Finally got through my 5th night shift this morning. I had my alarm set at 16:00/4 PM, but put it out and slept until 19:00/7 PM. Now I feel well rested for the first time this week. The problem isn’t the changed rhythm, as I am a “night owl”. It’s the workload:

Nights aren’t a walk in the park in my current work environment: in the nursing home where I was working before, every station had their own night shift, as in 1 per station. There was always one examined/certified nurse (I guess the english term would be RN or nursing specialist?) and two assistant nurses, i.e. people who don’t have any previous qualifications or just one year of training. The RN did all the complex medical stuff: like administering injections, counting all the medication that falls under the “Betäubungsmittelgesetz” (= narcotics/drugs with high potency and addiction potential) and giving out meds that the old folks required at night for all stations, plus everything else that was required to do on their station (looking after the residents, changing the positioning of those who can’t move anymore, etc.)
In my “new” nursing home, we are two people in the night shift for over 90 residents. One’s a RN, the other either an assistant nurse or, like the last few nights, a trainee/re-trainee like me.

This was quite hard work, since we have a handful of residents with dementia who are awake at night. Coupled with the fact that the “ordinary” residents often need help to get to the toilet or a painkiller to sleep and that a few dementia patients have “bed edge sensors” who send an alarm to our phones when they leave their bed, I’m sure you can imagine how stressful that can get. If some people think that night shifts at a nursing home must be easy since all the old folks are asleep, let me assure you it’s quite the contrary. We also have 2 residents who are picked up very early for dialysis on MON/WED/FRI, so what does the night shift do? We start with basic care, i.e. washing them and helping them to get dressed. At 4:15 to 4:30 in the morning. 😮‍💨

Needless to say, I am very grateful for my rest day and a free weekend ahead of me. I plan to go shopping on Saturday after a nice brunch with my parents so I can get a few missing items for my apartment - with the new night shifts, I realised that I need blackout blinds, better curtains and some sleep aids. I’ll also look for little sample containers so I can send out the BVWSC samples for March. Have a nice weekend, folks!