How to cope with night shifts and next door's (very big) extension.

LottieLou

Our new next door neighbour moved in about a month or so after we moved into ours. It is a detached, and she has pretty quickly submitted plans for a side and back extension to her house (fair enough).

Being as 'un-neighbourly' as she is, we found out about her plans when the letter came from the planning office.:eek: The plans are a little annoying, they come practically on the boundary (it is her boundary so she is rightly able to do this), and it is quite a large extension. But there is nothing that we will be, or have any rights to contest, it would be a waste of our time.

We have called round to ask some questions the plans didn't answer but she was less then willing and practically slammed the door in our face's (maybe trying to hide that she was in dirty pyjamas at 3pm on a sunday too :rotfl:).

My main concern is, I am an intensive care nurse and work with the sickest of patients. I also do a lot of night shifts (not by choice just unit demand!) I have approached my manager, to see if i can work days only for a while but this unfortunately isn't an option.

A builder friend has had a look at the plans for us, and we are talking months of external building work not weeks here. How am I going to manage with the sleep deprevation of constant drilling, banging, cars and people noise and god knows what else. More importantly, how to I make sure the care I am providing is safe when working nights on no sleep. I would never forgive myself if i made an error, big or small!

The plans haven't even been approved yet and I am beyond worry. I already use ear plugs (not that they do much of a job!) and have no alternative places I can stay.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom for me?! or any suggestions

If anyone is planning any work and you live next to a nurse, doctor or paramedic etc please be nice to them and spare a thought of all the people it could affect! :(

Person_one

I had a similar problem last year, and my tips are:

• Sleep in the room that's furthest from the source of the noise, move a bed if you have to.
• Hang a duvet over the door to dampen sound, obviously keep the windows closed, are the double glazed?
• Wear ear plugs if you can stand to
• Create some sort of white noise in the room as you drift off, I used boring audiobooks and dull radio 4 programmes on iplayer, nothing that would hold my attention enough to stop me sleeping, no sudden loud or odd sounds likely.
• Keep the room you sleep in as dark as you can, blackout curtains etc.
• Drink strong coffee for the first half of your night shift and water for the second half.

Unfortunately, as people who work nights and odd shifts, we can't really expect that the world will stay quiet for us while we sleep in the day! People get extensions, roads need working on, water mains will leak, children will have birthday parties, noisy vehicles will still drive wherever they want, etc etc.

If you find that this noise is enough to make you unsafe to work at night, you'll have to go to occupational health and see what can be done. In my trust you can be excused night duties if you have a genuine health reason and if the ward/unit can still staff their night shifts fully without you doing any.

Oh, and a shift worker is the last person who should be judging anybody for still being in PJs at 3pm! :rotfl:

comeandgo

My daughter was same position as you, nurse in HDU and some times night shift but at least she did get on with the neighbours so she had an idea of which part of the work was happening when and slept with head phones on and at furthest room away from noise.
The neighbours were very grateful that she did not complain about the work and they gave her and her husband vouchers for a meal at local expensive restaurant as a way of thanks.
If things very bad is there a nurses home at your hospital where you could get a few days sleep?

LottieLou

:rotfl::rotfl: VERY true, I thought that as i was typing it but I thought at least mine are always clean :rotfl: and she works 9-3 4 days a week and had no physical signs of illness so I forgive myself for being a hypocrite

Thank you, theres some good advice there, I might start putting the radio on in the background now so I get used to it and the duvet on the door etc I will give a go too! I already squish ear plugs in my ears, blackout blinds etc but they only do so much.

You are completely right about people not considering shift workers sleep schedules, the world doesn't stop in the day time. I am sure we have all had our fair share of united utilities park up outside and start drilling and frozen parties :rotfl: but it is a 24 hour society.

That is the road I have gone down with management, I don't want to waste occy healths time. I was aware we wouldn't be able to safely cover the nights without my hours, it would also be unfair to ask another member of staff to do my share of nights for a while too, i know I wouldn't like it. Especially over spring summer!

Thats so nice of they neighbours comeandgo I can only wish mine were the same! There isn't currently a nursing home. A colleague of mine used to stay in it, but it was so bad with damp and mould everyone moved out! (some stayed there on a long term basis!)

Do you think it is worth me trying to talk to my neighbour about it? so at least they can tell me when the major noisy works may be happening.

Thanks for the advice x

Person_one

If you genuinely feel that the work next door is making you unsafe and putting your patients at risk, then I don't think you would be wasting occy health's time. Some people's bodies just can't handle night shifts as other people can, and its better that they don't do them if that's the case.

Have you asked around to see if anybody will swap though? Some people prefer nights, some people might be willing as long as you owe them a swap next time they need one.

Are you quite new to this job? I feel like you're being a little hard on your neighbours, its not as though they can get the work done between 5 and 11pm so you can sleep! We might be a 24 hour society but builders generally still only work between 8 and 5. Realistically, there's not a lot they can do to help you apart from not get the extension at all!

vqmismatch

I use earplugs when working nights, if things are really noisy I keep a pair of 3M Peltor Optime 3 ear defenders to go over the top. By far the most effective and comfortable set I have ever found.

My local audiology department did the moulds for a custom fit set of ear plugs for free which made a good difference on total price. That said I still find one particular brand of expanding plug quieter and easier to sleep in.

PasturesNew

3pm and in PJs .... when you weren't expecting ANYBODY to knock at the door is not unreasonable. Why get dressed "in case" somebody knocks the door?

LottieLou

I do genuinely feel is could make me feel unsafe at work. I may go to occy health to have my concerns noted. But I have a good manager, we have sat and discussed possibilities but, like many other units there just isn't enough staff (particually experienced ones) to cover shifts. At this moment in time, it is not possible. People who like nights do them permanently, the rest of us rotate.

I think I may be coming across wrongly. I don't feel I am being hard on my neighbour, they are very entitled to improve and extend their house however they wish and it will look nice when it is done. I wish her communication could have been better, but people are different. Builders need to stay 8-5, the last thing I expect people to do, every builder and neighbour included is consider the 'sleep pattern of joe bloggs down the road (and I theirs). This is certainly not what I am staying here.

I am not new to the profession, nurses amongst other staff have a duty to protect their patients from any possible harm. So I think I will later down the line talk to them, It might be that there is only a few weeks where they are digging, or they might not be working a few days in the week (family are doing the extension). So this could ease my concern.

Thanks for the suggestions

LottieLou

vqmismatch wrote: »

I use earplugs when working nights, if things are really noisy I keep a pair of 3M Peltor Optime 3 ear defenders to go over the top. By far the most effective and comfortable set I have ever found.

My local audiology department did the moulds for a custom fit set of ear plugs for free which made a good difference on total price. That said I still find one particular brand of expanding plug quieter and easier to sleep in.

Thank you, thats really helpful. I will have a look into that. Which brand of expanding plugs do you use? x

PasturesNew of course its not unreasonable!! it was a Sunday for gods sake lol I do find visibly very dirty PJ's a no no but thats my personal preference

Person_one

LottieLou wrote: »

I think I may be coming across wrongly. I don't feel I am being hard on my neighbour, they are very entitled to improve and extend their house however they wish and it will look nice when it is done. I wish her communication could have been better, but people are different.

Communication does make a huge difference. If they'd come over, apologised in advance and expressed some sympathy I'm guessing you'd probably feel a lot better about things, even though it wouldn't make any actual difference to the situation or your lack of sleep!

You might be pleasantly surprised by how well some of the coping solutions work, and this might not be as big a problem as you are worrying it might be. If it is though, then its not your responsibility to ensure your ward is safely staffed, its just your responsibility to ensure you can give safe care if you are working.

xylophone

(some stayed there on a long term basis!)

Perhaps they were hoping to take NHS pension early on grounds of ill health....;)

With regard to the neighbour's pyjamas, it seems to me that she is entitled to wear whatever she likes in her own home, whether clean or dirty and to open the door clad in those garments, (although you'd hope that she had covered the essentials so as not to frighten the horses....).:D