NIght shifts can be a bit of a blur. Creative Commons License Photo

I graduated in December 1999, and finally finished doing night shifts on 1st May 2009. That’s a lot of time up at night wandering around the hospital in varying degrees of excitement and panic.

A group from Innsbruck have now show that working night shifts is bad for our cardiovascular systems. Not a great shock – I remember in Falkirk, years ago as an SHO I took part in a study where we measured ambulatory blood pressures whilst on day shifts and night shifts. It clearly showed elevated diastolic pressures throughout the night, even if asleep…

So will I end up doing nights again? Probably. The reduction in junior doctor numbers, and hours, means we will doubtless have to fill the gaps with consultant hours. This creates a big issue – who will do my clinic in the morning, if I’m up at night in HDU putting in central lines, and managing unwell patients?

And do we ask my more ‘senior’ colleagues to do nights shifts after not doing them for 15 – 20 years?

Edit 31/01/10: BMJ Careers this week has an article written by a new consultant who has taken on a post as a “Hybrid Consultant”. She seems very happy with the role, it sounds like a terrible idea to me…