Night shifts aren't really draining for me for me usually. Twelve years ago a busy night shift for us was doing two or three jobs per crew…(which seems a lot when your still 16 and doing exams at school as well as training during the night)
However, now if you do seven or eight jobs per crew then that is deemed a slack night! Average per crew at my station is between nine and eleven jobs per night shift.
If it was real emergencies we were going to then it might not be so bad, but….the vast majority of these so-called emergencies are of such a trivial and sometimes ridiculous nature that eventually you become worn down and start to resent night shifts.
I know I do….I hate duty night shifts with a passion because I know that for every real life threatening job I am going to deal with there will be at least ten others which require nothing more than education….or a quick cutting/slashing motion across the jugular with a sharpened metal Patient Report Form clipboard!!! Being alone in the office, or with a certain collegue is much more fun.
One of the best films that I have seen recently is the very dark “Bringing Out The Dead” released I believe in 1999 and starring Nicholas Cage as a New York Paramedic working in Hells Kitchen, Manhatten who is having a breakdown…on nights! If you ever get the chance to see it then do.