Sleeping during nightshift!!

[helpinghands]

This is not my first night shift position and I am shocked at how many people at this hospital sleep during their shift. I'm not talking about nodding off for a couple minutes either. They are slumped over in chair, head on the desk drooling all over themselves (at the nurses station!). Their little slumber lasts 1-2 hours, some even sneak off and sleep in their vehicles for this amount time. During this time almost everybody is busy, and even busier because they're pick up their slack.

I have mentioned this to several of the CN's, and don't get much of a response. It just some how seems accepted?!? This just can't be normal?

It's so frustrating, I run my butt off and barely manage to get breaks, eat while chart etc... and there they are: snoozing in the corner.

Please tell me this is far from the norm where you work!

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

Honestly, I don't even know how you can take a 30 minute break and sleep during that time.. When you wake up, are you really going to be alert enough to have the where with all to do your job. It puts you at a disadvantage if you should need to use your critical thinking skills and you come up blank because you just woke up from a "little nappy" when you are suppose to have your mind on business. I just can't see it:confused:

Try it one day. Take 30 minute nap when you are tired and another day take a two hour nap.

See which one makes you feel better.

I'll bet you feel better after the shorter nap than you did before.

They don't call it power nap for nothing.

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

Trauma-

If you're not getting paid, you're not working. Not everyone wants to be a martyr and donate their free time to their job. What's the problem if people sleep on their breaks? What . . . that they're not getting paid do do it? Guess what, they're not getting paid at all for the unpaid lunch. People should not be obligated to be at the hospital's beck and call during their own time. If you worked in any other field and were told to come back and work unpaid during your lunch, would you? No. In any other field, they wouldn't even ask. Why are we nurses expected to sacrifice ourselves in the name of patient care?

Now, on the other hand, people sleeping when they're on the job is unacceptable. At that point, they are responsible for their patients and are being paid to do thier jobs. People like that need to go.

Exactly. :pumpiron:

[barbyann]

Lawyer for plantiff: And where were you when Mr. Jones coded?

Nurse Sleepy: I was on my break.

Lawyer: What did you do on your break?

Nurse: I was sleeping.

Lawyer: Why were you gone two hours?

Nurse: My coworkers were supposed to wake me up but they were too busy in the code and they forgot.

Lawyer: I rest my case.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

never permitted napping at work when predominately 8 hr shifts.......hhhummmmm....

employers stance:

you are at work. we are paying you to be available at all times during scheduled work shift in case of emergencies as we are mandated by health standards.

part of being a professional is being fully prepared to work during scheduled time in facility.

nurses and bon stance:

nursing law does not specifically address sleeping on the job: bon views the violation is relation to patient negligence, safety, and/or abandonment.

abandonment is viewed as leaving the patient without telling an appropriate person you are leaving and assuring that they agree to be responsible for the patient during your absence.

if the nurse is provided "breaks" during work time then there should be an appropriate person assigned to be available to the patients during this time. during approved break time then unless the employer policy states the employee may not "nap" during the break it would not be considered negligence or abandonment by bon to sleep during this time, but viewed as employee issue ( employer stance: potential firing for not following facilities policies). if/when the nurse "sneaks" away and sleeps without such notification may result in board action if reported based on negligence related to providing patient care activities.

north carolina bon takes strong stand with several nurses yearly loosing their license over issue. disciplinary actions pending ratification january 2007

previous discussions:

from

12n sleeping during break

sleeping on duty is technically not a violation of the npa. however, if a nurse is sleeping she is neglecting the patient's in her care. so the violation is negligence. if a nurse is on break and has reported and someone accepted the responsibility of watching that nurse's patients then the nurse is not negligent. it may be against the facility policy for a nurse to sleep at any time while on duty and if this is the case it would be an employment issue.

https://allnurses.com/forums/1333592-post81.html

sleeping on the job..acceptable or not?

smoke break vs catching 20 winks

[kate1114]

I'm a little conflicted on this one. I would be supportive of a policy for small (30 minutes or less) naps as long as the patient load is assigned to another nurse (like it should be at lunch also) and as long as only one person goes at a time. OTOH, I could see this leading to all sorts of problems and abuses.

I've seen nurses who've come to work either low on sleep or not feeling well (but not feeling poorly enough to call in sick). In a couple of cases, they've negotiated a brief nap while others watch their patients, and they've come back refreshed. I've seen this done sparingly and it's worked well.

OTOH, I've seen people get fired for falling asleep on the job. These are cases when the nurses are in direct patient care or didn't negotiate a break. Someone found them napping. Hopefully they weren't holding a baby at the time (I've seen this in NICU quite a few times).

If you can't stay awake, and routinely fall asleep on night shift, it should be a sign to change to another shift. I worked with one nurse who routinely fell asleep holding babies! Pretty scary! I was really upset because everyone knew about it but nothing was done, and that could have had dangerous consequences. But eventually she moved to day shift and didn't have that problem.

I know for myself that a small nap does nothing to renew me personally. I can't imagine taking a nap and waking up more groggy and going out to take care of my patients. Also, I tend to stay busy enough that I don't have the opportunity to go sleep. On the nights when I'm running and barely have time to sit, I usually don't even feel tired LOL

[Keepstanding, ASN, RN]

Am I the only person who thinks this is abnormal ?

Seem's to be a lot of nurses in favor of napping. It really suprises me

that it is accepted practice. I am in shock !!

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Am I the only person who thinks this is abnormal ?

Seem's to be a lot of nurses in favor of napping. It really suprises me

that it is accepted practice. I am in shock !!

No, you're the only one.

But i'm also one of those people that feels worse after a nap of 30 minutes, than a nap of two hours. No matter the length of time, i don't sleep at work, unless i'm on call, in the on-call room, and off the clock.

[jamonit]

that nurseangel lady has me all wrong. i don't think it's a good idea to sleep during night shift or any shift. especially when people's lives depend upon you and your actions or inaction. i'd be too worried about my little guys in the PICU to leave them and have them go bad on my watch. so, although i'm a new grad, i know that i, myself, will not feel comfortable napping when little guys are oscillating, titrating, etc.

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

Lawyer for plantiff: And where were you when Mr. Jones coded?

Nurse Sleepy: I was on my break.

Lawyer: What did you do on your break?

Nurse: I was sleeping.

Lawyer: Why were you gone two hours?

Nurse: My coworkers were supposed to wake me up but they were too busy in the code and they forgot.

Lawyer: I rest my case.

And this scererio is completly different from the one where someone takes a 30 minute nap SETS AN ALARM and wakes up on time.

So, what if the patient coded while the nurse was on break off grounds?

I either case, another nurse should be responsible for the patients and therefore has no liability, no matter what the nurse was doing while off the clock.

No one should be on break two hours if they were only supposed to be gone for 30 minutes.

Nurses should not be expected to act as machines would and take no break.

We don't run on D batteries.

[KellNY, RN]

If a patient codes while a nurse is sleeping (supposing she doesn't sleep for 2 hours and tries to blame her coworkers, which is not what I see in practice--and is really not a valid argument, but I digress), then it's no different than if he codes while she is in the cafe getting a coffee, running to her car to get her cell phone, outside smoking a cigarette, or running up and down the fire stairs (one of my coworkers does this to stay fit and energize herself).

Wonder how funny YOU'D think it is when it's you or one of your relatives who suffer needlessly at the hands of a nurse who is off sleeping in his/her car during their break?

That would not be that nurses fault. Our laws dictate that when we leave the unit or otherwise make ourselves unavailable--be it a break, personal emergency, etc--we are to hand off responsibility to another RN on the unit by giving report. If that patient "suffers needlessly" (whatever that means?), it is not at the hands of a nurse who is sleeping in his/her car (which I've never seen). That patient would suffer no more or less than if her nurse had been getting a soup from the downstairs deli--which I'm assuming is an apporved activity according to your standards?

If a nurse sleeps for 2 hours because her coworkers didn't wake her, that is dangerous, irresponsible, and wrong on that nurses part. Same thing as if she went to buy a coffee and dilly-dallied reading People or the Enquirer or whatever for 2 hours. I don't see the difference. Or something unfortunate, like she goes to Starbucks to get a latte and gets into a fender bender and is delayed by 2 hours getting back to the unti. Yes, it could happen, and I'm sure it does sometimes.

Here's an idea-lets chain all the nurses to their units for their breaks, so that nothing ever happens and they are available during their unpaid breaks. After all, we couldn't possibly trust them enough to take responsibility for their own actions and use only the time allotted to them for their breaks, now can we?

You trust me to push meds through a PIV, to run caustic antibiotics through a PICC, to insert an ng tube, to perform CPR and operate an external defibulator, to handle large amounts of controlled substances every day.....but you can't trust me to be there for my Pt after my 30 minutes is up, no matter what I'm doing?

But let's not get off topic--we're talking about taking your 30 minutes to do whatever you want, and I support that 100%. You want to tell me what i can and can't do on my break? I'll consider that once you start PAYING me for that 30 minutes!

Again, for what it's worth, this is coming from a nurse who does not benefit (and therefore does not take) 30 minute naps. I do support my coworkers who chose to, and take responsibility of their Pts for that 30 min, just as they do mine when it's my break.

And truth be told, I feel more comfortable having Nurse A in the back room with her head on a desk--who I can wake in an emergency--than I do with Nurse B who takes a 15 minute smoke break, followed by 15 minutes in the cafeteria or another unit talking with friends. In my unit, there are only 2 RNs on at night, and sometimes an aide.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

My point is that staffing very rarely (if ever) allows for one nurse to actually care for the patients she is watching for another nurse. The nurse watching for you while you take your break is just that - watching. She is not actually doing the care that the nurse assigned to that pt would perform. And, if she is, then how is she caring for the double load? That is my point. Plus, the article that I cited stated that the few minutes after awakening did show a decreased performance level in their testing. So...whether you wake up quickly or not, your performance in the few minutes after waking up is not up to par.

I will be honest here, I an APN now and if I slept on the job (even on my breaks), I would be fired and reported to the state BON. This is just not acceptable behavior at work.

[KellNY, RN]

Well, on my unit (which I'll admit, is usually pretty light), the nurse taking her break will schedule it so that it follows the med pass/treatment/vital schedule. Our Pts rarely--if ever--require continous care, and if they did, that nurse would not sleep or leave the floor for longer than 5 min. It requires common sense and consideration, which I'm lucky enough to not only posess, but identify in my coworkers.

If during that nurse's break, one of her Pts needs a pain med, breathing treatment, use of the bedpan, help ambulating to the bathroom, etc, I'm more than happy to assist.

And like I said, if there were an emergency (or if I got too busy with my own Pts), I can wake the other nurse immediately. I'd rather have an RN with me who needs a few min to regroup than one who I can't get a hold of for another 20 min because she's taking her break off the floor.

If you work on a chronically heavy, understaffed unit, even then I hesitate to say "a nap would be unacceptable" for the simple reason that if staffing is so consistantly tight that a nurse is not allowed her legally provided, unpaid break, then there is a major problem. You should be able to call a sister unit or the ADN for a 30 minute meal break replacement, because that is an unsafe condition for the RN and the Pts.

And no, sleeping is not acceptable at work. But you're not technically at work. You. Are. On. A. Break. (I'm starting to feel like Ross on Friends, though a little more validated, lol)