Overnights are Over!

Tonight is my last night of a 2 week long rotation of overnight shifts. The first week was in the large animal hospital and the second week was in the small animal ICU. I feel like I've been living in an alternate reality though it has gotten easier as time as gone on. What may be difficult now is switching back to a regular schedule for my next rotation which starts on Monday. 

First night on Large Animal Overnights

Large animal overnights was a good introduction to the large animal hospital since I have not yet had a large animal rotation. I became more comfortable doing physical exams on horses and goats. There were plenty of patients in the hospital and myself as well as another student and a technician provided hourly treatments and checks for each patient. I was fortunate to have Jacquie, another student on this rotation with me. Usually you are flying solo on overnights but it was sure nice to have another student because we helped keep each other awake and hourly treatments went faster. Shifts started at 8 or 10pm depending on the day and ended the next morning between 8-10am depending on what was going on.

The Large Animal Hospital

There were many horses in the isolation unit while I was on. This meant that in order to go into the stall with these horses you had to first gown up and put on gloves and plastic shoe covers. You could not take in any of your own stuff like stethoscopes and thermometers to decrease the risk of spreading potentially contagious diseases to other horses. You also had to make sure you were prepared with everything that you might need otherwise you would have re-gown. After you were done you would de-gown and wash your hands. It wasn't so bad but it sure got time consuming when you had 3 animals in isolation that all needed treatments. 

My desk in between hourly checks. Studying for NAVLE

We had one afterhours emergency while I was on. A horse came in with pretty severe abdominal pain (colic). We sedated the horse to be able to do a belly tap, ultrasound, and rectal exam. I got to place a jugular catheter (my first in a horse) and after the resident was done ultrasounding she let me try and find the same things she had pointed out. The next morning I had to present the case to a bunch of students and clinicians and that was kind of nerve wracking but I think I did okay. 

Good to wear scrubs again for ICU overnights

Small animal ICU overnight in my opinion were much better. The hours were 12-8 am every day. There were more people around which made it easier to not get sleepy. All the technicians were fabulous and had entertaining stories stories to share. I didn't get as much studying done but I sure had fun.

Putting my bandage scissors to good use :)

 
Some of the technicians wanted to decorate the ICU for November and Thanksgiving and I had a blast helping cut out paper leaves and hanging them from the ceiling after people had written things that they were thankful for on the back of them. We also made a countdown chain to thanksgiving and put up a series of turkey tracks leading to turkey facts on the walls outside the ICU. Did you know turkeys can fly 55 miles/hr? I also helped make the wall clock into a turkey. I think the result was awesome and I'm so glad that I was able to help out. The first part of the week was a little slow since there was only a couple patients but it picked up by the end of the week. It was sure nice to be working with dogs and cats again.




Halloween was weird this year because it began for me at midnight. I baked some sugar cookies to share and brought them in. They turned out pretty cute. Tonight is actually daylight savings and while the rest of the world will get to sleep an extra hour I will be working an extra hour. It's going to be weird actually being awake when the clocks turn back. 
 
Well, I survived overnights! I got a lot of studying done for NAVLE and I worked a bit on my senior paper. I was able to sleep pretty good during the days and stay up without too much trouble during the nights. I am glad to return to a more normal schedule though! Next up is a 4 week rotation in small animal medicine. It's going to be busy especially because I will also be frantically studying for the NAVLE exam that I'll be taking on December 5th. It's going to come fast I'm sure! 

Hooray! I survived overnights!