Sleeping Through Pager/beeper

[Contach]

I have a problem.

I am a heavy sleeper, and at the end of a long day's work, I won't wake up to my pager if it beeps within the first few hours of my sleep. My pager will beep like 8 times then just turn off.. This is not nearly long enough.

 

Has anyone had this problem and have suggestions on what to do? 

 

- No I'm not sleeping in bed with my pager for fear of it falling off the bed or getting hid under the covers/pillow and become muffled.

- I've tried getting it forwarded to my cellphone, but it only works sometimes (ie. if the operator pages me).

- I've keeping it on a chair next to my bed, but this has failed.

 

Thanks,

Contach

[rmorelan]

I think that is a fear of almost every resident.

 

One thing you can do at Ottawa at least is if there is a phone in the room - usually is - you can have the operator call that phone in addition to paging if you are worried. You can let the operator know of course that you are a deep sleeper and they may need to page twice if you don't respond. Same with anyone you expect to page your.

 

you may also have to investigate a better pager with the hospital - even if you have to pay for it.

 

 

I have a problem.

I am a heavy sleeper, and at the end of a long day's work, I won't wake up to my pager if it beeps within the first few hours of my sleep. My pager will beep like 8 times then just turn off.. This is not nearly long enough.

 

Has anyone had this problem and have suggestions on what to do? 

 

- No I'm not sleeping in bed with my pager for fear of it falling off the bed or getting hid under the covers/pillow and become muffled.

- I've tried getting it forwarded to my cellphone, but it only works sometimes (ie. if the operator pages me).

- I've keeping it on a chair next to my bed, but this has failed.

 

Thanks,

Contach

[mononoke]

Have you tried putting your pager inside a glass cup? It amplifies the sound and if it vibrates against the glass, that's pretty noisy too

[ellorie]

Wow that's clever!

 

I sleep with the lights on in an uncomfortable position. But I find when I'm on call I am so anxious that I only sleep lightly anyway.

[Lactic Folly]

 

 

you may also have to investigate a better pager with the hospital - even if you have to pay for it.

 

This. Your pager sounds unusually mild-mannered (turning off even if there has been no tactile response to a new incoming page). My pager will continue to emit a piercing shriek every few minutes - for a low battery, mind you, not a new page - at all hours of the day and night, that can be heard clearly even in a different room, stuffed in a drawer. Once this happened over a long weekend when I was not going to be at the hospital to replace the battery. Taking the battery out was the only solution.

[rmorelan]

Wow that's clever!

 

I sleep with the lights on in an uncomfortable position. But I find when I'm on call I am so anxious that I only sleep lightly anyway.

 

most people I think don't sleep well on call ha

 

I am a very light sleeper. well don't sleep much in any case I guess. on call in particular.

 

when you know you are just going to be woken up even if you get to the call room every 30 minutes anyway you tend not to really sleep.

[W0lfgang]

I'm a deep sleeper myself, but not as bad as you. At times, I've set my phone alarm to go off every hour so I can check for pages.

[ploughboy]

I'm the deepest sleeper that I know, but nights when I'm on call I still wake up flailing and check my pager every couple of hours because I'm convinced that I've missed something.  I've had the "are you *sure* nobody has paged me?" conversation with locating on many occassions.

 

Agree with the idea of telling any wards/units that you are covering to dial the call room phone if they don't hear from you quickly.

 

Also really like the idea of putting the pager into a drinking glass.  Never heard of that before, but that ought to make enough noise to wake up the dead.

 

And don't worry.  If it's really important, they will page you again.  And again.  And again.

[rmorelan]

I'm the deepest sleeper that I know, but nights when I'm on call I still wake up flailing and check my pager every couple of hours because I'm convinced that I've missed something.  I've had the "are you *sure* nobody has paged me?" conversation with locating on many occassions.

 

Agree with the idea of telling any wards/units that you are covering to dial the call room phone if they don't hear from you quickly.

 

Also really like the idea of putting the pager into a drinking glass.  Never heard of that before, but that ought to make enough noise to wake up the dead.

 

And don't worry.  If it's really important, they will page you again.  And again.  And again.

 

only issue is at my centre - again is all you get - after two pages they bump up to the next level - and in radiology the next level is staff

 

and staff don't like to be woken up

[ploughboy]

only issue is at my centre - again is all you get - after two pages they bump up to the next level - and in radiology the next level is staff

 

and staff don't like to be woken up

 

Nobody wakes up the ICU attending but me.  And he/she never is awakened when I am the fellow on call.

 

 

This might in some way be connected to my paranoia about missed pages, but I'm not sure. 

[NLengr]

only issue is at my centre - again is all you get - after two pages they bump up to the next level - and in radiology the next level is staff

 

and staff don't like to be woken up

I'd be more worried about my staff trying to give the floor orders that make sense and aren't drugs from the 1980's rather than them being woken up.

[deeman101]

I have issues with this. I tend to sleep very deep and easily. On call I can be fast asleep in a matter of seconds after hitting the bed. I have slept through pages....many times. My first few R1 call shifts I intentionally slept sitting with head down on desk to prevent me from sleeping too deep, lol. But I have found a solution!

 

Set the pager on the loudest setting, use the most obnoxious tone, and put in a fresh battery. Then clip it to the collar of your scrub top. This has worked well for me, even if I roll over it still manages to wake me up. Sometimes the sound incorporates into my dream initially, but I still end up understanding that I just got paged and need to wake the F up.

[CharmingHedgehog]

One of the staff told me he stopped sleeping on call when he was a resident (granted there was not much sleep to be had anyway) because he would do the most extraordinary things to get out of leaving the call room. So now, even as staff, he just bring reading material and other stuff to do overnight. I also usually just end up staying awake rather than trying to catch the few minutes of sleep

[ploughboy]

I'd be more worried about my staff trying to give the floor orders that make sense and aren't drugs from the 1980's rather than them being woken up.

 

Give him ether!  More ether!  And then some of that penicillin stuff.

[ploughboy]

One of the staff told me he stopped sleeping on call when he was a resident (granted there was not much sleep to be had anyway) because he would do the most extraordinary things to get out of leaving the call room. So now, even as staff, he just bring reading material and other stuff to do overnight. I also usually just end up staying awake rather than trying to catch the few minutes of sleep

 

It's about getting the optimum amount of sleep.  20 minutes is great.  6 hours is great (but rarely happens).  Anything in between that sucks, because I feel groggy and gross.  Often better just to hang out at the nursing station, check the residents notes and orders to make sure they have done what they're supposed to, twiddle the dials on the vents, etc than go to sleep.

[CharmingHedgehog]

It's about getting the optimum amount of sleep.  20 minutes is great.  6 hours is great (but rarely happens).  Anything in between that sucks, because I feel groggy and gross.  Often better just to hang out at the nursing station, check the residents notes and orders to make sure they have done what they're supposed to, twiddle the dials on the vents, etc than go to sleep.

Agreed! The golden amount of sleep for me is 15 minutes I think. I actually am wide awake after a 15 minute nap, but the temptation to just stay in bed is often so strong. Inevitably, I fall back to sleep and get woken up feeling super crappy. Doesn't help that the usual expectation for call is 0-1 hour of sleep, so sometimes I just feel it's futile to go to the call room. Instead I (ahem) work on my collaborator CanMEDS role and talk to nurses.

[Anne]

I share this pain of being a pager non-waker and just all around being disoriented when woken. I often dream I continue to work with patients or see test results as I am sleeping, which is super annoying, confusing, and anxiety provoking. My strategy is to always use cell phone and call room extension when possible- give the number to nursing or whatever is the appropriate place when on smaller services like icu/neuro/psych/peds etc. That usually solves it for me. On big services like CTU or hospitalist I always do the loudest setting, most annoying high pitched ring, with vibrate and clip it to my collar. Also works. After once telling a nurse that I already knew the vitals she just took that she was calling to tell me about and her being like wtf is wrong with this resident and having to call me back, I now often do 10 jumping jacks or splash water in my face before responding if it is a page. I also thank my luck stars that I chose psych... at somewhere that has no overnight call. Some ppl aren't cut out for night work. I am one of them. I wish I could but I can't. I seriously have the weakest constitution ever. I am in awe of all the people who are in surgical and medicine specialties that seem to just float through. When I am on the non-stop 24 hour call services I have to eat every two hours (I keep snacks in my bag) and wear compression stockings, not to mention I never leave home without Advil for the headache I get for staying up past midnight....