working the night shift

anyone who knows me well know that i'm certainly not a night owl. but here i am, 2 in the morning, writing a blog post. i've been working the night shift for a little over a month now. it's been quite an adjustment and i still find myself running out of steam by my last assessments around 4 or 5 in the morning.

you may be wondering about my work and how it's been going (or not). there are good days and bad days. some days i feel like i'm finally getting it: i'm on top of my assessments, my babies are being fed on time, and the night is going smoothly. and then there are the days where everything goes wrong: my meds are late, my babies are all crying, i'm scrambling to catch up on my charting, and my change of shift report is sorely lacking. for now, the bad days are outnumbering the good ones. i'm still feeling the growing pains of being a new nurse and it's been a rough couple of weeks.

however, the nurses on my unit have been wonderful and supportive, helping me out when i'm falling behind, reassuring me, and reminding me to not be so hard on myself. nik has also been wonderful and he usually gets the brunt of my work-related rants as i'm driving to or from work. nik always helps me put my work into perspective, and reminds me that it's only an aspect of my life. on the whole, my life is going great: family, friends, nik.. everything is going so well. also, even though i stress myself out, it's a good job.. after all, who else gets to feed and play with babies while they're working? i'm very lucky, but i think i have a tendency to take it for granted sometimes.

i hope that the work situation gets easier with time. i still feel that there's so much that i need to learn: about neonates, about treatments and therapies, about time management.. i have a long way to go. but i'm going to keep pressing forward and doing my best, and hopefully that'll be good enough.