falling asleep during nightshift

[nightlightnurseaide]

of course you shouldn't do it

but come on. we are not perfect. If you have had a hard time sleeping, I can not blame you for dozing off. all i can say is don't make a habit out of it.

I can remember once i fell asleep for 30 minutes on the nightshift on my first nurse aide job i ever had. I know i slept, because i had a dream. Funny enough my dream was about work. I dreamed i was sitting in the chair that i fell asleep in and my co-worker was like "come on we gotta make rounds" and i just could not get out that chair. It was like i was paralyzed. No, it did not actually happen, because when i woke up it was no where near time for us to make rounds.

Im probably gonna get alot for this, but im the type of co-workers that understand your tired and if you need me to poke you on the head for rounds or when your light goes off then i will. I actually have a co-worker like that and she is a really good nurse aide. The most i will ever do is curl up and close my eyes to meditate, but i won't actually fall asleep. I won't to know everyone else's take on this. Is it really that bad?

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

The bottom line is your facility's policy. Most read " being asleep or giving the appearance of sleep" .. is grounds for immediate dismissal. I was charge for many years.. looked the other way in many circumstances. I don't give a rat's patooti what shift it was, or what your situation was... don't sleep on my watch.

What really maddening is that Management so often doesn't do anything about sleeping beauties.

We had 1 aide who would get her chair, her blankets, her earphones and radio, and sit down right in the hall, in plain view of God and everybody. And she slept. Management never did a blessed thing. I used to wake her up and tell her whatever needed doing. Do you think she ever did anything between 0100 and 0400 except get paid for sleeping on duty?

One time, a visitor accidentally? spilled water on her. Did I ROFLMBO!!!!! Aide was hopping mad! Of course, she took her sweet time - about 2 hours - to find some dry scrubs.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

I've worked night shift for 12 years and have never slept on the job. I firmly believe sleeping out in the open at work should be a fireable offense.

Your collection of posts show one of the worst work ethics I've come across in years, not to mention the apparent selfishness and self-centered focus you seem to have. That's more worrying than any amount of sleeping.

Better to sleep where visible than where no one can find you.

[caliotter3]

What really maddening is that Management so often doesn't do anything about sleeping beauties.

We had 1 aide who would get her chair, her blankets, her earphones and radio, and sit down right in the hall, in plain view of God and everybody. And she slept. Management never did a blessed thing. I used to wake her up and tell her whatever needed doing. Do you think she ever did anything between 0100 and 0400 except get paid for sleeping on duty?

One time, a visitor accidentally? spilled water on her. Did I ROFLMBO!!!!! Aide was hopping mad! Of course, she took her sweet time - about 2 hours - to find some dry scrubs.

I've posted before about the licensed nurse who slept on duty and the house supervisor who would sit a few feet away, doing nothing about it, even when approached by those who found this behavior unacceptable. Then again, there was the other house supervisor who went into a room to sleep away. She got on the case of the original sleeping beauty, who turned those tables. Her saying? "You ----- with me, I ----- with you." The house supervisor was fired, the sleeping beauty remained at that facility for a long and fruitful career, sleeping and getting paid for it.

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

I sleep on my break every night (well, every night that I get a break, which is most of them). I'm fortunate that a 27 minute nap gives me time to clock out, get settled, nap and then clock back in feeling pretty refreshed. Other than that, I've had one night where I could feel myself getting drowsy while charting, so I got up and refilled my cold water.

We do have one nurse known to grab a blanket, sit at the desk and snooze. There was also an aide on my old floor that's known for sleeping in a chair. The managers are well aware of both situations, so it's their job to do something about it. They're both older women- late 60's and early 70's, respectively. Maybe they should leave nights, but I don't really think they could do the pace of days, either. We work around it, not saying it's what should happen, but it's there.