Working nights and type 1 diabetic

[EllenRooney93]

Hello

Im doing my first night shift in a hospital next week which i am a bit worried about.

Does anyone have any tips for working night shifts?

Thanks
Ellen

 

[noblehead]

Hi Ellen,

I've worked many different shifts including nights, all I would say is test frequently and keep plenty of carby snacks to hand (including fast-acting glucose) in case your bg levels dip too low, once you get an idea how your bg levels behave whilst working nights you can do some pre-planning.

Good luck and stay safe.

 

[azure]

I've worked nights occasionally. I was expecting to go low with all the extra activity when I'd normally be sleeping, but in fact I went high. I believe this was due to the 'stress' on the body of being awake during the night. You could equally go low, as Noblehead as said above.

So I second the advice to test regularly and frequently. Be prepared for both highs and lows. Take your insulin pen (or whatever you're using) in case you need to correct, take glucose and carby snacks, and take plenty of testing strips.

 

[ScottyD]

I've been slowly getting back to work after being off demonstrating good control for the civil aviation authority to regain my pilots medical.

I was in the simulator renewing my licence and told the examiner that I'll need to take food in with me (usually a no no as it's a multi-million pound toy) and he fully understood and used my CGM whilst in flight. We had failures and emergencies galore and I even had to manually fly the plane with an engine fire - my bloods were rock solid at around 11mmol. I went in a touch higher just so I could settle into the test and no worry about my bloods for the first 30mins or so!

As said above it's just a guessing game until you gain experience. Having a meter/CGM and carbs and you really can't go wrong. That's my view on it.

Good luck!

 

[therower]

Hi @EllenRooney93 . Spent many years working permanent 12hr night shifts.
Advice so far is spot on and I can't really add much more
But one thing I would say is to take extra care around 3am, there's something about 3am I found. Not sure if it had anything to do with D but if ever I was going to struggle or feel off then it would be around this time of morning.
Good luck.

 

[EllenRooney93]

Hi everyone

Thanks for all your replies. Ive got the freestyle libre so that should help me out alot and ill make sure i take plently of carbs just in case.