With Coronavirus now in full bloom do your shifts feel longer or are they going quicker?
I used to think that getting tired midway through a shift was not getting enough sleep. As a shift worker that rarely gets to sit down, I’d hit the 3 hour mark of my shift and feel the yawns building and leg aches starting. By the end I’d be looking for the first seat I could rest on.
So what do we all say to ourselves in these circumstances - “I really need to get some more sleep.” And what do we do to try and get that sleep? We try to go to bed earlier, then stress because we can’t get to sleep, and then get less sleep because we’re stressing about how we’re going to get more sleep. Next we try sleeping in longer and find we haven’t woken up enough before starting the next shift so we start work even more tired. And finally when all else fails we try sleeping tablets, but then suffer the tiredness and after affects all the way through our shift. We find no matter what we do for that extra energy, it isn’t working so we just put up with being tired and sore all the time.
But one day I heard these 2 words that make work life happy again - ‘Compression Socks’. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Aren’t compression socks those ugly, pain in the ass things we put on patients for recovery?” “No” is the simple answer. Yes the ones we put on patients are designed for patients. But would you believe there are funky compression socks that are designed for nurses and people on their feet all day?
When I started wearing knee high compression socks at work I went from negative 10 tired to positive 20 energy immediately! My legs don’t get sore, I no longer need to sit on the end of a patient’s bed 3 hours into a shift just to talk to them so I can rest, I’m even pain free after I get home. I sleep better. Even if I haven’t had a full 8 hours I bounce out of bed with energy. I still get tired from time to time but not the deflated tiredness I used to feel.
And because they go under my scrubs, I wear the funkiest designs!
Oh, and here’s another little fun fact - They even help prevent Varicose veins 