and reach thousands of daily visitors
23 AUGUST 2010
NO 1618
Night workers
Group homes often nicely illustrate the old axiom that work expands to fill the hands available to do it. Day shifts usually involve one to one-and-a-half person coverage mainly focused on home care tasks and appointments. For the most part, evening shifts involve two or more people and typically the action expands to keep them all involved until it is time to wind down for bed time. It then passes to a solitary soul to safely get everyone through the night. The great night people understand it is all in their hands and approach it accordingly with extreme focus and confidence.
The first night people I met were coincidentally (or not) night ladies who had been midwives in the United Kingdom before coming to Canada. They had adorable ‘y’ endings assigned to their names, and took command the moment their feet hit the doorstep. If a young person was still up, this was questioned and if a group was up, they were immediately herded up to bed, few questions asked. While changeover was the routine, it was not always the priority; settling the group home was. The young people often look forward to the night person and need the assurance they will shortly get a last tuck-in from them. The assurances are given and the evening staff are given their good nights.
Over my career, those two remarkable women have been followed by series of incredible persons, both female and male, and for a time married couples, who looked after the overnight period.
Often this job is not an end in and of itself as it was for the night ladies. Many who enter the Child and Youth Care profession do so through a period in the overnight position. Often, they are students with a full day schedule with a need for a quiet night for themselves as much as for their charges. Most are unique, usually with larger goals as professionals or for financial independence.
In addition to an intense focus on the overnight task and the confidence, the best night workers are directive, patient and soft- spoken, yet clearly open to understanding the youth in their care. They appreciate the quiet time to study and read, and ensuring a sleeping home is the priority. Still, they often know the young people with a clarity others would marvel at.
“A quiet night”
They have some advantages over the active practitioner. One is the overview,
gleaned from reading the logs routinely and with contemplation on a nightly
basis. Another is the advantage of the young people often sharing intimate
life stories, concerns and worries with them at tuck-in and checks. Concerns
about public face are dismissed and the night person with his or her
apparent isolation from the team at large creates an opportunity for
confessionals, reflections and often, substantial conversations. To some
extent, to maintain the dialogue, what happens at night stays at night, and
day staff come in to a brief note reporting a “quiet night”. Sometimes only
in specific conversations with night staff did those profound insights
emerge, usually at a time when they could explain and advance a young
person’s best interests.
Every now and then over my career, I would fall into the overnight position usually to cover for illness at the last minute or while away on a camping trip away from the group home.
The first time this happened was instructive in one of the key aspects of the position – safety. I had to stay on and the girls were thrown by the situation, as was I. Once the teasing about the double shift passed, they just wanted to stay up and talk, deflecting my appeals to them to go to bed. At some point, one of them found a cache of donated clothing and a modeling show was soon under way. After a few outfits were presented, the girls started padding their bust lines and then padding them more, and finally padding them to such as outrageous extent that even they were flooring themselves. Their anxiety and their reassurance came together in a last shared laugh and satisfied they went off to bed.
The last thing on my mind was the first on theirs – never having had a male stay over to that point in the unit. On other overnights, when they came up, there were no concerns and a male was eventually hired for what became a multi-year career notable for its stability and routine at night.
The key is just that – stability and routine – and it has to begin prior to the night practitioner coming on shift. Bedtimes have their own set of rituals and routines. Of these, an essential one would be ending the day well before bedtime. Whatever the activity of the evening, it needs to end a good hour before bed. Lights need to be dimmed, snacks taken, the teeth brushed and the change into pajamas made. Time spent with the staff at a tuck-in can often be the reward at the end of the day. Room lights are dimmed, the day reviewed, cares and concerns are addressed and finally the covers pulled up for sleep. Of course, that is the ideal. It can be interrupted by individual issues over bedtime, buddy agendas to leave or cause trouble or even group issues that can have the entire unit jumping. The advantage of the early wind-down is that the unsettled can be identified. Not always, of course, as I have known many who have proceeded through the tuck-in process wonderfully and then slipped out the door during changeover or shortly thereafter.
A quiet night benefits everyone involved. Preparing well for it is the highest compliment and assistance that an evening shift can pass on to the overnight persons. They are often under compensated for the work they do and sometimes overlooked for the wisdom and insights they could offer. It is vital to recognize them as key members of the team, and to involve them as much as possible in the lifestyle of the unit.
GARTH GOODWIN
Goodwin, G. (2006). Angels of the night. Relational
Child and Youth Care Practice, 19, 1. pp. 38-39
