Nothing makes me feel old like a night shift.
Even though I say that all the time to my residents, I think that ‘old’ probably isn’t the right word. I think that what I really mean to say is fatigued.
Fatigue (n.) fa·tigue \fə-ˈtēg\: 1) labor; 2) weariness or exhaustion from labor, exertion or stress; 3) tendency of a material to break under repeated stress
The tendency of a material to break under repeated stress. Nine A.M. after a long 12 hour overnight shift in the Emergency Department, I sit in front of my computer and stop to wonder if it’s possible for me to break under repeated stress. We hear stories of this or that ER doc who cracked under pressure and quit the field or the other ER doc who had a nervous breakdown in the ambulance bay. Eventually you start to wonder exactly how much repeated stress that might take.
Posted by Nadine T Himelfarb 