RE: Working OOH

Rachel Woodcock — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 05:40:42 GMT

i work nights and I love them! Wouldn't ever go back to days! See much more interesting cases and Iove the hands on nursing I get to do. it can be very stressful when it's silly busy and I find that yes I'm off during the day but spend most of the time sleeping especially after a busy shif! I work 7 on 7 off so having a week off every fortnight is great but the mon is spent catching up on sleep from the week before.

i would say definitely do some locum shifts first at a few different places as its totally different to days and with the added extra of fighting your body's natural urge to sleep it can be quite draining.

Id also advise you do the vets now ecc course as its great and so useful for ooh

hope this helps

RE: Working OOH

Jo Martin — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 19:27:08 GMT

Hi, I only work ooh and i do enjoy it much more than day practice. Before i had children i found working nights quite easy because i could get a good rest between shifts but i do struggle a lot more now as i never get much sleep after a night shift! I love the emergency work and i feel i use my nursing skills a lot more than i did in normal day practice, plus i feel like i have learned a lot. I would definitely recommend doing a few locum shifts to see how you get on with nights as it doesn't suit everyone. I do 15 hour shifts which are long but it means you don't have to do as many but i know other places do shorter shifts. I do like having having more time off in the day and when i used to do 7 nights and then have the week off that was great although 7 nights is very hard!! It can be stressful especially when it's just you and the vet with loads going on but i could never go back to working days! x