So, here I am. Trying to figure out what to watch while I waste away the hours of over night. My day was slept away. I have been drinking less caffeine during the nights at work, so when I get home I'm not as completely wired, so I don't stay up all day. I've been known to stay up until 2 pm in the past month, and then in order to even get sleepy I'm resorting to an off-brand PM medication. After all this process, I'm completely exhausted when I wake up, and then the cycle starts again with drinking caffeine to arouse my body into a wakeful state. Anywho-today I slept a good chunk of my day away. I didn't plan on it, because, well, quite frankly I actually like my family and spending time with them. I like sitting around doing nothing with them, even if that's all we do. We don't have to go anywhere to enjoy being together, we, as a family, actually like being home together. I KNOW!!! SHOCKER!!!!
So, back to me-because it's all about me. ME ME MEEEEE.
Seriously, right now it is literally me. Watching Star Trek TNG by myself. My own dog doesn't even want to come over here. He's all wrapped up in his own curl of doggie-ness. All 4 of my kids are sleeping IN THEIR OWN BEDS! WOOT! and of course hubby-poo is in bed sleeping also. The younger 2 will be getting up in about 2 hours for school. The 16 year old doesn't have school today. Ahh, the complexities of having children in private school. Bank holidays, like Veterans Day, are no longer stay at home days. It has become just an other day of school. Working over nights I truthfully have no idea when a day is a holiday. I thought today (Tuesday, November 11, 2014) was just another day. I don't remember dates well any more. I didn't realize that it was 11-11. Sure, the last night I worked I may have written 11-10 on everything, but that doesn't mean I really *know* what day of the week it is, or even what the true date is. I go into work on one day and instantly begin writing the next day. If it's the 2nd, I'm writing the 3rd. Working night shift completely screws with the mind. I have a complete love/hate relationship with my chosen shift.
We get to see people at their worst. For some reason, things are worse at night. Fevers, illnesses, sun-downers, full moons. It all adds up. Sure, some of these things can happen on day shift, and they often do. In fact, that's when you hear about this stuff happening. But, what you don't hear about is how we deal with it, how we, the night shift have to deal with these things. How a fever is treated with out calling a doctor. How sun downers are redirected with out calling family members to come and sit with their loved ones.
Now, don't think I'm committing anything illegal here, there are standing orders for things like fevers and such. Yes, we do let family and doctors know, but there are things that can wait until morning. Things that yes, if I were working day shift, and people are awake, that I could totally call the doctor for, or things that I could call the family for right then and there, because they are awake. Working the night shift has taught me to use my own nursing judgement. Day shift, yes you are doing nursing stuff, and have to use your nursing abilities, but, because I have less resources at night, I have to rely on myself to find the answers.
Myself.
******Before I get all kinds of slack, I am NOT NOT NOT defacing or debacing my fellow nurses who work during the normal waking hours of normal people.******
That is scary and invigorating to me at the same time. Seriously. Me. Amber. Mother of 4. Nurse to 34. HOLY CRAP!
I have to pull on my 2 years of nursing school, 20 years of healthcare, and 19 years of motherhood to get me and my patients through the night. Most nights are completely smooth. Most nights I don't need to pull on my major experience. I do my assessments, which, yes, I learned in nursing school, so yes, technically every night I have to draw on that. It's the nights when people decide to go walking, lose their balance, and hit the floor; it's nights when people decide that they need to succumb to their illness that they really need me to be a good nurse. These are the moments I look back on and think about my abilities. Stopping blood flow from a pulled out dialysis catheter, because my demented patient didn't know what it was. Doing CPR on a patient because, well, that's what we do when they need CPR. Doing neuro checks because someone fell. All these things happen, have happened, and I'm sure will happen again. But, these are the things that I don't have resources for other than myself and my fellow night nurses.
We don't have management at night. We don't have the luxury of being able to pass on something to our unit managers, we have to take care of things ourselves. We are our own little working system, and I'm not sure at this point I would have it any other way.
"Only fools, have no fears."-Worf
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