New unit secretaries want to know what working the night shift is like. It's different from working the day shift. Night shift has its own flow and style, and I'll tell you what you might experience if you choose to work this shift.
- The staff has a different vibe. They are wide-eyed, smelling good, and ready to work.
- The unit secretary may be required to run down to the cafeteria and get food from the grill for the patients who arrive on the unit from the emergency room (at the change of shift) when dietary is closed.
- The unit is usually much quieter once visiting hours are over. You will deal with patients, friends, families, and doctors, but not on the level of what the day shift deals with.
- When the computers go down, you will not panic because you will know how to keep the unit running. Most computer systems are updated in the middle of the night, so you will be much more familiar with sending lab requests and ordering tests from radiology using the downtime form better than the secretaries who work the day shift.
- Some night shift secretaries do not call in consults, which I will never understand. They will wait until the days shift secretary comes in and have them do it. Or they will call in all of the consults closer to the change of shift.
Do you work the night shift as a unit secretary? What have I left out? Put the answer in the comment section.
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