A SHIFT WELL DONE

I was exhausted, thirsty and tired. I had traded shifts with a colleague to free myself up for my daughter's summer birthday, and it should have been the easiest shift of the day, with a sign out on time at midnight. It was not to be.

My colleague called me, saying she was doing a double, so could she at least do the easy shift that ends on time, to make her day a little more bearable. I couldn't say no to that, so I knew it was going to be iffy how the evening went. Even so, that thought did not prepare me for the evening I had. We had 7 new patients to be seen, which never happens, and immediately 3 more. I forgot my water bottle on my dish rack, and can't bear to use plastic for one use, but getting to the fountain was a time challenge, and I only managed twice. I brought light supper and a snack, but opted to give the snack to the resident who hadn't brought supper. It was worth it! I was assigned a resident I had worked with on the weekend, and the only criticism I had had then is that she took on work too near the end, so that we left three and half hours after a night shift that was plenty long. I was grateful for her enthusiasm this time, and we both dug in until the torrent began to trickle off, and we desperately documented what we hadn't had time to, knowing that the next patients were arrriving, in threes all evening.

It didn't stop, and even the sign over was delayed by an hour with another torrent of patients, so that we were looking at another late closing. But it always feels different after signover. The pace and the responsibility slows dramatically, and then there is time for the last details finally to be completed, which give me great pleasure to finish so that I can leave with a clear conscience.

Our last clinical act was to see a patient and discharge her home at 1:30 in the morning. This is not always possible, and the patient had more than her fair share of reservations, but we responded to her questions and concerns, and planned to organize appropriate followup. I was looking to close up the shift documents with the resident but realized she hadn't returned to the doctors' station. I stood up and saw she was explaining the paperwork to the patient we just discharged at the very end of the room, and I remember feeling tired, thirsty, hungry, and that I was waiting. I must have looked a little happy too, because my colleague came up beside me, and said, "You look like someone proud of a shift well done." It was true, and I was proud of my resident's hard work, and my team, and very grateful to have survived another shift, and truly done the very best I could.