By Katie Leonard
4/23/10
For workers in the fields of medicine, public safety and the military, it's a given that they will have to pull an overnight shift at one time or another. The nature of these high-pressure and often dangerous jobs, combined with the adjustments needed to work the night shift, can take a unique toll on professionals in these industries.
In a study for the International Journal of Workplace Health Management, researcher Jonathon Halbesleben found that workers in jobs that left less time off the job in between shifts (much like those required by public safety jobs) were subject to higher levels of stress and exhaustion.
The nature of these jobs requires workers to be mentally tough and often, physically strong as well. Each of the profiles below describes how these workers handle the stress of their jobs and the strain of the night shift.
Brianne Queeney, Corrections Officer
Brianne Queeney, 25, is a corrections officer at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Plymouth, Mass. The facility holds around 1,600 inmates who are awaiting trial, serving out sentences or are being detained by Immigrations Customs Enforcement.
One of the hazards of Queeney's job is that she doesn't necessarily know who's in for what.
"We have people who are there for stealing cigarettes and then people that are there for murder," said Queeney.
Queeney is only one of about 15 female guards (out of 200 total) at the facility. There are other females on staff as case workers and medical officers.
"It's tough being a girl there," she said.
Queeney said the routine of her duties, such as taking head counts and making rounds, can be mundane and not especially stimulating. This can be especially true during the night shift when the inmates are in their cells and there's little activity. But, in just a moment, something could happen that could put her or a co-worker in danger.
"You just have to be on your guard at all times for the whole time you're there."
Since inmates are in their cells and not using the recreation yard or getting meals at night, there are less posts to fill and consequently, less guards on duty.
Queeney said her union has tried to address this particular issue, citing concerns for officers' safety. Queeney said that at all times of the day, there are situations that take guards away from their posts, like when an inmate must be escorted to the hospital. Queeney said a hospital run requires two officers. If guards need to leave on a hospital run on the overnight shift, that means two less officers on duty during an already understaffed time.
To counteract the problem, the union added two more positions guard positions to the first and second shift, but only one was added to the third shift.
Although some of the units are not at maximum capacity, Queeney said that the facility is struggling to keep the peace between all of the inmates. Because of gang issues in the city of Brockton, the jail's administration has been warned by state troopers and police officers that the spillover from the streets could happen in the jail. Besides keeping street enemies apart from each other, the correctional facility has to keep pre-trial and sentence inmates separate, as well as keep immigration detainees away from the criminal inmates.
"There's only so many places you can put all these people, and we're running out of room," said Queeney.
Queeney said that while the job can be like "Groundhog Day," it takes a toll on the guards that work there, and she tries not to take it home. And while she takes her job very seriously, she tries her best to leave work at work and not let the inmates affect her home life. Queeney said she sometimes reminds herself that, "They're in here and I get to leave in eight hours."
Stephen Sabella, Dispatcher
"You never know what it is, you never know who it is," said Sabella. Sabella said the first five seconds of any call are the most suspenseful.
Sabella, who works a combination of both days and nights, said that he can get any kind of call at any time, but that the calls are mostly emergency ones on the night shift. During the day, he is more likely to be fielding more administrative calls from the courts and other police departments.
Sabella said that while every day is different, he sometimes feels desensitized to the calls he has to respond to, but like Queeney, he tries not to take the job home with him. Sabella said that his employer offers stress debriefings for incidents that are considered to be particularly distressing. Recently, Sabella earned a commendation from the Stoneham Chief of Police for his handling of the 911 call from the family home of Olympic ice-skater Nancy Kerrigan.
Despite the nature of the job, Sabella said that working the night shift takes a toll of its own.
"Your days off are the messed up ones," said Sabella.
Richard Harnois, Corporal, United States Marine Corps
Corporal Richard Harnois, 26, is a six-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps. Harnois returned from his second tour of duty in Iraq this February.
Harnois is part of Headquarter Company 25th Marine Regiment Motor Transport. During his most recent tour of duty, Harnois had to pull overnight shifts that ran from 4 p.m. to 9 a.m. Harnois said the duties at those hours were mostly focused on fixing trucks and other vehicles, with just one other Marine on the shift with him.
"It's work-at-your-own-pace because there's nobody there," said Harnois.
During his first tour as a lance corporal in 2005, one of Harnois's duties was to be on fire watch. On deployments, two Marines are on fire watch post at all times. Harnois said that for that post, the Marines work in teams of two. The pair sits in a 4x4 square on top of a wall and keeps watch for enemy activity.
At an overnight fire watch, Marines are keeping their eyes on the street.
"Nobody's allowed out," said Harnois, "so if you see somebody moving, they're usually a bad guy."
The penalties for falling asleep on fire watch are severe, and can mean a demotion in rank or a loss of pay.
"It's very serious," said Harnois. "When you were sleeping, right in front of you, somebody could have dug a hole and dropped an IED in there."
Meghan McCourt, Registered Nurse
"I'm not a doctor's office kind of person," said McCourt.
The PICU nurses care for young patients whose ages range from babies to adolescents up to age 20 (sometimes older if a pediatrician follows a patient). Because of the intensive patient care that the PICU provides, each nurse will only have one or two patients at a time.
"I'm usually just as busy at night as I am during the day," said McCourt.
McCourt said that while caring for sick children can be sad, she works best when working under pressure and dealing with the sickest patients.
"That's when I like to take care of people," said McCourt.
McCourt said that while she likes the challenge of taking care of patients that are very ill, it's hard not to get attached to certain patients after getting to know their families and hearing their stories.
"People affect me probably more than they should," McCourt said. "I can't just not think about people when I leave."
McCourt said she vents about her work to her mother and to friends who are also in the medical field, and to co-workers that she's gotten to be good friends with.
"They're really the only people that can get it," she said.
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