On a good day, emergency department nurse Ken* will rise at about 1pm, start work at 3pm and get home at 11pm. On a bad day, he’ll arrive home after 3am and be up with the kids.
His nursing career has dictated this pattern for decades – and he knows it’s toxic.
“Your sleep patterns are absolutely crap, you run on three to four hours of sleep the first couple of nights then you’re half awake and half asleep.”
Ken, whose name Stuff agreed to change to protect his employment, said it gets harder every year. “I’ve always been told shift work knocks five years off your life… I believe it.”
Graveyard shifts or starts before 7am are among the top 10 carcinogens affecting more than half of New Zealand’s workforce, according to the New Zealand Carcinogens Survey.
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News category: New Zealand, News Shorts.
