Greetings! Tomorrow, will finish up my 2-week block of night float. Overall, it has been a great learning experience and I worked with a great team of residents. For any medical students or residents preparing for night float I wanted to provide a couple of tips which worked well for me, I hope you find them useful!
1. Electric Blanket: I put this as my first tip because this totally has been a life saver! It gets super chilly in the hospital, especially at night. After waking up at 3am to follow up on important labs, tend to a code blue, or do a PM check, it was SO comforting returning back to a warm and cozy bed! I would highly recommend purchasing one! I brought mine from Bed, Bath, and Beyond (Brookstone); so far it has worked well, I have no complaints!
2. Water: this block forced me to give up daily coffee! Although, coffee will keep you awake temporarily, it really threw my circadian schedule off, especially when trying to sleep during the day. I found water to be more refreshing during the night, I felt more hydrated, and surprisingly I felt like my mental sharpness was somewhat better.
3. Healthy snacks: the cafeteria at the hospital I worked at closed pretty early. By 7pm options were pretty limited, and the snack machine was out of the question! Each day before heading out the door, I over-packed my lunch box with healthy snacks (pretzels, guacamole packs, clementine oranges, grapes, banana, pistachios, peanuts, apples, and Cliff bars). I still enjoyed the snacks placed in the call-room (and fro-yo from the day team!), however I limited eating them every night and felt so much better in the morning!
4. Slip on shoes: this is something I need to purchase. Sometimes, we get up multiple times during the night. I suspect it is more convenient to quickly slip into slip-on-shoes versus taking on and off your shoes or trying to nap with your shoes on. Sometimes you have literally no time, once a code blue or RRT is called, you quickly have to get to the patients room.
5. Breakfast in bed: after working 12 hours during the night, the first thing you want to do is take a shower and hop into bed! However, I felt that eating breakfast helped keep me on a good schedule and allowed me to still maintain a well-balanced diet. After morning devotion, I would eat a quick breakfast in bed, then sleep pretty much all day.
6. Exercise: Thankfully, I worked with an intern who kept me motivated to visit the gym each morning. My gym routine definitely took a hit this year, I did not go nearly as much as I have in prior years however I'm slowly getting back on track. I don't know about you, but I feel SO much better when I'm able to workout regularly. During night float especially, I feel that exercise gave me that extra boost I needed.
