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A typical shift

Check the truck at the start: drugs, oxygen, monitor, batteries. Then you wait, and then you go. A shift might be five calls or eighteen. Most are not dramatic: chest pain, a fall, a diabetic emergency, an anxious person at 2am, a transfer to another hospital. A few each month are. Between calls you write reports, restock, eat badly and sleep in a chair. On a 24-hour shift the last six hours are the dangerous ones, for you and for the patient.