12N Sleeping During Break

Nurses Safety

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:confused: I am a nurse manager in a HR dept. It has been reported to me that a nurse who was working 12N informed her CNAs that she was going to be in the facility break room for her 30 min lunch if they needed her. The ADON of the facility came in at 5AM (early for 12D shift) and saw the nurse with her head down on the break room table. Instead of approaching her she went to the nurse's station and in 10 min the nurse returned from the break room. Is this an acceptable practice since we deduct 30min for lunch or is this grounds for disciplinary action? The ADON was upset stating that she did not know how long she had been in there that night and then the DON started questioning "how long has she been sleeping on the job" - meaning the two months she has been employed. The DON has made statements that patients were neglected and that she should be discharged and reported to the nursing board. The nurse has told me that she saves her break until the later part of her shift so that she can get a burst of energy for the end of her shift job duties and the long drive home. The nurse feels that her break time is her personal time and she was still accessible to the staff and patients if the need arose ie instead of going to her car. The nurse had excellent references and has received numerous compliments from our day time staff. I feel I should recommend assigning her to straight day sfts to not lose a good employee but feel that others would want her to be discharged to set the example of no tolerance, but with her rebuttal of personal time I feel unsure of how to proceed. They have mentioned that it was an isolated incident that was poor professional judgement on her part, but to me it seems that she had thought out her actions and did not feel she was doing anything wrong so I wanted fellow night nurse's opinion of this or similar incidences. Thanks so much.
Specializes in M/S, OB, Ortho, ICU, Diabetes, QA/PI.

I worked 7p-7a, through 2 pregnancies, up to my due date, both times - I also lived almost 30 miles from work - in my first trimesters of both pregnancies, I didn't have morning sickness but I was exhausted and I mean exhausted - if we had a busy night, I was fine but if it was the least bit slow, I was almost dead - thank goodness I had an manager who understood that I needed to sleep on my 30 min. break so I wouldn't kill myself driving home in the morning..........

the hospital I work at now, has what is called the "Staff Respite" room - a quiet room that can be made dark, with leather recliners that have heat and can vibrate - there is also a CD player with CD's to play and a bookshelf full of inspirational and motivational books - we are encouraged to use it for whatever we need - I've known people to sleep in it, meditate, pray or just kick back - I guess sleeping on break is not an issue at our place!! too bad is it in other places!!!!!

I work 12 hr nights and our director has made it clear she does NOT want us sleeping, even during breaks. And frankly, I sometimes don't even have time for lunch, at least to leave the floor. Sometimes I eat right at my desk while charting. I have never seen another nurse napping, however we do have some CNAs on nights who nod off anywhere, even in the nurse's station in plain view of everyone!

However, I agree an unpaid break should be spent however she wants to spend it. 30 minutes isn't enough for me, I'd be in worse shape than when I started, I'm not a good catnapper, I need a few hours of sleep to feel refreshed. However, some people can nod off for a few winks and that's enough to recharge them. I definitely dont' think it should warrant disciplinary action.

Melissa

:confused: I am a nurse manager in a HR dept. It has been reported to me that a nurse who was working 12N informed her CNAs that she was going to be in the facility break room for her 30 min lunch if they needed her. The ADON of the facility came in at 5AM (early for 12D shift) and saw the nurse with her head down on the break room table. Instead of approaching her she went to the nurse's station and in 10 min the nurse returned from the break room. Is this an acceptable practice since we deduct 30min for lunch or is this grounds for disciplinary action? The ADON was upset stating that she did not know how long she had been in there that night and then the DON started questioning "how long has she been sleeping on the job" - meaning the two months she has been employed. The DON has made statements that patients were neglected and that she should be discharged and reported to the nursing board. The nurse has told me that she saves her break until the later part of her shift so that she can get a burst of energy for the end of her shift job duties and the long drive home. The nurse feels that her break time is her personal time and she was still accessible to the staff and patients if the need arose ie instead of going to her car. The nurse had excellent references and has received numerous compliments from our day time staff. I feel I should recommend assigning her to straight day sfts to not lose a good employee but feel that others would want her to be discharged to set the example of no tolerance, but with her rebuttal of personal time I feel unsure of how to proceed. They have mentioned that it was an isolated incident that was poor professional judgement on her part, but to me it seems that she had thought out her actions and did not feel she was doing anything wrong so I wanted fellow night nurse's opinion of this or similar incidences. Thanks so much.

where I work it is common practice to have a 1 hr break on nights for a snooze. some choose to take it and others not. personally i don't take it. if it were super busy then a break obviously wouldn;t be taken.

everyone went to the nursing lounges which normally would not be entered by anyone except other nurses or housekeeping staff. im sorry to say i believe this is the norm for night folks. i feel it is almost necessary.

i work 12 hr nights and i have never felt the need to sleep on my shift. maybe because i only work 3 days a week instead of 5? there is literally nowhere to sleep anyway and they don't encourage it on our unit.

melissa

Specializes in Pediatrics; Camp.

I wish you had posted where you work so that I could warn all of my coworkers to not go near there. :-) I live in a resort town, and we use a lot of seasonal nurses in the winter. I have worked the night shift for 6 years, and if we weren't able to sleep on our breaks, none of us would be able to do this shift. The research is overwhelming regarding the importance of a sleep break at night. Our hospital has supported this for many years, and I hear that now other hospitals are slowly realizing that this is an important factor in not only retaining employees, but ensuring health and happiness with its night shift. Why in the world should anyone care if a nurse takes her break to sleep. We let eachother know where we are and we're completely accessible if an emergency were to occur. There are nights that we aren't that busy, and we may even take a longer break if we work it out with out coworkers. We all have an excellent relationship, and realize that some nights are better than others, and we help eachother out. I sure wouldn't want to even know let alone work with the nurses who have a problem with the nurse taking a 30 minute break and sleeping. Anyway, I could go on and on, as I am passionate about this, but I think you get my point. I just wish that we as nurses could always support eachother and actually try to make eachother have a better life rather than running around worrying about someone lying their head down for their unpaid break.

We are allowed to sleep for one hour on an unpaid break where I work. The trouble is, once I did it and the person responsible for taking care of my patients/waking me up went to sleep too and the CNA was happy to let us both sleep because then she wouldn't be bothered by us.

I rarely take the opportunity to sleep at work because of this. There was no bad outcome from the above incident but there could have been.

I have only slept since when I felt very under the weather and I could trust the coworkers on shift that night.

If a nurse is on her break there is no reaosn why she can not put her head down for the 30 minutes. This especially true if she is doing a 12 hour shift. One of the big issues in nursing is the punitive attitude that seems to prevail between administration and staff. I would think that the DON or ADON would be more concerned about other things than a staff nurse taking a snooze on her break-time. If there is a concern about taking more time than allowed have everyone punch in and out for their break times.

This has also happened where I work and the nurse was fired. Period. No discussion. Our policy states that you cannot sleep during your shift (not on breaks not on your lunch).

I hear that in Europe there is a two-hour overlap on hospital shifts, and also that nurses (for all shifts, I believe) work 10 hour shifts and 2 of those hours are scheduled for napping. Am I crazy or is this true in some places?

There is two hour overlap on the morning shift (0700-1500) and the evening shift (1330-2130). I have worked in Finland, Iceland and Spain and all of those had only 8 hour shifts for morning and evening but the night shift was different.

I've heard that in Sweden nurses get to sleep but I dont know if that was just an isolated incident in one nursing home or not. .

hello,

The 30 min lunch break is not paid, should be uninterrupted and up to the employee how he/she wants it spend whether by sleeping, eating, walking, physical fitness or by just gazing at the stars or watching the traffic, surfing the net, using personal computer, pda or cell phone. If during that break this employee is interrupted by a phone call from a pt's family, call light or by anyone related to work then it is not a lunch break and should be reported as no lunch. Before going to lunch or taking an unpaid break the employee MUST have somebody covering for her or him. It must be spent within the employment facility . This is as far as I know based on labor laws. Employers are going to be fined mucho bucks and retroactive pay if employees are noy given their required 30 min breaks. Now the 15 min breaks for every 4 hour work time is upt to the employers generosity in other states. This varies from state to state. It is not a federal law. Hopefully this is helpful.

I'm a student nurse and previoulsy worked in a NH as a care assistant. The home had a policy of no sleeping at nights we where paid for the entire 12h shift i worked with some that did nap and some that didn't no one reported it. As a student working nights every ward or unit so far nurses have slept we are allowed 1h unpaid break but often 2h are taken plue having lunch at the station. As i was case loading 4 patients i found myself not taking any proper break but that just me i being a student trying to learn everything.

Impressed on me was that the ward manager was never to know(but they probaly did) as it is a disclinpary.

Specializes in LTC, Home Health, L&D, Nsy, PP.

This reminds me of our nurse manager who, during a staff meeting, commented on us all "griping" and our "negativism" over being understaffed. She said that she had noticed that most of us "managed to get to the caffeteria to get food!" as if that was a bonus and not something that should be a given.

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