FOREWARNING: this is a rant. I understand not all dayshifters do this. I just need to get this off my chest so I dont call back and ream the nurse who woke me up.
Dayshifters,
Please as a common courtesy do not call someone past 0800 unless it is something you absolutely cannot do your job without knowing. If Im being called after 0800 I expect to have made some gross error or to have nearly killed my patient. I only leave my cell phone on as a courtesy to day shift so that they can reach me if they really desperately have to.
Do not call me to ask about something you could have figured out yourself by looking through the chart. Do not call if you are an administrator at my midnight just to chat.
The end result of your insensitive call times is a part of my soul dying a little and most importantly, I end up being so infuriated that I was woken up for something so benign that I cant even fall back asleep.
Nightshifters always take care whenever they place a call to a doctor, administrator, or staff nurse. We dont call unless we darn well have to. We try to exhaust all other options and think autonomously before we wake someone up.
How would you feel if we called you late at night and woke you up after a hard shift?
Thank you for listening. I know most of you dont do this but lately it's been happening a lot at work and I need to get it off my chest and maybe some people will think twice before they call and wake the hibernating bear.
My husband works days, but stays up until all hours of the night playing video games so I know he'll be up until at least 2am when I'm working nights :)
I can't STAND when people think that since we don't sleep conventional hours that our sleep doesn't matter as much as theirs and we should be up all day long for whatever reason and they can call, come visit.. etc.
Do I go and bother YOU at 3 am in the morning? I've actually had people get MAD that I never answer the phone in the middle of the day! I'm asleep because I work 5 days a week at NIGHT! Sorry, but I can call you back at 3am when I'm on my break
Work does not have my home phone number, only my cell. My cell is on silent when I'm sleeping. End of story. I'm even careful not to call work from my home phone so they do not get the number off the caller ID. I once got a call at 0300 on a stretch of days I had off, when I was on a normal schedule, asking me if I could do overtime the next night. That was equally infuriating.
Work does not have my home phone number, only my cell. My cell is on silent when I'm sleeping. End of story. I'm even careful not to call work from my home phone so they do not get the number off the caller ID. I once got a call at 0300 on a stretch of days I had off, when I was on a normal schedule, asking me if I could do overtime the next night. That was equally infuriating.
Dialing *67 before the actual number you are calling will block your phone number from showing up on caller ID.
Here's another tip. Verizon, and maybe others, gives you the option to automatically block your cell phone number from showing up on caller ID with all of your calls. Then, if you want your number to show when you call your hubby, your kids, your mother, etc., so they know it's you, just program their numbers in your phone with the prefix *82, or dial it manually with any number, and it will unblock that particular number from caller ID.
Lennonninja, MSN, APRN, NP
1,004 Posts
My husband works days, but stays up until all hours of the night playing video games so I know he'll be up until at least 2am when I'm working nights :)