Today was my first day doing a day shift. They were short during the day and over on nights so the manager asked if I wanted to do the day shift. I wanted to see what it was like so I agreed. Here are some differences:
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Insulin 3 times for those with diabetes – the timing for sugars is crucial during the day. You do the fingerstick around when they order meals and you give insulin humalog after the plate is in front of them. It’s not too hard when only one patient has DM but not as easy when you have more. I mostly crossed my fingers that their sugars are below 169 (typically).
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Admission/Discharge/Procedures — today my day wasn’t too bad because I didn’t have any of these happening except one cardiac procedure. But when there are many of these, I can imagine that the day is much more hectic.
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More resources more readily — more doctors, PAs, PT, RTs, more help from PCAs… It makes life much easier to get things done. You still have to think– tell the doctor or the PA? But at night, you nearly always consult the PA first. Doctors make more orders during the day so you have a better idea of what’s going on with the patient.
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Not worried about sleep — you don’t have to think about waking someone up. You can just proceed with whatever you have to do because they are supposed to be awake.