 Hi guys, so today I wanted to do a video on some tips for 12-hour ships. Co-hour ships are a beast of their own. If you've ever worked a job that's like eight hours or ten hours, you'll notice the difference when you start working 12-hour ships. I personally love 12-hour ships because that means I only work three days a week, but on those days that I work it is very tiring because I'm getting up at like 5.45. I'm leaving my house by like 6.20ish. I start work at 7.00. I get done at 7.30, and I'm not getting home till close to 8 o'clock. So very, very long days, but I wouldn't change it because I have 40s off a week, which is awesome. So I wanted to talk about some tips for 12-hour ships. The first thing that I can recommend to you guys, and maybe this is self-explanatory, is you have to take care of yourself on your days off of your 12-hour ships. And think of a 12-hour ship like a marathon, and if on your days off you are not hydrated, you're not getting enough sleep, you're not getting enough exercise, you're not being a very like healthy active person. It's gonna be hard to go to your ships and be super duper active and on your feet all shipped. So you have to have that balance of being active and also resting on your days off. My next tip is to I feel like all these tips are really honestly self-explanatory, but maybe not. You have to get a good night's rest, and I know this can be tough. Sometimes if you have a baby or kids or you're working night shifts, so you're foot-flopping your schedules, but really try to have a good routine at night that helps you get to sleep, turn off all the blue lights, aka your phone, your TV, put yourself to bed at a decent hour, don't be on social media, maybe take a bath, make sure you're full, whatever you need to do to get a good night's rest, do it. My next tip is to bring a lot of snacks or drinks or whatever you like to your shift. It always makes it a better shift when you like have maybe a good lunch to look forward to or a good snack, or maybe you brought a special drink or something like that. Maybe you like coffee or I don't know, crystal light. I don't know, whatever you like, get those things and bring them to your shifts because it just makes it better when you have something to look forward to on those long shifts. Bring lots of snacks, so that way if you're kind of too busy to take a lunch up in the meantime and you are hungry, you can just grab something, take a couple bites really quick. That's my next tip. My next tip is to wear scrubs and shoes, compression socks, everything that makes you comfortable. If you're wearing a pair of shoes that hurt your feet, don't wear those shoes. If you're wearing scrubs that are too tight, don't wear them or too loose, don't wear them. If it's gonna make you uncomfortable, just don't wear it. I personally wear compression socks. I will link the ones that I wear down below in the description box. They're very plain and basic, but do they help? I don't know, but I wear them every shift and for the most part, by the end of my shifts, my feet and the legs are okay. Given I am 34 weeks pregnant when I'm recording this video right now, so that plays a big factor into it. But make sure you're wearing things that are comfortable because if you're not, you're just gonna be kind of like irritated your whole shift. My next tip is to stay hydrated during your shifts. I know it sounds silly and I know you're like, well, I don't have time to go to the bathroom, but really if you are drinking water consistently throughout your shifts, you're gonna feel much better by the end of your shift. And if you just don't drink enough, then you get home and you're like so thirsty, you're so hungry, and it's like literally like a nursing hangover the next day because you had such a rough shift and weren't able to take care of yourself. I can't stress it enough. I've said it in probably at least a hundred of my videos by now, but you cannot take care of patients if you are not taking care of yourself. And that's so so true. At the end of the day, you don't take those patients home with you. Well, at least I hope not. And your health matters more than the health of the people that you're taking care of. And maybe that sounds selfish to say, but it's true. If you're not taking care of yourself, how are you gonna be expected to go take care of other people? So make sure you are taking care of yourself both at work and outside of work. My last and final tip is is for those who maybe struggle with the emotions of 12 hour shifts or the things that you see, but make sure that you have a healthy outlet of people to talk to about your shifts, whether that's a manager or a co-worker or a spouse or a friend, someone that you can vent to about your long days because you are going to have those days that are super frustrating emotionally, mentally, and it doesn't matter if you're physically taking care of yourself. You have to emotionally and mentally take care of yourself as well. So have healthy relationships in your life for you to go home and talk to about those days that you just like want to pull your hair out or we're super stressed or someone to cry to or laugh to or be angry to whatever it is. But make sure you're taking care of yourself physically, emotionally, and mentally. Those are my tips for 12 hour shifts. I hope you guys enjoyed. If you did, give this video a thumbs up and let me know what other tips you have in the comments below, and I'll see you in my next video. Bye.