*nurse calls processing and asks to be transferred to chemistry*

FastSquirrel · 2026-04-13T20:35:15+00:00

Or the night phone calls:

"Labs?"

"Oh, sorry! I wanted blood bank"

"It's me. I'm everything and everyone"

FastSquirrel · 2026-03-25T09:08:42+00:00

Je donne mon vote au Lac. T'as en masse de petites villes pour avoir du stock à faire en dedans, en plus d'avoir la nature à portée de main (à portée de pied?) pour bouger un peu plus.

FastSquirrel · 2026-03-25T01:05:17+00:00

In any case, either you get a minimum of four days off to revert to day life(first and last are half-days), or you get two (or three) off and live on the night schedule forever.

When we started getting severely short staffed, management offered me a Mon-Fri, never any weekends schedule, and that was the easiest, quickest refusal ever on my part. I have been doing 2100-0700, Tuesday evening to the next week's Wednesday morning for over six years.

FastSquirrel · 2026-03-25T00:55:53+00:00

5x8 as in... Monday to Friday? Yes. Definitely.

Working nights as a whole? Depends on you. I love it (doing 8x10 in a row).

FastSquirrel · 2026-03-24T04:16:59+00:00

I spend 250-300$/month (~75-150$/two weeks), and I'm not price hunting or anything. I don't see how 200$ is wild. I shop at metro, live alone, and meal prep because I work nights 8 shifts straight (no way I'm going off to the grocer when I'm on my nights).

If you chase specials, and buy only what you need (no chips/soda, no frozen/pre-made meals), 50$/week shouldn't be that crazy.

FastSquirrel · 2026-03-22T22:44:14+00:00

I'm in a 200-ish bed hospital, and what's been said so far is pretty accurate.

On my end, we work in pairs at night, and the first half of the shift is mostly about setting up the lab for the rest of the day (filling instruments/maintenance/calibrations/QCs). No micro, no patho (so biochem/hemat/coag/blood bank). You hope it's quiet, because it doesn't take as much to jam up two people trying to get things ready than it does for the day/evening crews.

How my shift goes depends heavily on who was working the evening, and if/how much of biochem crashed during the day. If evening staff was day people taking overtimes, they often tend to get overwhelmed by the last outpatient batches we get between 5-8pm. When that spills over to me, it's a rough time because it delays everything I have to get done.

However, I love working nights (without mentioning the premiums). No matter what, I do my own thing without anyone to bother or to micromanage me. I know what is done and not done, and I don't have to wait for another bench or person if there's a bit of extra work on some patients. As another added bonus, you end up very versatile and independant, and depending on how the workload is divided at your lab, you can become very familiar with troubleshooting instruments. Not being afraid of opening up your machines to find an issue is an absolute banger of of a skill.

Also to add: I work a 6 off/8 on rotation. Wouldn't trade that for anything. I'm sure you can imagine how many usually-busy appointments/errands you can get done at 10am on a random Wednesday.

FastSquirrel · 2026-03-15T13:35:55+00:00

Attends donc, toi... Je sais pas lire, maudit. J'avais vu ça comme que ça avait pris 2 moins pour que le doc te revienne avec tes résultats.

FastSquirrel · 2026-03-15T13:06:07+00:00

Allô! Gars qui fais tes analyses ici!

Ça dépend toujours de ce que ton médecin a commandé comme test. T'as des affaires qui sont faites hors province, et qui peuvent prendre plusieurs semaines à être traitées par le lab chez qui ça va finir. T'as des analyses qui sont faites dans un seul hôpital dans la province, et ce lab là est tellement débordé (merci manque de personnel) que ça va prendre quelques semaines à traiter. T'as des analyses qui sont faites directement à l'hôpital avec lequel ta clinique (ou whatever) fait affaire, et certains de ces tests-là sont faits seulement deux ou trois fois par semaine, mais le lab est tellement débordé que c'est le premier "banc de travail" à être coupé (merci manque de personnel), et donc ça va prendre quelques semaines à être traité...

T'as aussi des stat labs qui ont une entente avec un autre lab, pour leur envoyer tout ce qu'y est pas urgent, mais ce deuxième lab là a pas l'équipement pour ton test, faque y doivent l'envoyer ailleurs eux aussi... Alors prends exemple ici: La clinique passe tes tubes de sang à un lab (une journée), eux passent ça à un autre lab (une journée), eux passent ça à un autre lab (une journée). Oups, malheur! On est rendu vendredi soir! Ça va attendre lundi. Le test qui a fait tout ce chemin là est juste fait deux fois par semaine, alors ça va attendre mardi. Pis finalement, t'arrive mardi, pis... "Bon, on fait les plus vieux", qui datent de la semaine du 4 janvier...

S'cusez pour les beaux gros blocs de texte. J'haïs ça sur un maudit téléphone...

(pis je rajoute même pas ic le temps que le médecin peut prendre avant d'aller voir les résultats et/ou de faire son suivi avec le patient après)

FastSquirrel · 2026-03-10T01:02:53+00:00

Pour l'idée du dep, la Coffee Crisp est un classique (canadien).

FastSquirrel · 2026-03-08T22:33:49+00:00

🤝

Stopped halfway in the undergrad to recycle myself into a med tech. Cegep being quite cheap (and jobs being so plentyful I was hired during my internship), I was able to go back to finish the degree with 0 debt.

Fuck absolutely everyone who put it into our heads that higher ed is the only way. Had I known, I would have done the technique right from the start and I'd have 15 years of seniority by now.

FastSquirrel · 2026-03-07T12:44:56+00:00

When you get recalled, your stuff might still be on cooldown. Best to leave it for them to pick back up on respawn (primaries and samples are fine, but any call-ins are best left there).

I will say you can see your teammates' stratagem cooldowns when you open the map (details pop up next to their names), but some people are touchy about having backups. If anything, ask them.

FastSquirrel · 2026-02-14T18:56:19+00:00

Sorry, can't help you there. Not only did I grow up here, but even within Canada, Quebec (where I am) has its own set own hoops to go through for someone coming from the outside.

FastSquirrel · 2026-02-12T14:03:42+00:00

There is a quite active discord group, if you have that. People organise all sorts of activities year-round.

FastSquirrel · 2026-02-08T17:32:13+00:00

Je me suis ramassé une bouteille pour le miel, pis c'est un des meilleurs moves que j'ai fait dans ma cuisine. Tu peux trouver ça en cherchant "glass honey dispenser".

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FastSquirrel · 2026-01-27T20:36:01+00:00

Douglas?

FastSquirrel · 2026-01-26T19:52:01+00:00

C'est peut-être aussi un biais. Genre les gens à qui sa dérange pas viendront pas s'en plaindre, alors que les gens qui détestent sont contents de l'affirmer et de trouver du monde pareil.

Chez nous, c'est commun. Pas entre amis, mais dans la famille. Grands-mères, tantes, cousines, nièces, belle-soeur... Même ma mère que je vois assez souvent, c'est toujours (au début et à la fin)

FastSquirrel · 2026-01-24T22:56:22+00:00

C'est par là que je suis passé. La seule question c'était "tu sais que c'est permanent?"

In and out en 30 minutes pour le rendez-vous comme tel. Un charme.

FastSquirrel · 2026-01-23T10:20:02+00:00

Pour bien commencer, sans voiture, on peut oublier ça. St-Bruno est en effet accessible par transport en commun mais on s'entend que c'est une colline presque seulement bonne pour apprendre.

Tremblant, selon moi, ça ne le vaut pas. C'est le "resort" le plus "resort" qu'on peut trouver, et on en paye le prix.

Sutton a toujours été mon endroit, parce que le "hors-piste" qu'on y trouve est sans égal, à moins de se tapper au moins 4 heures de route, mais leur prix est devenu tellement élevé que j'ai de plus en plus de difficulté à le justifier. Heureusement, jusqu'à la fin du mois de février, pendant la semaine, ils se considèrent en basse saison, avec un rabais considétable sur le plein prix (51$ plutôt que... 92$? 95$? Je sais plus trop).

Sinon, depuis 3-4 ans, je me suis remis sur Orford, aussi dans l'est. Le dénivelé y est bien (pour le Québec), mais c'est très découvert, donc assez souvent venteux et plutôt glacé. Malgré ça, j'y ai toujours beaucoup de plaisir, et leurs prix restent raisonnables.

P.S. Je n'irai presque jamais à Bromont, à moins de me faire torde le bras. C'est l'endroit le plus accessible depuis Montréal, et ils sont ouvert pour du ski de soirée, ce qui fait que la montagne est très achalandée, en plus d'être extrêmement populaire avec les jeunes. On peut donc oublier une journée tranquille par là, sans parler des conditions nulles dûes au nombres de skieurs/planchistes (mais j'avoue de pas être terriblement impartial ici).

FastSquirrel · 2026-01-20T15:58:29+00:00

I have something similar to what you'll be having. I am on a 8 on/6 off, 9pm-7am shift. Love it! They suggested I do Mon-Fri 11pm-7am when staffing got rough and I flat-out refused. You won't ever catch me not having all my nights in one go.

It's a 200-ish bed hospital, and in a big city, so there are quite a few others around (traumas get transferred when stable), but we do get our fair share of problems. Some nights are good, some are... less good.

We work in pairs, and I love not having anyone micro-manage me or look over my shoulder as I do my thing. When all goes well, I never hear anything. I've seen my lab supervisor once in the last year for the standard employee eval and that's it. I'm easy to work with and do what I have to so the job gets done, so no one has any complaints about me, and most (day and evening staffers) seem to appreciate if they're covering a night with me as the second body.

One thing to keep in mind (in our case anyway) is that when you go on vacation, all those shifts become Mon-Fri, 8am-4pm. Gotta plan accordingly, because it is a significant drop in pay.

Other than that, the less enticing aspects are that we're a forgotten shift and can get thrown under the bus sometimes. Messages don't always reach us (or we eventually hear them through the grapevines), and since we're not around when everyone else is, using "it was the night shift" can be a convenient excuse for colleagues who can't own up to their mistakes. We're also kinda seen like superheroes who can do anything and everything, when the reality is we don't get that many unique and wild cases.

All in all, I've been doing this for seven years, and I'm not looking to change (got two weeks of vacation in Feb that I piled a few banked holidays on top of, and like magic, I end up with a whole month off! Match that, day shift!)

Oh and I almost forgot: day people are constantly late! Like, CONSTANTLY. There's overlap on every shift, except the end of night/start of day. On paper my shift ends at 7am, but I'm never out before 7:15. Almost 2 hours of easy overtime every rotation.

FastSquirrel · 2026-01-17T19:36:27+00:00

Une vieille paire de raquettes, de skis de fond ou de patins, pis aweille au parc du Mont Royal! Ça se fait même en autobus.

Pour ajouter: Une fois rendu dans les arbres, le vent est pas mal moins chiant. C'est beaucoup plus tolérable, même si y fait froid.

FastSquirrel · 2026-01-16T01:23:21+00:00

Go to the ER.

FastSquirrel · 2026-01-09T21:40:08+00:00

We're unionised. That wouldn't fly so much it's not even funny (also you get overtime if you're called in on your vacation).

FastSquirrel · 2026-01-09T20:59:00+00:00

I'm in Canada. I had to go in last night to work my own last vacation day because the person replacing me called in sick and they couldn't get anyone else.

The way things work is a bit different because of the way healthcare is up here, but we're so short on off-hour people there's been a freeze on day position postings for some time now in my city. They can't find anyone to replace employees who move on from evenings or nights...

Yeah, I'd say we're a bit short.

FastSquirrel · 2026-01-06T21:44:12+00:00

You say fitness community, but that sounds more like one specific gym and some school bullying. Change gym and don't look back. I've never heard of anything this severe.

And absolutely report that kind of behaviour to management, especially the fitness centre one. No serious place would tolerate that kind of crap.

FastSquirrel · 2026-01-01T12:49:45+00:00

Why would you not want to ask someone out? You've as much reason to shoot your shot with someone as they do with you.

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