Time Is Just A Social Construct, Or Something, Part 5

Brain Fart, Coworkers, Funny Stories, Hospital, New Zealand, Nurses, Time | Healthy | January 1, 2025

I’m a nurse on a hospital ward, working a night shift. Our night shifts start at 10:45 pm and go until 7:30 am the next day, so for example, you might have a “Monday shift” that is almost entirely on Tuesday.

It’s been flat out. We have six patients each overnight, and tonight it seems that they all conspired to have problems that require lots of follow-up care, so we have all been busy the whole time, and no other nurses have been free to help me out with mine.

Finally, at 6:00 am, someone else is free and asks what they can do for me.

Me: “Can you do the blood draw for the guy in room five?”

Colleague: “Is there a lab request form to use?”

Me: “Uh, yeah, here’s one the doctors made up ahead of time.”

Colleague: “Oh, it says Friday on the top. But the notes say they are for daily bloods, so I’ll just write up a new lab form.”

Later, at 7:00 am, I am finally handing over to the day team

Day Team: “Did you send the bloods?”

Me: “Yep, they were sent.”

Day Team: “But there is still a form on their clipboard?”

Me: “Yeah, it said that’s for Friday, so we just made a new form for today.”

Day Team: “…Today is Friday.”

Me: “…Honestly, I just believed [Colleague] when she said it wasn’t.”