I’ve worked the night shift for the past two years. At first I didn’t think it was that bad until we had a possible stroke patient and I asked “what day is it?” Neither the pt or myself knew the answer 😂
Well to be fair what day it is is rude enough to change at some strange point part way through your time awake. So you may start your 'day' on a Tuesday and by midday meal it can be Wednesday, so it's hard to keep track. Day time people can't relate because it's one day when they go to sleep (usually) and a different one when they wake up, providing a point of reference those of us who are nocturnal just don't have.
@@ScribblerILM Oh yeah, but you know when you've hit a bad point when you ask the question "Um, what month is it?" and no one can answer it right away, and when they do, the first answer is "Uhhh, it's May??? isn't it?? Yeah, I think it's May."
As an ER physician scribe that just got off a 12 hour night shift I completely agree with everything in this video. The redbull, the sleep, the admin, and the cursing🥹
As a natural born night owl who finally gave in to what my body wanted and switched over to a nightshift job at an assisted living facility: the cursing and freedom is accurate. Completely, 100%, ACCURATE. I got around people calling me at 2 in the evening by calling them at 2 in the morning. Works wonders for helping people to 'get' it. Edit: So happy to see all the responses and conversation! Yea, I do silence my phone now and only have emergency calls come through. Now, if only we could make the managers come in for a mandatory staff meeting at 2 in the morning, and absolutely demand that they 'look like they want to be there' and 'pay attention, stop yawning and take your job seriously'. 😑
Yep. I worked a job that finished at 10pm, and people would call me at 9am because "You've slept for long enough". Like no, I don't get up till 11 because I don't go to bed until 3. I had to threaten to take my parents off my do not disturb breakthrough list, they "called my bluff" that wasn't a bluff, and got taken off of it. They did have the audacity to yell at me for "waking them up" when I called them at 10pm. Like you weren't sleeping, I know you. After a few weeks of me never answering the phone, and getting a full night's sleep, they learned, well until they called me at 8am with a "really urgent question" that was if I could come visit in a few months. I hung up, took them off again, and they haven't done it since I put them back on. When will they learn that I'm not bluffing?
Healthcare IT perspective - night shift ER folks were always the most difficult people to diagnose issues for, since they'd need to escalate to the desktop on-call to ever actually talk to us. Usually it came down to messages shot back and forth, once a day. While waiting for fixes to their issues, I swear they came up with the most ingenious and diabolical workarounds I ever encountered - stealing WOWs from units that only operated in the daylight and returning them before it was noticed (see 150 message long email thread "Why is rehab doing so many blood test labels"), account credential sharing... I once found a 100 foot network cable run up through the drop ceiling of one room into another to sidestep a broken wall port. To this day I have no idea where they got the cable. They are the most elusive, unhinged, determined, and high strung people in the hospital, and I have no qualms in saying I'd trust any one of them with my life. Also one time they called in asking if we knew how to fix their coffee machine.
It was fun while it lasted. Called in a ticket about IV pumps once and according to the my friend who works in IT, this was how they found out that the servers in the Orlando were down. The one time I had the time to place a ticket for a pump issue instead of doing a workaround😅
This is spot on for how night shifters do everything! Night shift absolutely WILL get it done. Origin of the phrase "by any means necessary" Also, I would definitely have escalated a ticket for the coffee machine! No coffee is a catastrophic disaster! 😂
@@floridaishell5681 This is more common than you think! And you'd be shocked how often someone assumes "oh, it's just my _ that's broken", and it takes an extra hour for anyone to report that anything is wrong! As my mother would've said, "it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease!"
Can confirm, used to work third shift at a furniture factory and have been an overnight manager in a couple other places. Literally everything in this video (aside from the actual medicine) applies to any overnight job anywhere. No office people, you can get the job done the way it needs to be done, and language filters just don't exist.
Can confirm as well. I worked nights at that big retailer with a spark and a smile. It was exactly as described. We did what we wanted. I would buff the floors with my vest off and a cowboy hat on. We cursed, and ate/drank on the floor. We collectively consumed enough caffeine to take out a herd of elephants. People came in so high they couldn't walk straight. The night shift is true freedom. I didn't have those sleep issues tho. I would sleep from 9am to 4pm every day. In fact when i have a day shift job my sleep is crazy because i'm sleepy during the day and restless at night. But i've always been nocturnal so i might be the rare person that can do that.
As a current night shift worker, this is how things should be. Nothing irritates me more then a day shifter coming to nightshift and trying to "fix" thing. Night shift is the way things need to be done without the upper management getting in the way of production.
I’m a 4th year (out of 6) med student and I volunteer in my teaching hospital’s ED after lectures when it’s on duty and that “hi-“ “yeah yeah just start doing stuff” really hit the nail on the head, not even 5 full seconds into the video
@@ConstantlyDamaged Bold of you to assume there's actually time to cycle that early into the career. The only thing going full pelt here is his pulse due to the excess Red Bull.
I envy you. I had a student job in an ICU since 4th year (also out of 6, Germany) after it turned out I was less incompetent at intensive care medicine than the residents present. My consultant was cool with me doing stuff, his motto was "If you can do it, you can do it." When the head of medicine found out I was putting in central lines wItHoUt A pHySiCiAn In ImMeDiAtE AtTeNdAnCe, I was almost shot for treason. Even though I regularly had to help out the residents when they fucked up. I wish I had found such a place that doesn't care.
Worked as a bedside RN for 41 years, full time nightshift. Absolutely true about the lack of any kind of hospital administration breathing down your back. Never saw them, couldn't identify them in a line-up. The night shift camaraderie and flying under the administrative radar were the best. And it's so true -- you knew the shift was ending only when you saw the sun beginning to dawn.
I've never done a night shift, but I know if I did do them the dawn wouldn't help here. Dawn changes dramatically with the time of year. It can be light at 5 in the morning or dark till after 7 easily. The change is mostly gradual (obviously, clock changing is the exception) but saying dawn is the end would not work in Summer and you may leave before full light in Winter, depending on shift times
Working night shift to avoid administration is the most accurate statement I have ever heard. I worked dayshift once and there were way too many “managers” and “supervisors” for me. Plus most night shift in general is just trying to survive the night and keep the hospital alive so we get saved from doing a lot of administrative task our dayshift and even our evening shift colleagues have to do. Might be shortening my life but I’ll take 7on/7off night shift of any other shift.
Legend says that the great physicist Ibn Al-Haytham, who made key contributions to our understanding of light (kinda important to ophthalmology) faked mental illness to get away from administration. He worked in Egypt 1000 years ago.
Hated one ER that expected us to complete "cupboard washing out and sorting" during our 12 hr nights. Ohhh sure I'll squeeze it in between CPR compressions and running to the night drug cabinet since pharmacy I that place closed at night!
Just out of the hospital being in CCU I asked the Night Nurse why she chose to work nights and she said exactly what they said Administration is not on the floor
Haha perfect! Recovering ER doc here - worked in a very rural ER - loved nights. It was just me, an RN, an LPN, and the elderly maintenance guy who did triple duty as security and one on one monitor for the psych patients. Best of all, no suits
@@Missmethinksalot1 like most ER docs, I’ve left ER. I have a private office where I work 3 afternoons a week and take cash. NO insurance. People love it and are happy to pay cash to tell their problems to a doctor who will listen to them for a whole hour
When I was a kid my med tech mom worked the 11 to 7 shift at night and then slept while we were at school. Much later in life she said it was the only thing that kept her from strangling the guy who was in charge of the lab. She got called in whenever they had a baby who needed blood because she was the most universal donor in the city, too, day or night, and one time I went with her and learned three new words from the night nurses! 😂
It always cracked me up when people apologized for cussing when I had probably just said the same words multiple times at the nurses station before going in the room.
My sister worked trauma unit for a hospital in a major US city. Her schedule was Friday night to Monday morning, two doubles and a single, for the entirety of her daughter’s primary and secondary education. She brought home the best stories to tell us over our cheerios. My niece and I went to school with all the best gross-out stories. Mary would have gotten along well with your night shift crew.
@prestinryan5373 RN in canada. if working in ER as a nurse, then yes, it is quite unlikely to get an 8-hour shift unless you're the CRN. Most of the physicians in ER only work 8-hour shifts. I have never really seen one work a 12hr shift. But on the floor. 8hr shifts are quite common for nurses and a mixed bag for physicians.
Sounds so fun! Plus the background deadening silence.... I wonder how he got it in these videos too... did he generate it somehow or he actually recorded in the wee hours of the night? Hmm....
@@ames-inthe-grass it's not just about using the mic. There's a certain quality to silence in the middle of the nights. I think you can even describe it as the "sound of silence". You don't necessarily hear it at other times even though it is quiet. But I think it is picked up by some quality microphones...
@@souldancersbyjennifer i know what you mean, but it’s still probably just how he silenced the white noise that sounds really close to it. that and a really good mic
This is incredibly accurate. Everyone I work with in the ED swears like a sailor and it is glorious. Nightshift in particular is the most guilty of it.
I am the evening shift housekeeper up in the operating room unit. The RNs and other jobs with letters. 😝 They swear like sailors too. It is a fun environment.
Certified night owl and did 17 years of full time nights-mostly rural ED and M/S. LOVED IT! This is spot on! Only stopped little over a year ago cuz it started tanking my physical and mental health. Still occasionally work til midnight and take call at night, and doing flight nursing-sometimes fly all night. Night shifters are the best people-everywhere! Special breed of medical professionals!❤ And I still don’t know what day it is…
I agree with everyone, night shifts are so convenient in my opinion, but it just takes too much of a toll on your physical and mental health the older you get. Even if you are a night owl, it will eventually become detrimental to your health once you're older (though there are those lucky few), especially if you already have chronic health problems. Best way to fight it is a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise and taking vitamin D supplements (if your blood work shows you're low).
And this is why as EMS i love bringing pt's in in the middle of night... its always so entertaining lol. Not to mention i swear the best staff is always on nights at the ER
The bit about no admin being present is SOOOO true. If I've learned anything from working night shift, it's that I would literally rather die than deal with unnecessary bureaucracy.
my shipboard medical teacher is a Emergency Medicine Attending, she works nights, she works on ships, she flies to other cities to work nights at other ERs when it's too boring here. she said "I know I'm checking out early, every 5 years you work nights, a sixth year gets taken off your bill" badass woman.
Ten of my 21yrs as a medic were on 7P-7A and I loved it. It felt like a different job when I went to days. The number of patients was higher on days, but the acuity was higher on nights.
I've worked the night shift too! After a while we began to think we were vampires because we never got out in the sun! You go to work in darkness and when you leave, the blackness is still there. You automatically turn on your headlights when you get in your car, it's become your routine. People on day shifts don't understand why we don't sleep when we get home. On day shift you spend several hours with normal activities after work, dinner, TV time, getting the kids to bed and much more. So if you go from day shift to a night shift, you still spend hours doing things before you go to bed. Since there are few stores open when you leave work, you're left with convenience stores for buying food and your diet suffers even more. I was lucky when I worked the night shift because regular stores were open 24 hours! I often shopped after midnight which I love because no one else is in the store! It's really bad when you call a friend at 2:00 AM and wake them from their sleep. Just because you're up in the middle of the night, you expect them to be up too. After a while you have no friends left unless they're on the night shift too. I really loved working the night shift, there's a comradery with coworkers that can't be beat! You're friends for life but you don't recognize them in the daylight since you've never seen them without darkness surrounding them!😘
I worked nightshift in a small rural hospital for almost 40yrs and I can attest to the no time comment! Some nights go by fast and some super slow. I like the freedom from all the ancillary departments and visitors and administration. Plus no rounding doctors only the Hospitalist occasionally. The only drawback was that there was no one to ask advice from esp in my early years before the internet became a world of information. The staff was way laid back and I was the authority figure as the House Supervisor. I also was the dietitian, maintenance, pharmacist, PR, and main gopher! When I got home after a 12hr shift I'd say that I couldn't make another decision. I'm now retired and loving that I'm only responsible for me, myself, and I! No more decisions and I can eat healthy now! And time is now relative! Einstein was right, there is relativity in time and time well spent!
Worked overnight as a social worker for the crisis team! The lack of administration was the most freeing experience of my life! I miss it so much! I now work normalish day time hours and am the unit director and dear lord - hospital politics is more annoying than any patient - to the point a double saturday is refreshing!
I just got home from a night drinking with my ER buddies sharing stories and unloading and decompressing. This video could not hit closer to home. Here to all the crazy lovely creatures of the night who make the night shifts bearable. Let us practice medicine freely as it was meant to be! Here’s to liberal use of point of care ultrasound! 🥃
Prior to PA school I worked nights as an ED scribe at a level 1 trauma center and I LOVED it. It wasn’t until my EM rotation that I realized how much I loved and missed ED night shifts. There’s something endearing about a night shift shit show, it’s 100% a shit show but it was OUR shit show. Much love to my fellow night shifters everywhere ❤️
I'm an overnight hospital courier, mainly handling lab specimens but also do the occasional delivery to the smaller rural hospital ED's from the main hospital pharmacy. Night shift staffers are the absolute coolest smartest people around. When they get a bit snarky with me, if I can give it (a *slightly* gentler version anyway) right back, they consider it a sign of respect.
I'm a social worker and worked evening/nights for years and this is 1000% accurate. I switched to education and I work in a therapeutic/behavior disorder program and it's a similar dynamic- admin won't touch us and we're basically completely on our own working under conditions that would leave most educators running. Wouldn't change a thing.
Thank God for people like you working these incredibly hard jobs. I've never been able to work but I used to love being up all night & sleeping most of the day. Drove my mom nuts if I was still awake when she got up. I treasure the memory of late night movie watching while waiting for her meds to kick in so she could sleep though. Then my cousin's kid got me on a sleep schedule. I'm f'ed if I stay up the entire night now. Causes my fibromyalgia pain to go through the roof. But there is a plus now. I often get to fall asleep with a warm teddy bear kitty in my arms. I also get to nap with him. But that's because he blocks my tablet so there's no choice but to have a cat nap.
From my experience as an ER social worker, much of this feels accurate, and some of the things seem dependent on the provider. Some of the providers I work with feel more like they believe their job is to be a goalie for the hospital and admission is the goal they are trying to protect.
I worked night shift for 9 years when I was a respiratory therapist, and this is spot on. The charge nurse, especially. I actually enjoyed covering the ED. The coffee was always fresh, and the humor was always dark and inappropriate.
Days or nights are fine, it’s the rotating shifts that get me. Working Sat/Sun nights and Tues day was about the death of me. It’s weird when you’re so tired you can feel your blood…
"Just start doing stuff" is so true. I work night shifts in an animal hospital and most of the night I'm on my own there. So when I had an internship somewhere else I had to relearn that sometimes you can just ask for help and don't need to figure everything out by yourself😅
You almost had me, until you said "we can admit the patients that need to be admitted." Very funny. Our patients have been boarding in the ED since November 2019.
My first hospital job included a 16 hr weekend shift as an X-ray tech. I always got placed in the ED. I found out it was because I still had energy and a soul that could function off minimal sleep 🥴 Well that and I freaking loved helping out when a trauma came in. The ED crew was amazing and I learned so many extra skill sets dues to being constantly short-staffed.
As an RN that has worked nights for most of my 36 year career.... Yep!! Totally agree!!! And I wouldn't work any other shift. Night turn workers are a breed all their own and the vast majority are awesome folks!!!
Not a doctor but when I was young, I worked in restaurants. Working graveyard shift was especially discombobulating. All the things he said are true for night shift workers everywhere. Being a single parent made it even crazier. So, now I’m a teacher. Lots of stress but at least my circadian rhythm has the opportunity to do its job.
I work in the schools, and I feel like my sleep rhythm is floofed. I have to be in bed by 8pm to be up by 5:30am. I'm an evening person, so I feel like my body is running on fumes.
F-Bomb to the 5th power! SO true! Worked 5 years as night pharmacist before going to med school. NO administrators EVER. BEST pot lucks, though! And I have great stories, as you do.
Trauma Surgery! I'd trust the "do it the way it was meant to be done" crew over any other admin-limited departments any day of the week, even on Boundsdays!
Watching this while doing a night shift at the ER, salute to all my colleagues keeping our health care systems running through the late nights and early mornings!
I remember night shifts in North Central Bronx ER. There were no attendings in sight and as residents we could do pretty much what we wanted! Residents were in charge of admissions as well. We called it "Midnight Clinic". Yes it was pure medicine and no admin!
As a cop on night shift, I feel the sleep habits. "You'll adapt" they told me. There is no adapting. There is merely surviving. And yes, the only chance I get to sleep is the only time I'm wide awake. 3-4 hours of sleep a day is average. Not from a lack of trying.
I’m 100% the opposite. I could work days for 20 years and never adapt. I worked days for a year and STILL couldn’t go to bed - ever- before 1230am. My natural fall asleep time is 530 am. Day people. Blech!
I mean... if you time biochemical triggers right, it's doable. Get a sun lamp, black out shades, sleep mask, custom ear plugs, stock up on vitamin D and take it religiously. If you just pop into bed when the sun is searing the world and don't practice meticulous sleep hygene- yeah. Anyone for whom nights aren't natural will suffer. Lots of blue light at work if possible. As for food? Intermitted fasting + keto, lots of fat. Full for a long time, can wait hours between meals. There isn't much about the day night cycle you can't somehow fudge or replicate with technology.
@@pointstill3755 Same here. I tried working at a clinic with regular office hours and couldn't get use to it. I was miserable! I've been on nights for 10 years now and love it. Some people are just night owls. 🤷🏻♀️
Painfully accurate, especially the end. I loved working ED nights (and Peds HM nights) because it was just residents, a few very focused attendings, and a very relaxed atmosphere around anything that *wasn't* related to pt care.
I worked in the lab of a pediatric hospital, and let me tell you, everything hits different when at 2:00am you have to do a bunch of emergency tests and blood transfusions for kids that were somehow involved in a car accident on a tuesday.
As a nightshift worker, I felt every single one of these points hit home in uncomfortable ways, so thanks for that. My favorite part about trying to sleep during the day is the second I get some sunlight in my eyeballs my whole body goes, "OH? IS IT TIME TO BE AWAKE? YOU WANT TO BE AWAKE NOW RIGHT?" So winter is the only real restful sleep time for me.
As a career-long nightshifter, I promise you there's and easy fix: wear sunglasses home every morning and search for "blackout curtain LINERS." Not blackout curtains, because many curtain manufacturers (including Ikea) will oversell the light-blocking capacity of their product, but blackout LINERS. Liners will allow literally 0% light to pass through the fabric. Hang them at the ceiling, not above the window, and your bedroom will be way darker on a sunny day than your neighbor's is on a cloudy night.
I used to be a nurse and night shifts were by far the best shifts! No management, no visitors, most my patients were asleep and I didn’t need to talk much. Most of the nights are not busy as well.
As a surgical tech at a level 1 who does night shift, the trauma surgeons are either as depicted in the video or exactly like the video just a little more chill 😂
When I was in medic school I was doing a night shift ER rotation, it was super busy and this drunk lady came in with a 6" head lac. The doctor told me to shave her hair on either side of the lac then come find him. He grabbed the staple gun, put in a couple staples and handed it to me saying "you want to finish up?" before walking off. Love it.
Ironically the best shift I ever worked in my life was when I was a nurses aid that tended to work 2-10pm and sometimes 2pm-6am shifts. I would work my shift(s) and then go home and sleep around 4-6am and wake up around noon-1pm and be at work the next day by 2pm. Best I ever felt in my life, except for the few days they had me come in at 6am...I hated those days. Some of us are just hardwired for nights lol.
This is why in a different industry I used to choose a schedule that started hours before the sun came up. Any management who would normally be watching for things to hold over our heads was still asleep for the majority of our shifts. It was peaceful, plus the sunrises were a nice thing to always see, and never while we were driving.
Worked NOCs for years as an RN until my immune system overpowered me and my kidneys. This is 1000% accurate. Thankfully the computer and computerized charting meant that it kept track of what day it was, otherwise the answer was just "Yes." And to this day I still swear more than my former-sailor husband.
As an EVS worker in hospitals. I worked nights for most of my working life. I miss the hell out of the night shift. I work in the evening now. Only because my position changed. I loved the night shift. Way less people and people in charge running around. And you are your own boss. Yes my life is shorter because of it. 😝. I would go back to nights in a second if asked. Thank you for the laughs this thanksgiving day. Happy Thanksgiving to yall family and friends.
I’m not a medical doctor, but as a former academic scientist, the explanation as to why the Night Shift doctors love sich a terrible job is very similar to why so many scientists love academia despite the absolutely awful pay, hours and conditions.
As a fellow night shifter, I can confirm that one of the best parts of working the night shift is lack of supervision. As long as you get the job done, little else matters.
As a psych resident I’d love for there to be an inpatient psych character, very similar to the one already shown but much more grizzled, has shady connections/knows how to defend himself, unfazed by anything, and can look at you for a second, then know just how to cut you down so he can work on building you back up.
This has me burst it laughing several times 😂 I'm an RT and just had a crazy night, coming in for a 16 hours shift and two twelves in a row this week end. NIGHT SHIFT! NIGHT SHIFT! NIGHT SHIFT!
"Its called practicing medicine because of nightshift. Because most of what happens after the sun comes up stops being practical and starts being politics. Medicine rarely even makes it into the conversation."
I remember when I was friends with a night shift nurse, I was amazed how she wasn't 100% nocturnal. I don't know how you people handle that messed up sleep cycle, but keep up the good work!
Former night shifter! It's all true! I met a lot of people who did night work like me at the time, and sleep was a common obsession. We'd talk about it like junkies talk about highs: Did you sleep last night? Was it good? What else did youv take to make you sleep? 😂
I used to work graveyard shift in the laboratory at a large, busy hospital and I loved it. There is a sense of camaraderie that happens on that shift that doesn't happen with the others. However, it did mess up my sleep cycles.
