Long hours, long weeks... Shift workers (ICU in particular) tell me your strategies!
Hi team, hoping for some advice for all the shift workers, in particular ICU with balancing lifestyle, sleep, study. I'm a PGY3 ICU SRMO, have and will be on 7days/nights on, 7 days off shifts for the whole year. I used to be extremely disciplined with self care - would make sure that I exercised every 1-2 days, ate healthy, carved time to study etc etc in PGY 1 and 2, even if it meant waking up at 4:30am for a gym session.
Now I'm not finding anything very feasible. I'm on a 8am-9pm (or 8pm-9am) shift for 7 days, which can take a toll starting Day 3/4. Shifts are pretty full on and I don't really have time to just sit down and study even for 30minutes. Most of you who do these shifts also know we generally start before rostered time, and end after rostered times. By the end of the 7 days, I'm exhausted, and find myself just rotting for the next couple of days before I actually do anything useful.
What are your schedules like? What are tips to keep yourself sane? How do you reset during your week off? Is it possible to get any work done during your week on? It is only May and I will be doing this for the rest of the year and fear I will go crazy!