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Gillette Children's staff perform vital work during the evening and night hours.
“Gillette Children’s After Dark” offers an hour-by-hour look at the vital work performed by second and third shift employees at the St. Paul Campus. From evening activities that bring joy to patients, to the dedicated efforts of nurses, environmental services, security, pharmacy, and facilities staff, the story highlights how the hospital continues to function smoothly overnight. Employees manage sleep studies, carry out critical cleaning, ensure patient safety, support medical needs, and maintain the facility. Their teamwork, quiet dedication, and efforts ensure that patient care remains seamless and the hospital is fully prepared for the next day.
6:00 PM It's Time to Craft
A half-dozen inpatient families gather around conjoined tables in the main waiting room just behind the registration desk. Laughter spills from the area beyond Hope Express cafe into the skyway.
Tonight, children make Valentine’s arts and crafts with purple, pink and red construction paper. Kids decorate cutouts of sharks, dogs, llamas and hearts with markers. One child tosses a makeshift paper airplane across the waiting room. Typically, each week Monday through Thursday from 6-8 p.m., Child and Family Services hosts activities for patients and their families. Fun ranges from arts and craft to games to movie nights.
“It gets patients out of their rooms – these activities are such a good release for patients and parents,” said MacKenzie Rayman, a child life specialist helping children with their Valentine’s crafts. “It’s so quiet before the activity. Then, all of a sudden, there is laughter, activity and music. It brings life to the hallways.”
7:00 PM Laughter and Dance Parties Before Bed
On the Inpatient Rehab Unit, registered nurses Kailey Giles and Hope Roberson play with Leyanna, a young patient who is laughing by the nursing station. Giles says there was a makeshift dance party with three patients just moments earlier.
“We get a lot of good patient interaction and time before everyone goes to bed,” she said. During second shift, Giles and her team often help kids take baths and complete homework. “There is more time to interact with coworkers, too.”
Near the entrance of the unit, Post-it notes hang from images of nurses who are working second shift. The yellow pieces of paper feature favorite inspirational quotes such as, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
Back on the Inpatient Rehab Unit, nurses are working diligently to meet patient needs.
“The place is more laid back and quiet on the second shift,” said Marie Krisik, a charge nurse who has been working second shift for 10 years.
Gillette Children's security guards, Frank Daly and Jason Neuharth make walk the hospital skyways and hallways to make sure everything is safe and in good order.
7:30 PM Security Checks and Sleep Studies
Security guards Frank Daly and Jason Neuharth are patrolling the skyway. They must ensure all patient areas are free of debris, visitors know where they are heading, and entrances and exits are secured. Occasionally, someone gets lost and wanders onto campus. But there isn’t usually a need to reach out to law enforcement. Daly and his team can handle most situations with common sense and courtesy.
“We need the hospital to be in good standing condition at all times, but especially before we depart at 9 p.m. and Regions security team takes over,” Daly said.
Garrett, a patient who has spina bifida, is getting set up for a sleep study in hopes of improving his sleep hygiene. Kids who have complex medical conditions are more likely to suffer from sleep apnea. Polysomnographer Beth Rait is in the process of hooking 24 wires up to his head and torso to monitor vitals overnight. She’s been conducting sleep studies for 18 years and working overnights for much of it.
“I can sleep well during the day, but sleep techs are the worst offenders of good sleep habits,” she said. “We don’t do what we tell you to do!”
Tonight, two patients participate in sleep studies, which is typical. For most of the year, patients are booked for sleep studies Monday through Thursday. As Garrett and two other patients get ready for bed, Rait and her team buckle down for a long night of tracking and sleuthing for patterns of sleep disruption.
8:00 PM Deep Cleaning and Caring
The operating rooms on the third floor of the hospital may be free of patients, but Environmental Services (EVS) specialists Scotty Lee and Alysha Holmes are hard at work. They meticulously and methodically wipe every surface from floor to ceiling during a terminal cleaning— the most thorough disinfecting process—in one operating room.
Every object in the OR is on wheels and can be moved to clean around and underneath. Even the walls are scrubbed during the hour-long process. During a terminal cleaning, Lee and Holmes often sully more than 15 rags. It’s important to hold each other accountable by double checking each other's handiwork, Holmes said.
“We need to make sure everything is clean for the kids, nurses and doctors who go into surgery,” she said. “It needs to be safe for everyone who goes in there. It’s a really important area. You don’t want to miss anything.”
EVS specialist, Peggy Massaquoi, and the environment of care team at Gillette Children's work through the night to make sure the hospital is clean and ready for patients.
9:15 PM Bring Out the Robots
Roxanne Shields, an EVS shift coordinator, and Peggy Massaquoi, an EVS specialist, are getting ready to tackle the cleaning and sanitation process of the Orthopedics West Inpatient Unit.
Massaquoi begins in an empty patient room. She empties the hazard bin and trash. She fills sanitizer and soap dispensers. She throws soiled sheets and pillow casings in a laundry bin. Then she scrubs – electronics, gadgets, doors, blinds, the couch, the bathroom and mirrors.
She precisely wipes each surface with a disinfectant called Oxide, which is strong enough to kill Clostridium difficile, better known as C. diff – an antibiotic-resistant infection that can cause colon inflammation.
When Massaquoi is finished, Shields unveils Thor UVC®. It’s a high-performance disinfection robot that delivers a continuous wave of ultraviolet energy to kill germs and pathogens. Before unleashing the germ-killing robot, Shields closes the room’s shades, blinds and door to protect employees from the light. She toggles through options on a tablet for a few moments when a purple light suddenly radiates from small openings in the blinds. She zaps this particular room with Thor three times.
“It’s the same job no matter what time of day,” Shields said. “We get the rooms ready and clean for patients from top to bottom no matter what.”
This group of Gillette Children's nurses work on the orthopedic unit and say working at night allows them to form close relationships with patients and staff.
10:15 PM Deep Conversations and Sleep
All of the patients are asleep on the Inpatient Neurology Unit. Even a kiddo who was playing video games until moments ago – while her mother nodded off on the nearby couch – has succumbed to slumber. There are 9 patients on the unit tonight. The four nurses and two aides who are working the second shift are getting ready for the third-shift team to arrive at 11 p.m.
“We have deep conversations lots of times after the kids go to bed,” said Emma Solheim, a neurosciences registered nurse. “You really get to know your coworkers.”
While Solheim and her team miss out on food trucks and exciting hospital activations such as the annual Target and Twins holiday events, the camaraderie on her team remains strong. And they can catch up on Gillette happenings on the Vibe network when they have downtime.
The atmosphere is remarkably similar on the Orthopedics West Inpatient Unit. Two nurses and two aides are aptly operating on a dimly lit unit and simultaneously preparing for the transition to the third-shift team. Patient care remains seamless as the night goes on.
Gillette Children's facilities engineer, Shane Madaris, is ready to keep things running smoothly on the St. Paul campus.
11:00 PM The Puppet Master Keeps Things Running
Shane Madaris, a facilities engineer, opens a door behind the elevator bay leading to Regions Hospital. The room is full of cables and wires jutting from the wall and ceiling. He climbs a ladder to a large air vent and pulls out a power drill to swap out a filter. A sensor he closely monitors has alerted him it's in need of changing.
As an engineer, Madaris is the puppet master behind-the- scenes making sure that the St. Paul Campus is operating smoothly. He makes keys, analyzes handling systems, maintains lighting, troubleshoots access issues, plugs leaks, manages plumbing, monitors temperatures, changes outlets and calls vendors for repair work. Someone from his team is on-call 24/7.
“I could be pinning a lock to replace a key, fixing a toilet that is running and suddenly need to figure out why the building pressure might be off,” he said. “It’s really an interesting dynamic.”
Back by the main registration area, third-shift employees come pouring onto campus, ready to tackle the night, morning and whatever they entail.
The Gillette EVS team often spends the evening hours deep cleaning floors. The team takes pride in keeping the hospital looking good.
11:30 PM Taking Pride in Clean Floors
It only happens about once a quarter, but tonight Arthur Moore and his EVS colleagues are doing a deep clean of the entire rehabilitation therapy gym. That means all the equipment is being moved and the entire floor is getting waxed and scrubbed. The area is taped off and ready to be tackled.
Moore and his four-person team are making sure the St. Paul Campus is clean when people arrive in the morning. They’ll vacuum rooms and hallways, clean bathrooms, wipe surfaces and dust until 7 a.m.
“I love doing floors and carpet,” Moore said. “That’s what I do.”
Outside the gym, the sounds of big band music spills out from the cleaning cart of Ray Crowley, an EVS specialist who is cleaning the skyway. He’s blasting a playlist from his phone as he goes about his business. He bellows goodbyes and dishes thanks to employees as they leave for the night. He warmly greets others as they arrive. You couldn’t miss him if you tried. It seems that’s what he’s going for. Fortunately, the genial act works. The masses are entertained.
The night ticks on.
1:00 AM The Quietness of Doing a Good Job
If the St. Paul Campus is simply quiet overnight, then it can confidently be stated you can hear a pin drop on the Inpatient Adult Unit on the 7th floor.
“We are a little more isolated than the other units, so we advocate for each other,” said Brenna Bosse, a registered nurse on the Adult Unit.
The nurses up here agree that working with adult patients is rewarding because Gillette has been treating many of them for most of their lives.
"It’s amazing to see what individuals who have complex medical conditions accomplish as they age, said Alexa IntVeld, an Adult Unit registered nurse.
As for the quiet? She says that’s a sign that she and her team are doing a solid job.
“A good night nurse doesn’t wake you up. You might not even see them,” IntVeld said. “We learn how to do things without the lights on.”
David Hughes is the overnight pharmacist at Gillette Children's and says the pace of his work depends on the number of patients who arrive in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
2:00 AM The Pharmacy is Ready
The prescriptions needed for patients the following day arrive in the third-floor Pharmacy Unit at 2 a.m. each day. David Hughes, an overnight pharmacist, is ready to receive them so patients can continue to make progress on their recovery journeys. He works 7 days on, 7 days off. Work hard, play hard.
Pharmacy services on the third shift fluctuate between nonexistent to incredibly busy – where the speed at which a medication is filled can have a direct impact on patient outcomes. The pace entirely depends on who arrives in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit – and the extent of their injuries.
A night in 2024, when several siblings arrived in the Gillette PICU with critical injuries, was the busiest night of Hughes' working career, he said. Thankfully, tonight is not one of those nights. He carefully grinds up some medications and gets an order ready to send up the pneumatic tubing system.
Bonus: The day shift had a Super Bowl party and there are leftovers in the breakroom. A soda, dip and chips are a welcome treat.
Gillette Children's nurse, Breanna Bosse, RN, says working at night in the Inpatient Adult Unit is rewarding.
3:30 AM What to Wear
It’s always a difficult choice whether or not to wear leggings, said Alexis Welch, a PICU registered nurse. If it’s a slow night, it can get chilly and extra warmth is needed. However, if a patient arrives with a traumatic injury, the secondary layer will keep you sweating like crazy when in action. Tonight, she went with leggings – a safe gamble. So far.
“We have to be ready for any patient to come in. It can happen very quickly,” Welch said. “We use our critical thinking and skills to achieve quick results.”
When it’s quiet there is time for education, training, practice scenarios and making holiday decorations. There is also time to conduct emergency cart checks so that adult and pediatric patients have necessary supplies in case of an emergency.
“You have to be ready for anything at any moment,” she said.
On the Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit, registered nurse Michele Newcomer has a bit of a different perspective on third-shift work.
“Part of our job is staying awake when everyone else is asleep,” she said. “We’re here when patients need us.”
“Plus, it won’t be long before children begin to wake at 5 a.m.,” she said. “There is lots of assistance needed to help patients get ready for a busy day of therapy.”
6:00 AM Ready for a New Day
The St. Paul Campus slowly shifts back into morning mode. Linens are delivered to the supply dock. First-shift employees will arrive soon. Patients rise and get ready for the day. Freshly cleaned, the hallways sparkle and shine. Hope Express Cafe opens for patients and employees alike. The smell of coffee wafts through the halls. A few cars begin pulling into the Gateway Plaza parking ramp.
The sun will be up soon. For some, the day is about to begin. For others, it’s wrapping up. It’s been a long night. Much was accomplished. The hospital is ready for a new day.
The sun rises and a new day begins at Gillette Children's.
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