Night Shifts as a HCA..

..honestly aren't tooo bad.

Yes, the patient number does increase, with the original 45 patients on the ward between 3 HCAs on long day shifts to now between just the 2 of us; but taking into consideration that most of the patients are asleep during the night, its not really too bad.

- On a negative side it means theres suddenly a big increase in the amount of obs. needed to be done, blood sugars to be checked, and catheters and nephrostomy bags to emptied; and not forgetting how it messes up sleep patterns, with 7.45pm starts and 8.15am finishes (same hours as long day shifts, but with the am and pm swapped around).

- BUT on the positive side of things, theres extra pay (quite important for an ex-student with debts!), and more "time dedicated to you" - meaning i have nothing to do.... (this to some extent is a double edged sword.. the rest now and then can be quite nice... but occasionally can make the day/night pass by very slowly, and the end of the shift feeling miles away) .... well it also means i have the spare time to sit, and to type this blog entry summing up my last 3 nights as im currently stuck alone in one of the nurses stations.

Ahhhhhh still another 6 hours to go - tonight has definately been the slowest night of the 3!