Shift Work

I was once told that an emergency medicine resident can always be picked out in the cafeteria. "They're the ones with the smiles on their faces," a surgery resident once mentioned to me referencing the fact that we work 8 to 12 hours shifts and never have to take call. Generally speaking, with the exception of off-service moths, he has a point. We really don't have too much to complain about.

I realize this may sound slightly hypocritical in light of my previous post complaining about how little time we have. While it may seem cushy to the other residents, they haven't taken into account the toll shift work can take on someone. Take me and a typical other non-ED resident at any given time. It is not uncommon for us to both work six straight days followed by a day off. One difference is the other resident will have had a call shift (or two) during those two days and I didn't; however, after the day off the other resident will return to work for five or six more straight days while I will be switched to nights.




I knew going in to emergency medicine I would have to work my fair share of nights and, unfortunately, holidays, but the difficulty of that schedule is something I didn't anticipate. It is extremely difficult work a string of nights and then switch to days in less than 24 hours. For the first two days (sometimes three) before my sleep schedule has normalized, I walking around totally sleep deprived practicing medicine like a zombie. During my first year of medical school I read a book called "Something for the Pain". It is written by an ED doc working in North Carolina and one of the underlying themes is the difficulty of this line of work and the strain rotating shifts can have on your life and the lives of those around you. While I read the book I kept thinking I'd be able to handle the stress a little bit better and would not be bothered by the stresses that author was having. Now seven months in to my residency I completely understand everything he was writing about.

By the end of the book the author had managed to discover a way that helped him coupe with this lifestyle. I hope I will find my way sooner rather than later.