zzzSleepingzzz on the jobzzz

[night owl]

Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone has had a problem with employees sleeping excessively at night? Where I work, it seems to be a big problem. If I go to another unit to borrow something, the RN is sound asleep at the nurses station and does not even wake up when I come thru the door.On my own unit,na's

get comfy around 1am and never wake up 'till 4:30-5am. It's getting crazy!!! The pt's aren't getting turned, myself and another nurse are left to answer call bells, bed alarms make rounds q30min,plus everything else we have to do. Some na's are very good yet there are those few...Security came around checking for about two weeks just before JCAHO came and caught one. Then one of the girls had to go to the security dept. for some reason and foung the same security guy sound asleep at his desk, but was too scared to write him up. I would think that after a couple of verbal warnings and a written counseling, then there's a termination. We even had a girl who slept in one of the employees bathroom that had a tub. She took a clock off of the wall stuck it in the bathroom and made a bed in the tub. Now that's excessive. She is on the day shift now. Just wondering if any of you had such problems or even came close...

[duckie]

Anyone sleeping on the job is just plain lazy and I certainly wouldn't want them working under my license. They obviously have no concern for the people they are hired to care for. While they are asleep, someone could fall or even loose their life. I feel very lucky if I actually get time to go to the bathroom during my shift, couldn't even imagine taking a nap. We had a couple of employees found sleeping where I work. They were talked to only once, the next time they were fired. There's too much work to be done and too much responsibility for someone to sleep while everyone else runs themselves ragged. It's very sad that some of you have posted you reported this and got no support from your DON's. How can we expect staff to obey rules when administration turns their heads and ignores the problem. I think I'd be tempted to notify the state board of health to pop in unexpected some night and catch them. Bet it would be stopped real quick!

[nursenel]

When I lived in another state, the aides would all disappear!!! Took me awhile to discover that they were locking themselves in the bathrooms and sleeping ON THE FLOOR and going into rooms and sleeping in chairs or in the empty beds. When I approached my don, she totally ignored me!!!!!! I got the distinct impression that I had trespassed!!! In uour meetings the sams don would proclaim she did not want to find out about anyone sleeping on the job and say that she would hold the NURSE accountable!!!!! What am unbelievable MESS! Here, no one sleeps and they all pretty much do their work without a lot of comments from me. I love my aides!!!! The only LEGAL way to sleep, is to clock out and hold you time card as proof and then go take s half hour nap...take a loud timer with you in case your buddies get busy and can't get there to wake you. It's your time and you have the choice to eat or to sleep...whatever. Otehrwise, PLEASE stay awake cos sleeping puts everyone in jeopardy!!!!

[night owl]

We approached our unit manager about this problem last week and she actually became angry! She got all red-faced and said,"Well, if you want me to, I'll come up on nights for a couple of weeks. Is that what you want me to do???" Then she said,"Because this is an institution run by the government, it takes alot longer to obtain results. Look around you, you see things happening." Meaning the girl who slept in the tub is now on days, another girl whom I forgot to mention in my first post was pulled to another unit to do a 1:1 on a dementia resident. She parked a chair inbetween his room and the hallway and fell asleep. The res. climbed OOB, fell and was injured. Had she not been asleep, it would not have happened! She is now on two week suspention, BUT she is allowed to work three days each week so she can have some money coming in. Now I ask you... Isn't suspention supposed to suspention so that you don"t have anything coming in? Isn't there supposed to be a lesson taught here? In my book, she should have been fired, plain and simple. Why should the government be any different? Especially to their veterans??? Instant termination as far as I'm concerned. It is fraud when you pay people to work and they are sleeping instead AND it is patient abuse. I cringe when I hear those t.v. commercials about,"Do you have a loved one in a nursing home blah,blah,blah call 1-800-lawyer... But in this case, family should call a lawyer. They probably were never told about it. Anyway my unit manager just seemed angery about the whole thing thing when we mentioned the sleeping thing. Have noticed though that no one sleeps in the breakroom anymore... they do it in their assigned areas now... So when she comes up on 12-8, do you think they will sleep at all? Of course not. I only wish there were hidden cameras.

the supervisors act as though they don't want to get involved at all. Except one. He's already working on another problem that we have(other shifts not signing things off, not doing a shift note for siderail restraints in the computer, or even filling out the siderail restraint forms-those every two hour documentation sheets) and we hate to bombard him with all of our problems. The unit manager is on vacation now for two weeks, this past week and next week. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what she does when she comes back. I just wonder if she'll even come up on 12-8. We'll see...