Shift Turnover: Fill & Download for Free

This requires a bit of background first. I had surgery at 22 to remove a tumour on my appendix. The surgery involved removing the tumour, my appendix and part of the large and small intestines to the lymph nodes on either side of the appendix. I was kept in hospital for a few days after.The first couple of days were especially painful. They had me on morphine for the pain. Turns out morphine isn't overly effective for some people and I happen to be one of them. It barely took the edge of the pain and didn't have any effect in terms of the high some people experience. Any positive effect it has on pain levels wore off quickly. I didn't know this prior to the surgery.On the first day post surgery the pain was particularly bad. The morphine just wasn't working as it should. I let the duty nurse know and an argument insued but finally she agreed to talk to the duty Dr about increasing the frequency of the dose. She never came back to me the rest of her shift (this happened near the beginning of her shift so basically she left me all day). The worst of this was that I was in a room with 3 other people and the nurse would come in to see them and have to walk directly past my bed on her way out and in. She just avoided eye contact with my mother and friend who were with me. This is what bothered me most about it. I could have rationalized that she was busy and it slipped her mind if she didn't walk by my several times that day. I believe my mother tried to follow up with her about it once and she snapped at mom and walked out. All I could do was sleep to try to deal with the pain. I was told after that I cried in my sleep for most of the day. She didn't even come to administer the previously scheduled dose.When shift turnover happened the night nurse (who was absolutely fabulous) came in for his rounds. He saw I wasn't doing well and we told him what had happened. He took care of me immediately and seemed a bit angered by the whole thing. He checked my chart and saw that the duty Dr had in fact increased the frequency of meds that morning. He reported the situation to his supervisor and my surgeon.The next day my surgeon came through with the floor Dr and asked about what happened. I received apologies from them both but never from the actual nurse who left me suffering for an entire day in pain. No explanation was ever given as far as I know. All I know is that she was “dealt with” whatever that meant. From my understanding most likely a stern talking to. I just hope they sorted her out enough that she hasn't done something similar to someone else.10 years later and I still get angry when I think about it.

We had a particularly brutal one at my first command, an EA-6B squadron in Washington. This mast was so legendary that it was still being talked about 3 years later when I left!We had a young Airman from Oklahoma (that becomes important later), who lived in the barracks. We’ll call him Airman Dumbass.One of the main rules for the barracks is that after 10pm (maybe later) there are no visitors. After all, these are essentially glorified 2-bed hotel rooms. So having a visitor with your roommate literally 6 feet away, might be… uncomfortable.Well, Airman Dumbass, he has his girlfriend from Oklahoma come to visit. Now, there are hotel rooms available on-base, and they charge based on rank. So for about $40/night he could have had a hotel room with his girlfriend for her visit, and avoided everything that happened next. Instead, she stayed in his room. Strike 1.Apparently, while she was awaiting her “boyfriend’s” return from work every day, she became a little too “friendly” with some of the gentlemen in the barracks. The rumor was that her “friendliness” involved multiple gentlemen at once.So Airman Dumbass’ girlfriend comes and goes and no-one, other than his roommate, is the wiser.About a week after she left, Dumbass finds out about his girlfriend’s activities while he was at work. It was inevitable. This happens on a Friday night. Airman Dumbass, barely 18 years old, gets drunk. Strike 2, underage drinking.Airman Dumbass gets so drunk that he gets belligerent, and goes out onto the overhang of the roof below his room and threatens to jump. Strike 3, for general dumbassery.Then, when the police are called he admits to them that he took drugs while on leave the month before (with said girlfriend). Strike 4, drug use.Finally, while being taken to lockup, he fought with one of the officers arresting him. Strike 5, assaulting an officer.So while I can understand the general foolishness of Airman Dumbass, and his good intentions to a point (trying to save money), and even his heartbreak over his girlfriend’s actions, every time there was a decision point, where he could have made the correct choice, he did an abrupt about-face and charged into the worst possible decision.To make matters worse, he was completely unrepentant to the CO. Strike 6.This man, was one of the best Commanding Officers, if not THE best I’ve ever experienced. This guy LOVED his enlisted people, respected them, treated us like the professionals we were. He was universally admired by both Officer and Enlisted. If Airman Dumbass had shown even a little bit of remorse, the following wouldn’t have happened.It was an open mast in the hangar bay. The ENTIRE squadron was there. It was held at shift turnover.So the entire squadron is there watching him. I don’t remember everything that was said, but I do remember him completely losing it. He asked him if he had anything to say for himself, I don’t remember what he said, but it was, even to my new to the Navy ears, clearly the wrong thing to say. If I remember right, he blamed his chain of command for not reining him in. The CO lost his mind, tore into that kid so hard, that he literally tore the top off of the podium.The CO told him it was time to pronounce his sentence. He had the entire squadron about-face, so our backs were to him. He told Airman Dumbass to take a look around. “This is the last you will see of this squadron or the Navy. I’m reducing you in rank…. To a CIVILIAN. Get the hell out of my Navy.”He left. Airman Dumbass, now reduced to tears, stood there in shock. The squadron was dismissed. I went upstairs, got my gear from the office and was heading out. Then I heard it, “Petty Officer Casanave!” The CO had a booming voice that echoed to the heavens. After that whole fiasco, I thought I was in trouble. Like I was remembering back to childhood to think of something that I might have done to anger him. The CO hands me a bus ticket, “Airman Dumbass has a bus to catch to Oklahoma. Be sure that he gets off base.” So I got to escort him to let him get a few essentials from the store and then followed him as a friend of his drove him off-base to the nearest Greyhound station.So that’s the story of how one unlucky soul left the Navy with a one-way bus ticket from Whidbey Island, Washington to Norman, Oklahoma.So…. while Captain’s Mast isn’t always a career killer, it can be awfully dramatic.EDIT: To clarify. I never really thought about it, but apparently a CO can’t discharge you. Since there was a gap between the unfortunate Airman being discharged and the mast, my guess is that the discharge was administratively completed and the Mast was mostly ceremonial. I never had to go to mast or have any of my people go either, so I never had to think about the limits of the CO’s power.

The 12-hour shifts are not unique to Nurses.The shifts of these kinds are designed for a specific purpose according to the requirements of the job.For nurses, these 12 hours are suitable for the sleep-wake cycle of patients in the floor (aka medical surgical ward) areas.Most medication administration time-frame fall within the 4 hours, six hours, 8 hours, 12 hours or 24 hours interval. The 12 hours shift is most suitable when timed between pre-breakfast, and pre- or post- dinner. Thus, the 12 hours.In the manner in Item #3, the nurse is able to perform her tasks in a cycle of 12 hours with lesser shift turnover interruption and covers a wider cycle of care for the patient.An 8-hour shift would feel like a nurse has just started her tasks and now she is going to wrap up as it is time to go.A 4 hour shift is usually just to cover whatever hours of work a nurse lacks to complete, say, a 40-hour work week.But there could be other reasons based on Item #1 above.It is not just 12 hours shift the nurses observe.Some shifts are 4-hours at a time.Some are 8 hoursThe time/length limit per shift allowable by law is not to exceed 16 hours per shift per 24 hour cycle.