People will still be ill and accidents will happen, but this is my job and I will do it to the best of my ability
• Everyone in the NHS dreads working at Christmas – but it fills me with pride
It’s New Year’s Eve at 2am. A&E is very busy with lots of drunk people. I’ve worked as a nurse in A&E for 12 years, and I’ve worked 10 New Year’s Eve night shifts. Why? It’s a trade-off; I volunteer for these night shifts and in return I get (most of) Christmas off to be with my family.
My shift starts at 8pm but by then I will have checked the staffing levels and allocated my team of nurses to the areas they are to work in. The shift starts with handover from the day team, the senior doctor and nurse tell me about any issues they have had and then then will hand over each and every patient in the department. I know already that the department will be full; hopefully, there will be one or two beds available to take the first couple of patients. As the senior nurse in the department, it is my role to keep the flow of patients moving – to ensure patients are treated and admitted or discharged as soon as safe so that beds will be available for the next patient coming in.
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