Night Maneuvers: Night Maneuvers

» Joy Butler - Night Maneuvers

Enjoyed reading about your night shift experience. You're right on target when you say that working night shift promotes self-sufficiency. When you're the only one to make decisions and do everything, you learn fast.

In one small town hospital where I worked I took call at night and was the only one to do everything. Once, when an ER patient (with a rare blood type) came in needing more blood than we had on hand, I had to write up the request slips, draw samples from the patient, call around for the nearest source of that type blood, drive to the bus station to pick it up, and take it back to the lab before I could crossmatch it for the patient. Dayshift, or even a larger hospital, would have had only to crossmatch it.

-- posted by Joy Butler