I'm a Night Owl. Who! Who!
I haven't written since being back in Utah. The first few days back, I had nothing to say. Then, I was working swing shift for a few days until they got every settled into their permanent shifts. Now I'm in my permanent home which is graveyard. I like it better than swing shift. Swing shift, you got up at about 7:00, then you did a few things around the house, went to work at 9:30 to get to work at 10:30 and then got off at 9:00 and came home and went to bed. I did nothing, it felt like. Graveyard, I may miss some sleep (because let's be honest, sleeping during the day, you are not going to get the full eight hours, and even if you do, they're not the same eight hours), but I feel like I have two days. My day at home and my day at work.
But what do you do in a graveyard? Well, let me tell you.
2100: I get to work and finish up the samples from the evening. ER usually has some stuff for us, too. PICU doesn't usually have full testing, but they will usually send some analytes that they've been monitoring throughout the day because they were abnormal. We also do things like clean the pee analyzer. Which is fun.
2345: Get ready for midnight.
0000: File all the paperwork for the day and send the samples to their sorta-final resting place in the fridge. Two weeks ago's sample then go from the fridge to their final-final resting place in the biohazard bin.
0015: Controls and calibrations
0100(ish)-0300: Pretty much nothing. We may get some ER samples and some PICU analytes, but for the most part, you look around the lab and it looks like that scene in Muppet Treasure Island where they're all hanging around the ship and cutting out people-holding-hands-paper-chains.
0330(ish): Morning run. This is okay, because this is also the time when it dawns on your body that when you said you were staying up all night, you actually meant all night. So, my first official graveyard was last night. I had been told all about morning run. Morning run is when they decide to go down the hallways of the hospital telling people to hold out their arms. Why? Because, evidently, healthcare is about the doctors' convenience and they want the lab results on the charts by 0800 when they get in. At about 0315, the senior scientist told us all to get ready for morning run. Make sure you're stocked and ready to go. I, being on the chemistry and body fluids last night, got ready, pipet in hand. The scientist assigned to hematology stood at the ready with slides. The senior (who was the float last night) stood in the middle, ready to go where needed. And then the samples started to come out of the pneumatic tube system. It makes this huge bang when it comes out. The lab assistants started to bring the samples into the computer system. And when the first sample was brought to my bench, this is what I thought:
But what do you do in a graveyard? Well, let me tell you.
2100: I get to work and finish up the samples from the evening. ER usually has some stuff for us, too. PICU doesn't usually have full testing, but they will usually send some analytes that they've been monitoring throughout the day because they were abnormal. We also do things like clean the pee analyzer. Which is fun.
2345: Get ready for midnight.
0000: File all the paperwork for the day and send the samples to their sorta-final resting place in the fridge. Two weeks ago's sample then go from the fridge to their final-final resting place in the biohazard bin.
0015: Controls and calibrations
0100(ish)-0300: Pretty much nothing. We may get some ER samples and some PICU analytes, but for the most part, you look around the lab and it looks like that scene in Muppet Treasure Island where they're all hanging around the ship and cutting out people-holding-hands-paper-chains.
0330(ish): Morning run. This is okay, because this is also the time when it dawns on your body that when you said you were staying up all night, you actually meant all night. So, my first official graveyard was last night. I had been told all about morning run. Morning run is when they decide to go down the hallways of the hospital telling people to hold out their arms. Why? Because, evidently, healthcare is about the doctors' convenience and they want the lab results on the charts by 0800 when they get in. At about 0315, the senior scientist told us all to get ready for morning run. Make sure you're stocked and ready to go. I, being on the chemistry and body fluids last night, got ready, pipet in hand. The scientist assigned to hematology stood at the ready with slides. The senior (who was the float last night) stood in the middle, ready to go where needed. And then the samples started to come out of the pneumatic tube system. It makes this huge bang when it comes out. The lab assistants started to bring the samples into the computer system. And when the first sample was brought to my bench, this is what I thought:
And that's the time for which the night shift gets paid, when it comes down to it.
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