Calling in for no sleep

srercg6 · Dec 27, 2016

it happens to all of us. We have nurses who need extra sleep and someone has to stay - but then it happens the other way around the next year that person who stayed, needs a day of extra sleep - we all help each other out - yeah, that person may have worked 12 hours....usually the nurse who DOES pick up the 4 hours, VOLUNTEERS and they usually do so because they know they are off the next day - in my experience. We all help each other out - we're nurses.

That being said - I recently had an issue with my teenager - and didn't sleep AT ALL in between 12 hr shifts, and almost called off that night - but called them back and said forget it -I'm going to come in - I didn't want any points on my record for attendance over it - more stress on top of stress. lol

kiakia122002 · Dec 31, 2016

I'm not sure about that, the facility that i worked for in Alaska allowed some nurses to do that, however, i have worked many shifts and not had any sleep and went to work anyway, it is hard on staffing to call in for this, back in the day, as I am an older nurse we sucked it up and went to work anyway, some DON's will tell you it's not their problem and get to work

kiakia122002 · Dec 31, 2016

I totally agree, with the points you are making, I worked without sleep myself being on call and working for those that called off because they didn't get any sleep, but when i was sick and tried to call off i was told come to work, had vomiting and diarrhea all day and asked the person that i stayed for once before because they didn't get any sleep, if they would cover and the answer was no

sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN · Dec 31, 2016

Quote
PP- So your solution is to make another nurse, who has likely just worked 12+ hours and is tired him/herself, stay until the OP feels ready to come in?! Would YOU like somebody doing that to you? It's not the off-going nurse's problem.
OP- I'm confused. You worked a 12 hr shift Friday that went until 3:30am, which would make it Saturday. However, you state you only had one night to get back to a 7am schedule. Saturday night and Sunday night make 2 nights to get back to a normal schedule. I honestly wouldn't be happy if a coworker called out because they were "tired" if it made the day harder for the rest of the nurses working (unless there were extenuating circumstances like being up caring for a sick child, etc.).

Why why don't you recognize, "One special snowflake".......

devil made me do it......

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Dec 31, 2016

kiakia122002 said:
I totally agree, with the points you are making, I worked without sleep myself being on call and working for those that called off because they didn't get any sleep, but when I was sick and tried to call off I was told come to work, had vomiting and diarrhea all day and asked the person that I stayed for once before because they didn't get any sleep, if they would cover and the answer was no

kiakia, if you will use the "quote" button right next to the reply button, we will be able to see the post with which you agree-and so will they.

Davey Do · Jan 1, 2017

One time, I had two hours of sleep before a 12 hour shift in the days I was going through a separation/divorce and was scheduled to work the midnight shift on the adolescent psych unit. If I got 5 hours of sleep during a sleep session at that time, I felt lucky.

These were in the days of paper charts, and I could do an admission on a patient with little or no medical areas of concern in about 20 minutes.

The military EMS brought in the adolescent of a high ranking officer. I usually tell hyperverbal patients and family members that most of the questions require a simple yes or no answer. If I need more information, I'll ask.

This military officer did not know the meaning of a short answer, no matter/no how. About an hour and a half into the admission, the mother joined us. She too, was hyperverbal. At one point, I asked her to identify one positive thing about her child. That mother gave an answer that, I swear, lasted 20 minutes. Maybe it was only five minutes and seemed like twenty.

Mind you, I'm sleep-deprived and doing a good job of being patient, but after completing an admission process that took 2 1/2 hours, the parents tell me that they are not going to leave their child.

So, I call telephone the psychiatrist and he says to let the patient go AMA.

What a waste.

MichelletheRN · Jan 1, 2017

Swing shifts are crappy. Thank God we don't do them on any kind of regular basis.

I would not call in "tired", at least not saying that. If you are so tired you don't feel well, you could call in "ill". If you were sick to your stomach as you mentioned, that could actually be why you felt so yucky and couldn't sleep.

If it is a possibility to come in and work through the busiest time, and then go home, that would be an idea. Our busiest times are from probably around 10 am to 10 pm. I have let people go home when it is slow, or go home on call. Of course, this is a guarantee that all hell will break loose, and you will end up there the whole 12 hours, plus another 3, and you won't even get a chance to pee.

It is hard to constantly change your sleep schedule. I don't want to encourage this if you don't absolutely need it, but taking benedryl or an otc sleep aid at these times would be appropriate. I, and most of the nurses i work with, have ambien, or remeron, or lunesta on hand. If i have trouble falling asleep, i find one benedryl and 1/2 an ambien will usually knock me out within an hour, and i can awake 6 to 7 hours later perfectly awake and alert, with no continued drowsiness.

LovingLife123 · Jan 1, 2017

We night shifters do it all the time. It's how we live. And try night shifters work past 0330. We work until at the very least 0730, but if it's a crazy night maybe 0900. On our days off, we adjust to a dayshift schedule, then, its back to nights. I've very often gone in on little sleep.

I know this is an old thread, but after reading through this, I don't think most people understand this is the life of a night shifter.

While it's true your PTO is your PTO, it would suck to be short handed because the OP was tired. Hopefully she gave her facility enough notice and the facility was able to replace her. My facility has that in place so, I guess if I felt that bad and not safe to care for patients, I would call in. If I were going to leave my coworkers short, I would go in. That's just me though. And since none of us could possibly know exactly how she felt that day, we can't judge.

Orion81RN · Jan 3, 2017

I hadn't slept a wink in 3 days going on 4, got a doctor's note and still got written up. Bastards.

showbizrn · Jan 3, 2017

D*** right! If you lack sufficient sleep, patient safety is at risk or is jeopardized! Never mind, your faulty nursing judgment due to impaired cognitive functioning related to your lack of sleep.

NEVER risk patient safety due to some " pretentious" or "false" sense of commitment to report to work. If you don't take care of yourself, how can you take care of the patient(s)?

djorchid · May 25, 2017

You get out at 3:30 Saturday morning and go back at 7a.m. Monday and you are complaining about not getting enough sleep & want to call off? I don't understand this!?! Am I reading this wrong?

Each time you call off a shift, think of your coworkers that have to suffer due to the now shortage in staff.

JadeEclypse · Jun 16, 2017

While it isn't an ideal reason to be calling in you have to take into consideration what it is you actually do for a living. This isn't the kind of job that you just sit behind a cash register or do simple repetitive things over and over again. You're not dealing with machines, you're dealing with machines that are hooked up to actual living people and safety is a priority not just for yourself but them. If you can't mentally focus and concentrate then you're not useful and you're being unsafe. Being unsafe in our line of work could cost somebody their life.

Now as a nightshifter I'm kind of used to going without a lot of sleep because that is sort of what happens when you work 3rd Shift. It's also what happens when your co-workers on day shift have absolutely no respect for your schedule and have no hesitation calling you on a morning that you worked off at 8 a.m. at noon asking you to come in at 3 and wondering why you're pissed to be with woken up... But that is neither here nor there.

Ultimately it depends on how you feel if you feel that you are capable of functioning on little sleep then you can go in, we've all had those days were sleep just wasn't happening but we were still able to function enough to do our jobs. But we've also all have those days where we've been so run down and so exhausted that we couldn't mentally think straight and felt like utter **** and those are the days where you're literally useless and dangerous.