I have worked in public safety for 17 years. When I started my journey, all our shifts started at 08:00 am. You may have been stationed close to your house or perhaps on the other side of the county but you were expected to be there at 07:30 regardless your travel time. From October to December of 2008 I spent several weeks working a 9-5 schedule while attending the inaugural Advanced Practice Paramedic academy for Wake County EMS.
January 2009 I started on an eight year journey as an APP. My shift still started at 08:00 am. In July of 2010 I moved to a different station and spent the next 6.5 years starting my 12 hour shifts at 10:00 am. It was perfect! I could drop my children off at school for 09:00 and head straight to work. I didn’t have to drop them off early. I didn’t have to get up before the sunrise. I loved the hours!
After being promoted to District Chief, I switched to night shift. Oh, night shift, how I love you! I was in my element! Over the next 14 months I spent most of those on night shift with a short stint on days. My coworker asked if we could do a swap where I would work one 24 hour shift a week and every other Friday, Saturday, Sunday on days. He would work one 24 hour shift and spent his weekends on nights. Most weekends I would pick up an extra shift so there would be one 12 and one 36 hour shift. Time flew by. After a few months I went back to night shift.
January rolled around and it was time to go back to days. To say I have a hard time functioning in the morning would be an understatement. It takes me several hours to be able to get my brain to wake up and tell the rest of my body what it is supposed to be doing. I laugh at myself every morning. What makes day shift so hard now is that our shifts start at 07:00 am. Never in my life have I had to actually get up for work with the rest of the world. There are cars, people, and school buses. There is a giant ball of fire in the sky that my skin does not like. Honestly, I don’t think the burning hydrogen and helium that creates light likes me either.
Thank goodness we switch every so often. I only have two more shifts of waking up early. Although I really like the people I work with, I thrive at night. I sleep better when I can come home and walk my daughter to the bus stop and go to bed. There is no one in the house but me and the puppies. No children playing with friends or fighting. No laundry or dishes being washed. I go to bed around 09:00 and don’t get up until the kids get home from school. I get nearly seven hours of sleep. I have tried to sleep while working day shift. I just can’t get into bed early until the days I am so physically exhausted I can’t help it. Sometimes it will be on the couch; other times I sit on the bed to plug my phone in and wake up several hours later realising I am not in my pyjamas.
Even the emergency calls are different at night. Just like days, some nights are busier than others. Some nights are spent taking care of problems that arise with crew members or their equipment. Some nights are filled with medical emergencies. Some nights are filled with traumatic injuries or fires. Some nights are filled with the strange entertainment that can only be found in public safety.
Whether working days or nights, the people we encounter and the lives we change are the real motivators. Sharing a reassuring smile to someone in need can change the way the current emergency is perceived. Making someone as comfortable as possible in a less than ideal situation is what it is all about.
Oily Minded Medic 