawn for over a week now. Do I want to be? No. But the furry head of house wants to be entertained as soon as the birds wake up. And I’m up for the day. I cook a little, clean a little, read a lot. Go to bed and await a call.
I have 2 new co-chairs for the facility shared governance. They are both day shift. They started in May and they will be ready to take over by January.
That will be one less thing in the split life I lead.
If I answer emails in the middle of the night, I have to make sure to future time them for 0800 in the morning.
Speaking of emails, that is another weird night shift thing. Emails come in and several people I work with are dedicated to replying to each other back and forth. And I don’t. Because I’m not on the clock at 1400, Janet.
There is no Janet. This is just an expression.
You know, Dammit, Janet. Rocky Horror Picture Show song?
Okay, then.
I don’t respond to email chains going back and forth because I am not looking at my email during the day. Mostly.
This is a rule I set myself in the beginning of the call shift job.
No more working off the clock.
Except for the three shared governance meetings and the one non-shared governance meeting that I allowed myself. Oh, and the leadership meeting for the department and the department staff meeting. I know it sounds like a lot but it is a LOT less than it used to be. Of course, in those days I got my hourly wage for meetings.
I am aware that the world is run from 0900-1700. As a nurse who has spent 21 out of her 25 year career on an off shift position I am well aware.
But nursing and the hospital isn’t like that. It takes all shifts to keep the hospital humming.
Not just the 0700-1900 one.
