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 don't bring my PJs to work but I work in a scrubs required unit- they are close enough. Recently my hospital changed its long standing policy of firing nurses caught sleeping on night shift. Now, if your patients are being covered by another nurse, you can nap on your lunch break. This stems from complaints that our competator hospital allowed nurses not only a 30min lunch but a 60min nap- complete witha "nap room". Personaly I couldn't nap safely for 30min and arouse enough to be clear headed with my patient care. Once I go to sleep my body insists on 5-6 hrs straight. There have been plenty of studies that indicate naping to be very benificial. I just don't see changing into jammies-plus I'd feel silly carrying around my teddy bear!
I live in an area that has mostly small, community hospitals and some night shift nurses do take naps if they need them.
I see nothing wrong with this practice, as long as all are in agreement, and there is another nurse that has agreed to watch the other's patients during the nap.
Should it be a nightly practice? No.
However, our bodies are not programmed to stay awake during the night, and when people are working PRN, swing shifts, the first day back from a vacation, etc...yet it's a fact of life in the profession.
Things happen during the day....you could have a child home sick from school, doctor's appointments that could not be rescheduled, nearby road construction, there are hundreds of reasons why you may not get your sleep as often as someone who works day shift.
Studies have shown that someone who is driving while sleep deprived are just as dangerous on the road as someone who is a drunk driver. That's scary when you think about it.
I have worked other jobs during graveyard shift, and I gotta say that I never allowed myself to sleep during my shift, and found it difficult to respect someone who sleeps on the job. (your own lunch and breaktime not included of course. It is your business what you call a "break")
I have worked 26 hours straight at a particular job, so I am no stranger to a long shift. I routinely worked 12s and 14s at my last job. Having said that, I think that not much more than 10 hours is productive and safe in general for most people. (myself included)
Having said that, I see the logic behind some European workdays that revolve around a "siesta type" arrangement, with a 2-3 hour "unpaid" break in the middle of your day. With shift work, the management staggers the shift so there is adequate coverage at all times. You can eat, do an errand or two and have a nap, then finish off your day strong. With a 12 hour shift, I suppose there would be little time to do anything else, besides go home and sleep. I wouldn't mind a longer break myself. I find a 30 minute break to be very unfulfilling. I hate eating that fast, can't have a conversation with anyone. Maybe 10 hour "actual work" shifts instead?
Since I don't / can't sleep during "work time", my vote is for 4 X 10 hour shifts per week, with 2.5 hour breaks at a "mid point".
Consider the following 10 hour shift options, for example...
5am-5:30pm (off between 8:30am-11am) (can go have a good breakfast, stop by the bank, nap, etc, home in time for family)
5pm-5:30am (off between 8:30pm-11pm) (can go eat dinner, watch some TV, shoot pool, nap)
7am-7:30pm (off between 11:30am-2pm) (can eat lunch, go grocery shopping, nap, home in time for family)
7pm-7:30am (off between 11:30pm-2am) (go to Starbucks, shoot some pool, watch late night TV, talk to friends/family/internet, nap, etc)
I would happily work any of those shifts on a weekly basis, 4 days a week. I think a person could very easily adjust to that kind of shift. Even nights. In my 20s, I would have loved the 4th shift. I would have kept in sync all week long!
I work in a very tiny, read 4 bed ER at an Indian Health hospital on the reservation. You can imagine, we are never very busy. Exception is tonight, starting my shift by walking into a 4 pt MVC! Anyway, there are two nurses and one doc at night. The doc is usually the same one who's here from Mon morning until Thursday evening. He has an oncall room he rests in day or night as needed. Us nurses also take our lunch breaks, 1 to 1 1/2 hour naps. Like I said there are usually no pts and if there is its usually enough for one nurse to handle, and if it isn't the nap bed is right off the nurse station. I for one do not take the naps, I find it too hard too sleep in the morning if I do, but I find nothing wrong with it at all.
suanna
1,549 Posts
I don't bring my PJs to work but I work in a scrubs required unit- they are close enough. Recently my hospital changed its long standing policy of firing nurses caught sleeping on night shift. Now, if your patients are being covered by another nurse, you can nap on your lunch break. This stems from complaints that our competator hospital allowed nurses not only a 30min lunch but a 60min nap- complete witha "nap room". Personaly I couldn't nap safely for 30min and arouse enough to be clear headed with my patient care. Once I go to sleep my body insists on 5-6 hrs straight. There have been plenty of studies that indicate naping to be very benificial. I just don't see changing into jammies-plus I'd feel silly carrying around my teddy bear!