Nights on Labor & Delivery

This past week I worked the night shift on Labor & Delivery, from 6pm to 8am. Flip-flopping my schedule like that was disorienting to say the least. While I didn't break down and start a coffee habit, I did eat a fair amount of dark chocolate to keep me alert. In fact, I noticed that eating any food throughout the night helped me stay awake.

When there were things to do, when babies were being born, staying awake was not an issue. Rather, I had difficulty with those long stretches of early-morning quiet. I tried to use the time to study, at first, but my brain wouldn't cooperate. Preparing my progress notes during those quiet hours saved some time in the morning and didn't require too much brain power. If nothing really was happening, and my resident was feeling nice, she would send me to the call room so I could take a 1-2 hour "nap" before rounding on patients at 5am.

Generally, after a night shift, I'd get home at 9am, eat a bowl of cereal, and manage to sleep 3-4 hours in the late-morning and early afternoon. Except one day last week, I had to schedule a bunch of meetings on campus, which meant that I didn't get home until 2pm and was essentially running on no sleep for 2 days straight. I felt miserable.

Looking back, it's a wonder how I functioned at all. A week of nights on Labor & Delivery is as much a medical school hazing ritual as anything. It was definitely the most physically demanding week of medical school I have experienced yet.