PA Life: Night Shift

Working night shift can seem daunting, but it has its advantages. Many PAs working shift work, especially newer graduates, end up working their share of nights. I've spent 6 years on nights, half as a PCT while getting my prereqs and half as a practicing PA Hospitalist. In that time, I've come to appreciate working nights. Below are some highlight and pits falls of working night shift.

Pro:

1) More Medicine, less bureaucracy - During a night shift, ancillary services like social work, case management, physical therapy, and to a degree administration are typically less available if at all. Trying to learn and navigate the complicated bureaucracy of medicine is less of an issue over night, allowing you the chance to focus more on evaluating, diagnosing, and treating the patient.

2) Flexibility - Shift work allows for some flexible schedules, and night shift can have even more. Often time, night shift is either required to work less shifts, get more compensation, or both. The trade off of working some weekends and holidays can give you long stretches of time off without using PTO.

3) Camaraderie - There's an inherent closeness amongst the teams at night, a sense of being "in the trenches" that develops. With some exceptions, you will find the common thread of working with less resources, less backup, at odd hours, helps unite the everyone.

4) Urgent and Emergent issues - You'll see plenty of this during the day as well, but over night you'll likely run into more if it. Decisions that need to be made quickly, interventions that need to be started, all with less support structure that day shift. If you're an adrenaline junky, night shift might be for you.

Con:

1) Sleep - The sacrifice you make from your sleep schedule will take a toll. There are studies showing the health effects you could suffer from working night shift. But even if you avoid these, your sleep will not be the same.

2) Social - While you might have time off work, most of your friends and family do not. Few of them will be off work when you do. Trying to schedule around nights, holidays, and weekends can be challenging.

3) Intangible - While you will be more connected to your nightshift team, you will often seem disconnected to the larger workings of your facility. You will miss meetings, you will struggle to make training sessions, you will be apart from much of the decisions made about your practice.


I don't want to end on such a negative note, because Night shift can be a wonderful fit for many PAs. On an upcoming post, I'll go over some of the ways to address these short comings and make the most of these benefits.

Do you work night shift? Any tips, thoughts, or hard learned lessons? Let us know in the comments!