Extras · 1 of 4

A typical shift

Twelve hours, days or nights. You start with rounds in the ICU (intensive care unit), checking every patient on a ventilator and adjusting settings with the doctors. Then a blood gas, a breathing treatment on the ward, and a call to the emergency department to intubate someone who cannot breathe. Later a delivery in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) where a newborn needs help with its first breaths. You carry a pager all shift and drop everything when a code is called.