sleep breaks?

Katie5 · Apr 17, 2011

Nursing is the field of matyrs. Never can agree on anything:(

hannahmaepunk · Apr 18, 2011

I'm a ward nurse at a secondary hospital here in the philippines. My "say" on sleep breaks is that it's OK for powernaps and 15-minute shut-eyes, given that you are aware of your patient's conditions (for example, your patients wanna sleep, stabilized vital signs, iv's regulated, due meds given, siderails up, ensured pt. safety) and that at least one nurse is awake on rounds. But definitely NO TO 2-3 SLEEP BREAKS! You can sleep shifts (RN1 asleep, RN2 awake, after few minutes, RN1 wakes up, RN2 sleeps). DO NOT SLEEP IF PATIENTS REQUIRE CONSTANT MONITORING/CARE! common sense and conscience. But it depends on hospital's unwritten rules and decorum. This is definitely a good topic for theses and dissertations, you think?

CaregiverGrace · Apr 18, 2011

It's pretty simple. If you can't stay awake to work a night shift, then do not work a night shift. There are tens of millions of night shift workers that do just fine, once they adjust their sleep patterns to counteract their work patterns. Offering employees, particularly in a hospital setting, to sleep during their shift is absurd. I have seen it, and it is very upsetting to say the least.

lilaclover · Apr 18, 2011

Most of the wards do this at this hospital I currently work at do this! Depends which ward you are on but pretty much any of the med/surg wards take anywhere between 2 - 3 hour sleep break on night shifts instead of taking several short breaks on the 12 hour shift. We even have a few beds in the back!

Isabelle49 · Apr 18, 2011

That will NEVER happen. Too bad for the next nurse who slams head-on into the utility pole that takes her life, just because she is a martyr. I don't work in hospitals anymore. I did for 16 years and 15 of those were 12 hour night shifts. I can remember driving home on the interstate and seeing double. Never again!

Bubbles · Apr 18, 2011

There have been multiple studies showing the risks of working nights. It is not absurd to allow a sleep break and I am pleased to see that some facilities are allowing this. Trying to sleep during the day is very difficult and some never adjust to it. I understand the air traffic controllers have schedules where they are constantly changing so their bodies never get used to one shift when they are on to another. When I worked as a contract employee for Motorola several yrs. ago I learned their employees were allowed to take a 20 minute nap during the night shift. They would come into the health center to nap and the occupational nurse would wake them if necessary when the 20 minutes was up. Motorola had booklets about the importance of adequate sleep and the hazards of working nights. Apparently they preferred their employees to take a nap rather than risk destroying expensive equipment!

pedicurn, LPN, RN · Apr 18, 2011

There have been multiple studies showing the risks of working nights. It is not absurd to allow a sleep break and I am pleased to see that some facilities are allowing this. Trying to sleep during the day is very difficult and some never adjust to it. I understand the air traffic controllers have schedules where they are constantly changing so their bodies never get used to one shift when they are on to another. When I worked as a contract employee for Motorola several yrs. ago I learned their employees were allowed to take a 20 minute nap during the night shift. They would come into the health center to nap and the occupational nurse would wake them if necessary when the 20 minutes was up. Motorola had booklets about the importance of adequate sleep and the hazards of working nights. Apparently they preferred their employees to take a nap rather than risk destroying expensive equipment!

Agree ...why can't we be like other industries?

Nursing is the field of martyrs

Despite the studies, nursing is full of people telling everyone they must martyr themselves

Five&Two Will Do · Apr 18, 2011

I could use a couple hours of sleep right now! I do not forsee us ever being allowed to do this where I work:crying2:

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Apr 18, 2011

Shoot, it wouldn't have to be 2-3 hours of sleep. 15-20 minutes would be fantastic and just enough to refresh one's mind.

Of course, we are talking common sense here. No one is going (or should be going) on break if a patient is crashing and their help is needed, and if/when they do go they should have another nurse watch their patients.

It's easy enough to say, well, if you can't get through a shift without a nap, then you shouldn't work nights. That's not always a possibility. Someone has to take care of patients at night; would you rather it be a nurse who has had a few minutes to rejuvenate his/her mind in a sleep break or one who is fighting to stay awake? Again, keep in mind I'm not suggesting disappearing for hours at a time with no one watching the patients.

MJJFan1, BSN, RN · Apr 18, 2011

I once read that the 9th hour of work was the equivalent of 1 drink of liquor. Truly, how many of us have left a night shift feeling drunk, like "how the hell am I am going to drive home?"

rn/writer, RN · Apr 18, 2011

For the record, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is fighting the sleep breaks for air traffic controllers.

Where I used to work ( a free-standing psych hospital) we could take a quick power nap in a sunroom if we chose. Those who did so took a zone phone and another staff member rang them five minutes before the end of their break. No one abused the situation, and some swore by the benefit of that small recharging of their batteries.

Mike A. Fungin RN · Apr 21, 2011

can you imagine? nurses on nights getting a 2 1/2 hour sleep break?
"an upcoming study by the faa and national air traffic controllers association is expected to recommend that controllers take sleeping breaks of as long as 2 1/2 hours during midnight shifts."

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20110417/d9mlhlu81.html

i'd be happy to actually take the 30 minute lunch break that my employer docks my pay for. as it is i work 12.5 hours for 12 hours of pay.