Healthcare has no snow day. When the advice on the radio is to stay off the roads unless your journey is essential, a nurse's journey is the one they mean by essential.
That produces a specific set of risks that are worth planning for rather than improvising, because most of them arrive at four in the morning at the end of a twelve hour shift.
Driving is the biggest risk
Not the illness, not the workload. The commute, in poor conditions, while fatigued.
Combine an icy road with someone at the end of a night shift and you have the two largest contributors to serious road injury in the same vehicle. Fatigue impairment after extended wakefulness is comparable to meaningful blood alcohol levels, and it degrades exactly the judgement you need on a slippery road.
Before winter starts. Get the tyres checked, including tread depth and pressure, which drops in cold weather. Replace worn wipers and top up the screen wash with a winter formulation, because standard fluid freezes on the glass. Test the battery, as cold kills marginal ones. Keep the fuel above half, so a long delay or diversion does not become a second problem.
Keep a kit in the car. A blanket, a torch, a scraper and de-icer, a phone power bank, water and something to eat, and a spare pair of gloves and a hat. If you are stationary on a closed road for three hours, all of it matters.
Leave earlier than feels necessary. Rushing on ice is the mechanism. Gentle inputs, longer following distances, and brake before the bend rather than in it.
If you are too tired to drive, do not. Many hospitals have a quiet room or an on call room and nurses almost never ask. Twenty minutes of sleep before setting off is a better decision than the alternative, and so is a lift with a colleague.
Getting into and out of the building
Hospital car parks are gritted late, if at all, and the walk from a distant staff car park in the dark is where a lot of winter injuries happen.
Change into your work shoes inside rather than wearing them across an icy car park, because clinical footwear has a smooth outsole designed for indoor floors. Keep boots with real tread in the car.
Walk on the flat rather than taking a shortcut over an unlit grass verge. Take shorter steps with your weight over your feet, keep your hands out of your pockets so you can balance, and use the handrail on external steps every time.
Black ice forms most readily in shaded areas and where meltwater refreezes overnight, which describes most hospital entrances at five in the morning.
Inside the building
Winter brings wet floors continuously, tracked in from outside, and slips are among the more common staff injuries in healthcare.
Report a wet floor and mark it rather than stepping around it and moving on. Watch for the transition point just inside an entrance, which is where the water is.
Respiratory season is the other in-building factor. Census rises, acuity rises, and staffing is frequently thinnest because of leave and sickness among your colleagues. Get the influenza vaccine, be rigorous about hand hygiene at a time of year when everyone is rushing, and use appropriate PPE for respiratory presentations rather than the minimum.
The staffing pressure is worth naming because it is predictable. Units run short in January every year, and a unit running short has consequences for patients. Our note on staffing ratios and patient outcomes covers what to do when an assignment is unsafe.
Staying warm and functional
Layers rather than one heavy coat, because you will move between a freezing car park and an overheated ward repeatedly. A base layer under scrubs is more comfortable than a jumper you cannot remove mid-shift.
Cold, dry air plus constant hand washing produces cracked skin, and broken skin on the hands is an infection control issue rather than a cosmetic one. Use a fragrance free cream that absorbs quickly, several times a shift.
Keep drinking water. People drink less when they are cold and hospital air in winter is very dry, so mild dehydration is easy to accumulate.
The shift you cannot leave
Occasionally weather closes roads and the incoming shift cannot arrive. Every nurse who has worked a winter knows the feeling of being told to stay.
Find out your employer's severe weather policy before it happens, not during. Does the facility open sleeping accommodation, is there a mandatory stay expectation, how is the extra time paid, and what happens if you genuinely cannot get in.
Keep a small overnight bag in the car through winter: a spare set of scrubs, underwear, a toothbrush, phone charger and any medication you take. Nurses who have one are considerably less distressed by an unexpected overnight than nurses who do not.
Look after the season, not just the shift
Winter is also the stretch where daylight is scarce, particularly if you work nights and sleep through what little there is. Low mood in the darker months is common in shift workers and worth taking seriously rather than dismissing.
Get outside in daylight on days off where you can. If mood is persistently low, disturbed beyond the usual, or not lifting on time off, that is worth speaking to someone about. Our piece on burnout covers where the line sits between an occupational problem and a clinical one.
Common questions
What is the biggest winter risk for nurses?
The commute. Poor road conditions combined with post shift fatigue is the combination most likely to cause serious harm, because extended wakefulness impairs exactly the judgement icy roads demand.
What should I keep in the car in winter?
A blanket, torch, scraper and de-icer, a phone power bank, water and food, spare gloves and hat, and an overnight bag with spare scrubs and any medication. Keep the fuel above half.
How do I avoid slipping in the hospital car park?
Wear boots with real tread and change into clinical shoes inside, since their smooth outsoles are made for indoor floors. Take short steps, keep hands out of pockets for balance, use handrails, and stay on lit paths rather than cutting across verges.
What if I am too tired to drive home after a night shift?
Do not drive. Many facilities have a quiet room or on call room that staff rarely use. Twenty minutes of sleep first, a lift with a colleague, or public transport are all better decisions.
What should I know about my employer's severe weather policy?
Find out in advance whether the facility opens sleeping accommodation, whether there is a mandatory stay expectation, how additional time is paid, and what happens if you genuinely cannot get in. Learning this during a storm is too late.
PNG Solutions is a healthcare staffing agency in Atlanta placing nurses and allied health professionals nationwide. If you want to talk to a recruiter, call 470 713 0689 or send us a note.