Staff Carrying Pyjamas On Night Shift!!

Nurses General Nursing

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The question is: Are night staff allowed to have a nap, doze or sleep at any stage during their twelve hours' shift?

During our basic nursing training in the early seventies, it was highly unethical to attempt to sleep, doze or have a nap at any stage of the entire twelve hour night shift. It was a highly punishable offence that had to be dealt with by the so called 'Night Supers' ( popularly known as Night Superintendents) whose main duties included checking on Habit Forming Drugs administration, Compiling Ward Cencus, Collecting and reading The Matron's Reports, and making sure that no night staff attempted to indulge in any form of sleep related activities for the entire twelve hour shift, among other miscelanous duties. It was known that the Night Supers used to do their rounds at maybe two hourly intervals and sometimes make phone calls to various wards when they were too sleepy to make the trips!!

On this particular night, I was doing a night shift at The Casuelty Department, equivalent to the current Accident and Emergency. The Doctor who was on duty with us had the privilege of having a rest ( whatever that meant) whenever he was not busy!!

Well, we had a few minor casualties such as a baby with diarrhoea and vomiting, a man with stab wounds, another man with history of attempted suicide, a lady with a rape related history and another youngster with history of Road Traffic Accident resulting in minor injuries.

By Midnight, the doctor decided to take a rest in the doctors' room. By two in the morning, we received a man with known psychiatric history and had long defaulted in taking his regular medication and was attempting to beat anybody in sight!! He was being held by two muscular men who were almost giving up on his aggression!!

Well, they had reachede the hospital and needed help.

I went to knock on the Doctors' Room and call the doctor to urgently attend to the aggressive man. I was shocked to find the Doctor in his Pyjamas!! His head gear was also off his head!! ( apparently he belonged to the religious sect whereby men have to wear a head gear! )

It took him almost ten minutes to fully wake up, change into his normal clothes including his white overall , headgear and shoes! I am not sure if he remembered where he had kept his stethoscope. We had to keep on reassuring the whole group that we had already informed the doctor and waiting as if he was making a long drive from somewhere out of the hospital.

To cut the story short, this kind of doctor's behaviour put me off working at the Casualty Department and totally changed my interest to other fields of nursing whereby I have also met other characters that I have to stomach.

Has anybodyelse met a health worker who carries pyjamas to change into while on break on night shift?!! I would like us to compare notes and hear how you handle them.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

Hmmm, I've heard of doctors who are on call sleeping in the doctor's lounge... not emergency room doctors, but general practitioners, orthos, etc.. they are still required to respond to any emergency of course, and keep their pagers close by.

Also, I work with a nurse whose sister works at a hospital in London England. She says that the night nurses at that particular hospital actually take a two hour nap sometime during the night so that they won't be so tired; however she also said that their workload is much harder than what we experience in the states.

Here in the states, I've never heard of any hospital that allows nurses to sleep on the job, or would look kindly towards it. Doctors on the other hand... again, some doctors that are on call will sleep.. and some ER docs that are working brutally long shifts I think have long breaks where they can get some sleep. I think these are student doctors.

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Specializes in ED, Flight.

The topic has come up in some opinion pieces in journals here in the US. There doesn't seem to be any good reason not to allow nurses a nap. During a 12 hour night shift, for instance, a nurse may get 30 minutes for dinner. (I wish I could get that in the ER!) A nap during that time should be their business, not the employer's. Note that EMS crews that work overnight are allowed to sleep in between calls. Nobody would have it any other way. On call docs also often sleep part of the night if they can; though they should be able to respond immediately if needed.

So, rationally speaking, why shouldn't nurses be able to nap for a few minutes?

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Specializes in NICU Level III.

We can't even use our lunch breaks to nap... cause for immediate termination. I don't see why because we're not getting paid for lunch anyway... :(

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We can't even use our lunch breaks to nap... cause for immediate termination. I don't see why because we're not getting paid for lunch anyway... :(

Get a union or use your union. If you are dictated what to do on unpaid break, it is not a break. They either need to pay you or allow you to do what you want on your break.

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I work night shift and I have never seen anybody bring pajamas to work. As for sleeping, we are allowed to nap on our breaks. We have 1hr lunch break and two 15 minutes coffee breaks. Night shift staff are allowed to take them together. I just can't nap on the job. Our doctors nap whenever they get the chance.

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Specializes in ED.

Where I work, on-call docs are assigned a room where they can sleep when they are not busy. Some nights they get to sleep all night, some nights they never get a chance. The ER docs are busy all night and stay awake. As far as nursing, I know that on some units, a few of the CNAs may take a one hour nap. I don't know of one nurse on any of the units that have the time to take a 30 minute break much less lie down and nap. We are just too busy. We don't even take a lunch break, just grab something quick at the desk and try to grab a bite here and there.

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Specializes in A little of this & a little of that.

Never heard of anyone changing into PJ's on shift. If docs get a nap they sleep in their scrubs. Haven't been anyplace ever that nurses could leep while on the clock, not that some don't. Also, have not heard of anyplace forbidding sleep while on "lunch" unless they are paying for the break time also.

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Specializes in oncology, trauma, home health.

I've been so tired on nightshift that I have fallen asleep at my computer.

Also, aren't scrubs just like pj's? :)

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

The first hospital where I worked, there was never any specific policy stating that nurses could not sleep on their 30 minute breaks. There were nurses that would go into break rooms and lie their heads down on the table. No one ever said anything about it.

The state psych hospital that I went to after that, DID have a specific policy that ABSOLUTELY forbade anyone from sleeping anywhere on the grounds, even if they were on break. So if you wanted to take a nap, you were supposed to drive down the street to the Arby's parking lot. :):rolleyes:

Where I work now, again there is no specific policy forbidding napping on break, but there is also NO good place in this particular hospital to catch a nap. NO good place. Break rooms are incredibly cramped and are in high traffic areas. Trying to go to your car late at night is a hassle and somewhat dangerous because this hospital is in a downtown area. It's a fairly small town, but there are still shady characters hanging around downtown late at night, from time to time.

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I don't believe here in the US that a work place can impose any regulation on meal time, however they may have a rule for the general premises that employees are to be awake and available in case need to get back on the clock.

http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/Title_29/Part_785/29CFR785.19.htm

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I would kick anyone's butt on my floor if they went to sleep for a long time.

If you are sick or preggos or something happened during the day that resulted in you not getting enough sleep, and you need to sneak off for 30 minutes, fine, I'll cover your pts.

But just because you are done with your work doesn't mean there isn't anything else to do. Answering call lights, answering the phone, and entering orders on admissions are everyone's responsibilities. If you are napping in the back all the time, someone else is picking up your slack. So don't do it.

It is totally unacceptable on my floor--no one would allow it of anyone else. We are simply too busy, and if you are napping, you are not doing your job.

A nurse from our floor recently took a travel nursing position in California in a large hospital. She said the nurses and aides regularly take turns taking long naps in the back. She couldn't believe it when she started. She said her guilty conscience won't let her take naps; but it doesn't stop all of her coworkers. She hates it--she said several times when there has been a code, the people in the back are sleeping so hard they don't even hear it.

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