 So I know that I've talked to you guys about being a trauma PA and being on 24-hour call which I absolutely love because it allows me to spend a lot more time with my family. I'm currently homeschooling my kids so I need all the time that I can get. And I was asked a question about like do you even sleep on a 24-hour shift? Like how does that work? And so that is what I will be answering in today's video. Okay so again I had a question posed to me by one of you guys, one of my subscribers, talking about what exactly like do I do really I guess you can say on a 24-hour shift? Like am I able to sleep? And so I'm going to read the question for you guys, put it up on the screen and then we can get into answering it. This one is from Steven Wilson. He said, I am a firefighter slash paramedic and work two to three 24-hour shifts a week but get to sleep. How does the 24-hour shift work for you as a PA? And so I mean maybe pretty similar to what it might work like for you Steven. I honestly don't know because since I don't know what a paramedic's 24-hour shift looks like I can't really compare but for me I can talk to you about what my shift looks like. So typically we're doing a lot so as a trauma PA again really I'm an acute care surgery PA so I deal not only with trauma but general surgery and then we cover thoracic and vascular surgery at night when our day thoracic and vascular surgery PA goes home. So with that being said there are four different services that we're covering at a time and that means that there are a lot of patients that we have to deal with. Now granted there are three of us there's usually a trauma PA like down in the trauma bay and then trauma floor PAs who are covering the other three services but there are a lot of patients and they require a lot of things and so during the day there may be times when our census is extremely high that we are extremely busy and so you know we go and we start rounding we get to know what's going on with our patients what happened to them overnight you know what their labs are looking like we're looking at all of this information to really assess what's happening with them and then after that we are finishing up like all the various different things that need to be done if any chest tubes need to be pulled or you know if a chest tube needs to be placed if a line needs to be placed there are all these various different nuances that have to be done wound vac changes and just local wound care depending on if it's something that we debrided or not so all of that is happening throughout the day now that may have like the rounding process we literally could have started rounding out like nine o'clock and maybe not nine a.m. and maybe not have finished until like noon or one and so the time to like eat and get breakfast and then maybe even get lunch is really shot and so you're kind of just going through these motions because sometimes you miss those things and you're eating on the fly or eating on the run because remember that we are still a trauma PA and we're still a trauma hospital and so trauma still get called and so if my trauma bay PA is inundated with traumas and has at least two that they're running on their own then another one is called we have to go and do that like I said there are other people that are involved we do have residents there they're typically in the OR and so sometimes they're not able to help with those traumas but if they are they can also take a trauma or they're rounding with us but that is typically how like the day goes and throughout the rest of the day once you finish rounding and you've written all of your notes on all of your patients and you've done all of the various different nuances of things that need to happen then that's when you're kind of just in this lull and you're waiting for traumas and so the question was asked do I get to sleep all right well sometimes I do I mean it all depends so you have like your floor patients that you're always typically getting called for by the nurses you know they may need a medication or may need you to renew a medication maybe the patient is fibrous they you know you want to go see when check what's going on with their patient and it various different things can happen and so even though you're in this break from traumas or you're waiting for traumas you're still dealing with your floor patients okay now on top of that as you continue to go on throughout the night you know where like let's say six o'clock in the evening or so traumas are typically coming in at that time you know we get a lot of motor vehicle accidents because people are coming from home and some of them are just driving ridiculous and you know that's what we have to deal with um we do get you know GSWs or gunshot wounds and you know stabbings and things like that those are they're regular but few and far in between um you know as respect to our falls and our motor vehicle accidents so we'll be dealing with that it's typically we'll go like be kind of done for the night essentially at like 10 o'clock sometimes there are traumas that come in at like 11 and 12 but for the most part I'm finished at 10 and that's when I can go and just really chart check my patients or go up to the floor check on anybody that I was concerned about throughout the day and then come and wind down to try to sleep and I say try because that is not always the case okay um and so sometimes we're we're there I literally just get back up to my call room and then the annoying beeper sound goes off and a trauma is called okay and so at that point it's like all right okay let me run out there is to this trauma and see what's going on we do take turns in traumas to try to get each other to at least get some type of rest um but sometimes it's not always the case sometimes you know there may be one of us that's down in the or with our attending because somebody's really critical and then we also had two of the traumas come in and so the two of us that are left are in the trauma bay dealing with that trauma um so do I typically get to sleep I mean yeah I get to take like little um naps here and there like always interrupted either by a phone call or a trauma um I think the most that of hours like straight black that I've gotten to sleep was maybe five hours um you know woke up at six I would say uh went to bed around one which was amazing because that's like a good night you're like man I got some good rest but typically you'll get traumas called at 3 a.m. you'll get traumas called at you know four uh you'll get that inarbitun trauma called at like 7 a.m. when you're about to get off and you're like why are you outside like you know shooting at each other or stabbing each other like this is like not okay you know or like I need you to be in your house and these are the things that are kind of running through your head but you still have to take care of your patients and you have to make sure that they're safe um and that you're you're ensuring that you know you're taking care of their lives and so ultimately yes and no I get to sleep okay it all depends on how many traumas come in and how my floor patients are doing um it's always interrupted for the most part and you know never really good sleep that's why anytime I go home um if you've subscribed to this channel or if you've followed me on instagram you've seen me like post call I'm tired okay I'm extremely tired I'll sleep without fail for four hours it doesn't matter what time I go to bed throughout the day on my post call day if I come off of work at night and I do stuff throughout the day and then I start like I go in the bed at 12 um then I'll wake up at 4 that's typically how it happens and I feel a little bit rejuvenated but you really take that post call day like that entire day to recover um and some days we work back to back where we're on call one day we're off and then we're on call the immediate next day and those are brutal but you do those days so that you're able to get like a nine day period off or an eight day period or even a five day period off that you can either spend with your family rejuvenating um you can you know go out on a little mini vacation if you want to whatever the case may be but that's your time and so that's why I really love 24 hour shifts and yes although I don't always get to sleep uninterrupted I do get some naps and um it is a fulfilling job I get to do a lot I get to see a lot and I'm really excited that I chose this career or I guess it chose me all right thank you so much thank you Stephen for this question I really appreciate it if you have any other questions for me leave them in the comment section below follow me and gtcu on instagram at get that see university and check us out on get that see university dot com like this video and subscribe if you haven't already done so and follow me on instagram at adana the pa thank you guys so much for watching I will talk to you guys next time