Originally posted by night owl
Napping on your break is one thing. Sleeping half the tour of duty is another... 
[color=royalblue]At my facility, I've had staff sleep from 1am to 4 or 5am. They were written up numerous times and now they no longer work there. Your break time IS your time to do whatever. After that, you're obligated to be fully alert and functioning as a member of the nursing team. 
You couldn't be more right! At the LTC facility where I work (11p-7a), most of the CNA staff nap for a hour on their breaks (1 hr combined two 15 min coffee & 1/2 hr lunch) & many will either sleep in the hallways just before or just coming back from the breaks. When the charge nurse on duty walk by, they just re-adjust their position, as if they weren't sleeping at all. On top of this, the shift supervisor walk by with blinders on because when verbally warned, the staff just either ignore or verbally abuse her...go figure? I work in an unionized facility where write-ups often doesn't stick....Oh well.
However, on the other hand, the charge nurses have so much to do that we literally only have time to use the bathroom just once per shift (7a-3p, 3p-11p, &/or 11p-7a). We're supposed to be going to a paperless system, but we still have patients charts to audit, MARs/TARs to write-out, & recaps to check among all of the other duties that are expected. We used to have only approximately 15 meds to pass in the mornings & 3-7 blood sugar checks; that's changed due to some of the medications having to be taken on an empty stomach. Now we pass approximately 30 meds & 7-11 am blood sticks because the 7a-3p shift state that they're overworked/understaff to perform the glucose checks! In addition, there used to be two nurses per 58 capicity unit each shift; now we're down to 1-11/2 nurses on 11p-7a shift for the same number of patients. And how about the times when the CNA staff is short & us nurses have to either fill-in the entire shift or worse yet, do rounds @ 11pm, pass meds @ 1a, do rounds again @ 2a, pass meds @4a, and help with final rounds which require getting a few patients up & giving showers on the their scheduled days...come on now, what are we...supernurses. No! but it's expected of us because we're supposed to be professional & suck-it-up...please!
This facility pays us for our "Breaks"....yea, good luck if a nurse can get one in without taking danagerous shortcuts. My union says that it's our own fault if we don't take breaks, but we're discipline if we take lunch/breaks & have to work overtime in order to complete your shift workload. Try to ask the shift supervisor to cover all six floors for one hour each to cover breaks while they have their own duties to perform...yea right.
I don't mind helping-out the CNAs whenever I can, but I really resent it when they expect me to or when they think that I don't want to when I can't because of my heavy work load. They think that the nurses "Hind" behind the med carts...unbelievable. It's hard for them to understand that I can do their jobs, but they can't do mine & I feel that it's not fair for those people to ask for my help in the morning when they've slept most of their shifts through....not to mention many take smoking breaks on top of their coffee/lunch breaks combined! I'm more than willing to assist those CNAs that I know work hard & genuinely require my help; I don't appreciate the ones who don't make an effort to do their jobs & look for me to help them do it. I'm finding myself resenting it when 7am comes & the CNAs are waving bye-bye to me while I still have to write notes, record am vitals, order stock, count narcs, & give report to the next shift (who show-up at 7am). We regularlly don't leave until 7:30a-8a without being paid for it...on top of everything else.
So I say, if you can get some rest @ your facility, by all means, do so if needed; just as long as you're awake to perform your job.
Double check with your facility/state board polities though!
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