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!
It is quite rough. The problem is that quite a few new residents are people with dementia who aren't on proper meds, as they either lived alone or with little to no support from their family. So no regular appointments at a doctor's office and barely any prescriptions. The ugly truth with dementia is that those who are affected by it often need sedatives/tranquilizers for the night as a sleep aid, since their condition causes them to have an altered day-night-rhythm (similar to how we night shift nurses train our bodies to adapt, but in their case it's happening unwillingly). Otherwise, they can't sleep for the whole night with all the side effects: they are more prone to falls, they react cranky to downright aggressive and so on. Some of them in the early stages of dementia also realize that something's wrong, they are sad that they can't sleep and ask what the hell is happening with them. I always try to speak slow, calm and with a deep voice to them since this seems to calm them down a bit and they are less likely to feel bad about themselves when I explain that it's not their fault.