A day in my life.

A nurse's working day.

Francoise is a nurse. She works on a night shift in a Parisian hospital in this article she describes a day in her life.

Hello, my name's Fran�oise. I can't tell you about a typical day in my life because everyday is different but I think the day I've chosen is more pleasant and not as boring as some days.

I've been a nurse in a surgery theatre since 1985.
I majored in surgery in 1989, then I worked for 18 years on a day shift ( 5 years in urology, 2 years in otolaryngology and 10 years in digestive surgery. )

I've been working on a night shift for about 3 years now.

It is a personal choice in order to get more time for my family ( 2 sons , 12 and 16. ) my hubby and a dog , a cat but we don't have any goldfish yet.And working on a night shift enables me to get time for my hobbies as well.

I learn English with Mich�le and Italian with Alexandra in a local state school. I also go to a fitness centre, to my parents, have a walk with the dog once a day along the river Marne and go to the cinema which is my favourite hobby. And for the rest of the day I sleep ( when I can !)

But don't misunderstand me I still have time for my work and I like it very much.

I work 13 or 14 nights a month ( because we have to work 32.30 hours a week) and spend 2 weekends a month working in the hospital.

I start work at 9.pm and finish at 7.am. And every night is different. Sometimes when I get to the hospital and the operation is still in progress either I complete it or I deal with an emergency in our different specialities (digestive, urology, otolaryngology or plastic surgery). We also deal with organs picking and kidney implants.

It's quite various but we don't deal with heavy casualties.
Some nights can be really hard but others are quieter and during these quieter nights I can do cleaning, sort out everything and talk with my colleagues ( surgeons and anesthesists).

This week for example, we didn't have any emergencies on my first night but my second night was exhausting , we had 6 emergencies all night long and two at the same time ( haemorrage and appendicitis..)

To conclude I would say that in France it is said that few nurses continue working after 15 years running and I am proud of it. I am just the exception that proves the rule.

Acknowledgements : Photos provided by Monceau, Juan 23 , under Creative Commons licence via Flickr and photo of Florence Nightingale from Wikipedia.