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.
I can't imagine bringing pajamas to work. That's just weird. Scrubs are as comfy as pj's anyways. I've dosed off at the nurses station (not heavily sleeping, still hearing everything), but that's about it.
I work a baylor shift. We have such an awful break room that I will go to my car to sleep in my hour break. I have the charge nurse know that I am on break for one hour, I clock out, and she has my personal cell phone number if there is a problem. I set the cell phone alarm on.
I cannot understand why anyone would have a problem with this.
I don't take the break if I have too much going on.
Specializes in Onco, palliative care, PCU, HH, hospice.
Lord I'd be happy to have a meal break much less a nap break! The drowsiness hits me when I'm charting particularly after a long shift, ugh speaking of which I have to work tonight....
When I have worked night shift, some of the other nurses have gone to sleep, even sitting at the nurses station. It is cause for termination if they get caught. Only 2 of them were terminated to my knowledge.
The ER doctor has always had a sleep room that they can retire to at night if they are not seeing patients. One time, in a small rural area hospital, we just worked with one RN on each shift in the ER and the doc's sleep room if pretty far down the hall. We usually could get them fast just calling on their room phone. One night we had a trauma code en route, and he didn't answer his phone, so I went down to his room and knocked rather loudly, because I needed to get back to set up the room. He answered the door TOTALLY naked!! No shorts, no underwear, NOTHING!!! I don't know who was more disgusted, me or him!!!
I worked two 12 hr nite shifts while in nursing school. It was in LTC and no one was allowed to sleep if found you were terminated. Yes we get a 30min break even if working 12 hrs but I need food and can't fall asleep within min.
I now work in a hosp on a med surg floor and I am changing to nite shift this week. I do not think anyone naps.
are nurses allowed to take naps? probably not. do they take naps? of course. my supervisor caught me sleeping once and she turned off the lights so i could sleep better. honestly, it's not a big deal if you've taken care of what needs to be done. just be careful if you have an anal supervisor.
you should be able to do whatever you damn well please on your break - it's OUR break. next thing you know the hospitals will be telling us what we can eat!
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
are nurses allowed to take naps? probably not. do they take naps? of course. my supervisor caught me sleeping once and she turned off the lights so i could sleep better. honestly, it's not a big deal if you've taken care of what needs to be done. just be careful if you have an anal supervisor.
you should be able to do whatever you damn well please on your break - it's OUR break. next thing you know the hospitals will be telling us what we can eat!
Reading some of the threads here, lately, some are actually told when to eat, or not allowed to. I am in agreement with you, though. If things are done and the patients are okay, I wouldn't be angry if I saw someone taking a cat nap. But someone should be up and about to check around, and there should be no sleep hoggers...meaning give EVERYONE, including CNAs a chance to get a bit of shut-eye...as long as the patients are safe. At least rotate it a bit.
When I have worked night shift, some of the other nurses have gone to sleep, even sitting at the nurses station. It is cause for termination if they get caught. Only 2 of them were terminated to my knowledge.
The ER doctor has always had a sleep room that they can retire to at night if they are not seeing patients. One time, in a small rural area hospital, we just worked with one RN on each shift in the ER and the doc's sleep room if pretty far down the hall. We usually could get them fast just calling on their room phone. One night we had a trauma code en route, and he didn't answer his phone, so I went down to his room and knocked rather loudly, because I needed to get back to set up the room. He answered the door TOTALLY naked!! No shorts, no underwear, NOTHING!!! I don't know who was more disgusted, me or him!!!
Anne, RNC
That must have been a Nudist in Adam's Suit at the wrong place and in the wrong proffession!! Bless him!!
I wonder how such weird people manage to join the noble Health Proffession!! What disciplinary action was taken against him at the end of the day?NAKED!!!!!
A male student Midwife was caught redhanded trying to sexually abuse a mother who was almost in second stage of labour in a Labour Ward!! The Woman's screams were at first taken for granted that they were Labour pain related!! The guy's training was discontinued with immediate effect.
Our ER docs take naps when there's down time (yeah, what's that, right!). We occasionally have a little break from 3am-5am, and from like 7am-9am. I know they're tired, and most of them drive a good distance (at least 40min, some more like 1.5hrs) to get there, and none of them work a consistent schedule (they are ALL bounced from 8a-8p to 8p-8a -- no one works strictly days or nights). So... if they're resting (sleeping or just resting in the Dr's room), I have no problem working up a patient and waiting for some results to come back if the "emergent complaint" is completely non-urgent (i.e. sore throat, UTI sx, etc).
So yes, our docs do take naps on occasion. And if a co-worker wants to try to nap for 20-30min during their lunch break, I have no problem giving them a wake-up reminder so they can catch a snooze.
blondy2061h, MSN, RN
1 Article; 4,094 Posts
I can't imagine bringing pajamas to work. That's just weird. Scrubs are as comfy as pj's anyways. I've dosed off at the nurses station (not heavily sleeping, still hearing everything), but that's about it.