Why did I arrive at work an hour and a half before my night shift started?

Hello. I am Midori Maruoka, a medical writer.

When I worked on the ward, I used to arrive at my workplace more than an hour and a half early on night shift days. The handover started at 4:45 PM. Many of my colleagues arrived around 4:30 PM, but it was my habit to enter the break room at 3:30 PM to drink coffee.

Although it was called a break room, it was only separated by a single curtain, so the atmosphere of the ward could still be felt. A colleague once told me, "You must really love your workplace," and I was surprised by the gap between my own state of mind and how it appeared to others.

I am the type of person who feels pressure more than most, and I needed a longer preparation time to transition into work mode. During the warmer months, it was also my habit to walk a little through the park or along the river on my way to work, and sit on a bench to drink a café au lait while zoning out.

There were powerful colleagues who would say they had "gone mountain climbing" before a night shift, but for me, wanting to conserve my physical and mental energy, that was hard to believe (laughs).

Looking back, on night shift days, I always felt a sense of anticipatory anxiety from the morning, a feeling like a cloudy haze around my stomach. I decided to look into whether this long preparation time had any meaning.

In high-tension professions like healthcare, there is research suggesting that mental readiness (a mental idling state to adapt to changes) is important.

Small, individual rituals or quiet time can sometimes help with concentration.
It is believed that when one is mentally prepared, it becomes easier to respond to unexpected events, which can lead to safe and stable care.

The time spent arriving at work early and getting used to the atmosphere while drinking coffee.
For me, it might have been the mental readiness necessary to head into work.

As a nurse, I usually write medical articles that emphasize evidence.
Peeking into academic papers to answer small, everyday questions is quite an exciting time.

A series that examines everyday discomforts through English academic papers.
Next time, I think I might examine the mystery of the sense of liberation after a night shift.

[References]
McDonald, J., & Paganelli, C. (2021). Exploration of Mental Readiness for Enhancing Dentistry in an Inter-Professional Climate. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,18(13),7038.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34280975/

You can view my writing achievements in the medical and healthcare fields via my portfolio.