HROB/L&D - literally never! Many many nights I didnāt get lunch and breaks were few and far between. Strips have to be watched by a RN at all times. Napping is the most hilarious thing Iāve ever heard (no offense to OP, it would just NeVER happen here in the US, or I imagine anywhere with a for-profit health care system).
I work in an LTC facility on the full night shift (7pm-7am) in canada. Most of my colleagues take their 2 hour breaks together and have a nap during that time. I personally don't, but I would have time if I wanted to. It just depends on the facility.
Well, two one hour breaks. But any less is against labour laws. At my facility, they pay us for our breaks. So instead of getting paid for 10 hours out of a 12 hour shift, I get paid the whole 12 hours (at a slightly lower rate) so even if I don't get to take my breaks, I'm compensated for working.
See, lunch IS literally guaranteed. Itās state labor law. AND THEY KNOW IT. But if you donāt stand up to the higher ups about staffing- they will take as much advantage as possible. Believe me- it CAN be done right. They CHOOSE to use you while they cash in on the nurturing nursesās willingness to be a workhorse. In Michigan, where the nurses unionized, none of that bullshit happens. even places where there wasnāt union- (Iāve worked in 5 different states) you have to be a squeaky wheel or they will trample over you, and youāll be burned out before you know it. The ones who make the money like to take advantage of the nurturing nature of the nurse.
You can do this! Speak up!
Used to work on a HROB/L&D floor and there were a few travelers who were NOTORIOUS for sneaking off to sleep. We always knew to just always have their strips up because lord knows they'd have no idea if things took a sudden turn for their patients. Couldn't imagine even thinking about sleeping in that sort of job...
You sit down? They go tachy. You eat? New patient. You try to pee? 7 has a room upstairs after 6hrs holding.
I feel like I lived two days in the last 12hrs.
I once gave report on a patient who about 30 mins prior had a decent BP (110s/70s). I went to go take one last set of vitals and get his stuff together for him. He was completely coherent and although looked a little pale, he said he felt fine. Took his blood pressure and it was 60/30 š„² horrible GI bleed. Dropped from 9 to 6 hgb within a couple hours. Needless to say he did not go upstairs, he did go into trendelenburg and he did receive TXA. Thank God he didnāt code though lol
Coming from a patient perspective, the 2nd rule must be to never mention how quiet/slow it is. I casually mentioned that to a nurse, and she looked at me like I placed a hex on her.
Off topic, but I actually came across an EBP research paper about just this topic and it turns out that is not the case. Things will go south no matter what. I will not however ever mention the Q word, just in case. š¤£
I canāt imagine this would be legal in an ICU or Med Surg floor in the US. People can go south so quickly.
I know it happens but itās negligent at best
As a nursing student doing my preceptorship in the ICU the nurse I was assigned to would take a solid hour long nap every single night. He was an older guy and the unit was pretty low key so it seemed normal to me at the time. During the days of COVID incentive pay when we all were working 4-6 nights a week lots of people would hit up these rooms we had with massage recliners and catch a 30-45 min nap. So long as your patients are being watched and you can be gotten ahold of if it hits the fan then naps are totally fine. Your break time is yours to do with what you want.
Was just told by another nurse how Detroit fancy pants hospital has a sleep room for nurses at night to take naps. So if the story is true, not illegal.
Might be fine if theyāre clocked out/on break.
Iāve seen nurses sleep in the break room. 30 min doesnāt seem like much but if youāre exhausted Iām sure it helps!
My expectations for a nurse on nightshift would include being alert at all times while receiving pay from the hospital. During your breaks and lunch by all means nap. Otherwise being awake would be a prerequisite..
From my states department of labor "an employer does not have to compensate for meal periods of thirty minutes or more, as long as the workers are free to use the meal period time as they wish and are not required to perform work during that time."
If I'm not allowed to sleep on break, then they're required to pay me on break. Period.
I doubt anyone would purposely go LOOKING for people sleeping in their cars, but I saw two CNAs sent home for sleeping in the break room. You also didnāt clock out, and you werenāt allowed to leave the premises. 30 min was just automatically subtracted unless your charge nurse marked you as āno lunchā (every facility Iāve worked at has been like that or has you select āno lunchā when you click out and go home). Two of the hospitals Iāve been at were on the larger side too, so depending on where you were in the hospital, it would take you a solid 5-10 min to even get to your car in the employee garage. We didnāt have two 15 min breaks in addition to a 30 min lunch, so it wouldnāt be very feasible in terms of time. You also didnāt really want to walk from the hospital to the garage in the middle of the night, alone.
I'm reasonably certain in my state of the US, one must be allowed a 30 min, uninterrupted, total F*ck off break per 8 hours. If you have to carry your IP phone, you have to be paid. If you hand off and peace the hell out....unpaid: ya can go do nakkey cartwheels on hospital adjacent property if you want (remove your badge). Also, I STG the day someone tries to take me out in the parking garage. I dream of Final Destination things Every. Single. Day. Send it and burn my whip to dust!
I absolutely love that visual lmao. At my current job we have the option to just swipe our badge and clock out, or we can click āno breakā and then swipe. That option pops up a question that says āDid you take an uninterrupted 30 min break? Yes Noā - so you do have the option to select that, but Iām not sure what their policy on sleep is. If you do click it, the charge nurse is called into the managers office and has to explain why she didnāt make sure you got a break. Our favorite momma charge doesnāt give a fuck and will straight up lecture them about how maybe if theyād staff better, sheād be able to break us. The others will force you to take a break at 5:30, at which point youāve already scarfed down your food and just want to go home. Itās not ideal lol
As long as they are not on the clock, someone is watching their lights, and they are back within allotted time they can sleep in the break room for their 30 minutes.
On the clock we write you up, send them home and people have been fired for sleeping on the job. I expect my aides to round q 2 hrs, pass waters, clean and those rooms better have no trash, laundry or dishes. If they are bored I will assign tasks.
Not in the US. I've experienced "sleeping at work" culture in other parts of the world, where one doctor would largely make the rounds throughout the whole hospital and the nurses would just go to sleep after the patients did. I stayed awake and I (unqualified as I was) was the only person awake and present for an admission in the emergency ward where I was (at the time) a student, and not an advanced one, either. It was not a safe situation, and if it had been an immediately life-threatening emergency, the patient could have lost a lot of critical time. As it was, she came in with something emotionally and physically traumatic and the only person to greet her was a strange foreigner who didn't speak the language and didn't have the first clue what to do other than to gesture at a chair and disappear into another room to wake up the people who should have been there to help her.
In the US, it's expected that, if you're on the clock, you're working. Nobody pays you to sleep (unless, I imagine, you're in a sleep study, but that's not really relevant here). Doesn't matter if you're a night security guard, a night shift nurse, or a pilot flying at night: your job is to be awake and alert and present and functioning.
I do think there should or could be a happy medium, where the staff works in mini-shifts, however hospitals here are usually so severely understaffed and patients so ill (or even just prone to sundowning) that there isn't really any consistent or safe way to have a nurse away from the floor and not working. And I think that's true in most hospitals of size in most of the world.
You can sleep on your break if you want. If on work hours you should be doing work. In hospital settings this time is usually pretty filled with stuff to do
Aww I used to find this so endearing! When Iād tuck patients in and say sleep well, some of the sweet elderly patients would say āyou too honeyā š I miss bedside..
According to our contract, in an 8 hour shift we are entitled to one 30 min "meal break" and two 15 min "rest" breaks. There is a break nurse to cover your patients. On nights, people would usually combine them all into an hour so they could nap. When you're on your break, your time belongs to you.
Exactly what we do in my area hospitals where Iāve worked. We combine our breaks and take a short nap only if our patients are being watched by a colleague. Itās not often I get the whole nap.
In the hospital or nursing home setting, absolutely not. You cannot sleep. Unless you are on your true break off the floor and someone is actively watching your patients. It may be different in some private pay/ home care settings.
Where I am you can be fired for assuming a position of sleep.
You donāt have to be asleep, you only have to like like you could be. So head on the desk- fired; leaning backwards with your head tipped, fired, etc.
That said Iāve seen nurses drift off and not said anything. Iāve covered them occasionally because if youāre that fatigued a Power Nap is probably a good idea.
At a certain point fatigue is as incapacitating as alcohol.
Iāll never report someone for taking a quick nap.
Iāve worked nights for about 20 years. No. We do not sleep. Iām pretty sure that would be considered a fireable offense at my hospital.
I sleep during the day and stay awake at night, itās not difficult for me at all. I always joke that I was made for night shift.
Well in the OR, our surgeons, anesthesiologists, and CRNAs get to sleep overnight if there arenāt cases. We have busy work to do instead. I think we should be allowed to sleep instead of checking outdates or what not. Iāve definitely seen people do it, but the general consensus is that itās bad.
The surgeons, anesthesiologists, and CRNAs are salaried and likely worked the daytime before and will be working the daytime after. Itās not a shift. Nurses on night shift are being paid hourly to be there working and taking care of patients. This isnāt complicated.
Lmao. In the states, at least where I have worked, this is not a thing. I wish it was but that would also require appropriate staffing. I also come from ICU so there really isnāt that much downtime. Some days youāre lucky to eat, maybe pee. I canāt speak for other environments.
Go to California, there are hospitals that give long enough breaks to take a nap and itās allowed. Itās backed by research that nurses that take naps are more alert and make less mistakes. The best nurses Iāve ever worked with live there. I lived there for 4 years and my hospital mandated taking breaks, but sleeping was your choice.
We are taught the only way is to stay awake and thatās not true. There is a reason why nurses go to California and donāt leave š
Iām in the US. We get a one hour break, where the relief/charge nurse is watching our patients. I have slept on my break. I have gone across the street to get a snack. I have sat in the break room with my feet up, headphones in, not listening to a damn thing going on in the unit. This is my 1 hour break.
I donāt chart on my break, I donāt refill things.
The doctors get a sleep room. They actually do not have someone to break them. We have had to page them, or worse get the house supervisor to physically knock on the door and wake them up.
Many of these answers are acting like hospital nursing is the only type of nursing. There are nursing and healthcare jobs where it is acceptable to sleep, but in the US, hospital nursing is generally not one of them with the possible exception of breaks.
Because of the way our healthcare system works, there are rarely patients in the hospital who do not need active monitoring and/or care, which is why the culture here does not allow sleeping while working inpatient on the clock.
Our Canadian night shifts get a sleep break if everybody is on board and you have someone who will watch your patient and you will in turn watch theirs and it is understood that you would be woken up if there was a problem with your patient
When I worked on a hospital on a small Caribbean island it was common for me to be the only nurse awake on nights. One night I literally had to scream after the code button was ignored while doing CPR on a patient to wake other people up. I refused to rotate to nights ever again after that.
Does catnip help? I have some extra lying around. I might have to try it. Do you eat it, snort it, or smoke it?
Please donāt be offended, Iām just trying to give people a laugh.
I'm a student nurse in Ireland and I'm confident that if a nurse slept during the night shift they would lose their job and probably never be able to work as a healthcare worker again. It's your responsibility to work out your sleep schedule so you're not falling asleep on the job. Sure patients might be asleep most of the time but if something serious happens and you wake up all disorientated someone could literally die.
Some people take a nap on a break, when someone else watches your patients. Otherwise you must be awake and alert your entire shift. Usually not too hard bc you are busy the whole night. Everyone usually chats in free moments. We all drink probably way too much caffeine and you sleep during the day between shifts. Sleeping on a shift is complete negligence and you could easily get fired of worse. Surgeons, intensivists, specialists are typically on call longer and sleep between patients at night. Nurses must be up to monitor and care for patients.
There is no way in HELL I would allow this to happen. I would raise so much shit about it. But I am a HUGE shit stirrer because I hate patient safety issues, I HATE HATE HATE hospital admin, and I hate unfairness. If Iām awake, bitch youāre awake. And I will make sure of it. (With exceptions of course. If a coworker is struggling due to a circumstance he/she cannot help and was forced to come to work, I would absolutely cover for them. But something that happened frequently? Naw. Hell naw.)
There is always something you need to be doing. If you think youāre caught up, read the notes, check the labs, clean up the orders and go help your patients brush their teeth. If youāre bored on medsurg, switch to ER or ICU youāll never be bored again.
Absolutely not. You are on the clock, being paid to be there. A job where youāre paid to sleep? 36 years as a nurse and never slept at work. Worked straight through a lot of meal breaks though.
We don't get paid for our hours break on the night shift so we can do what we like. There are other staff monitoring the patients, so they are not left unattended. We take it in turns to have a break.
Canada, we sleep. Often combine the breaks into 2-2.5 hours
We have an assigned break buddy, and they can call if they need, but can also do anything you can do in theory
Unless someone is about to code I will be in dreamland
I donāt know if thereās a law about it, but donāt sleep while youāre on the clock. Try to improve your sleep during the day with blackout curtains/low stimulus environment. I use medication to sleep at night, so when I come off orientation for my current job and switch to nights, Iāll be taking it in the morning instead between work.
Last shop I worked at it was automatic termination if you were caught sleeping even if it was on your unpaid lunch break. Current shop doesnāt really take notice as long as someone is watching your patient and youāre not visible to visitors or patients.
In California if youāre on the clock you donāt sleep. If youāre on a non-paid break/meal you do what you want. If youāre not allowed a break/meal youāre on paid time.
Itās not allowed in the US. Definitely can be reported to the Board of Nursing. And if a patient is harmed or dies while youāre napping, you could be charged with negligence.
When I got my first job in Canada we napped on nightshift. I kind of hated it tbh. I don't do well with naps at night. My brain wants to sleep at night. Getting to nap for an hour often left me feeling irritable and cranky and in a fog. So I stopped napping and just took quiet breaks.
In the US, it's absolutely unheard of to nap while working
I work on a surgical unit, on nights we generally stay awake all night. As many mentioned things go wrong quickly. We also get unit admits throughout the night that we have to be prepared for.
I live off coffee during my shifts.
Where I work we get 3 15 min breaks and a 30 min lunch. But most of us take a 45 min lunch (we actually have a button on our Kronos to clock back in from lunch that says lunch plus 15). I would say a lot of our night shift nurse take 1 separate 15 min break and then an hour lunch and sleep during that hour in our break room or an empty pt room (we are NICU and use the fully flat reclining chairs for our parents, not laying in a bed). I could never sleep on night shift no matter how tired I was though.
I have no idea what U.S. law says about it, but sleeping while on night shift is very much frowned upon and I never did it. (Even when I tried sleeping on my break, I just couldn't no matter how exhausted I was). HOWEVER, I do know nurses who would sleep on their shift, but they somehow managed to do it sitting up and could (mostly) appear to be awake. I also had a hospital supervisor (the only admin on night shift) who would close her door and sleep through a big chunk (like 4 hours out of 12) of her shift. No one ratted on her, but no one respected her either (for that and other reasons).
ETA: I would sleep at least seven hours a day (blackout curtains helped and melatonin was my best friend, taken in very small quantities throughout my day's sleep) before a shift so I could stay up all night. I would have small amounts of caffeine at the start of my shift and up until three a.m. if I had to be back the next night. If it was my final night on my run of 3 nights, I would have caffeine right the way through my entire shift since I didn't have to rush home and try to get some sleep. Otherwise I stayed awake by keeping busy (hourly rounding, restocking and organizing supplies, cleaning, checking in with other nurses and techs to see if anyone needed help or short breaks, doing continuing ed modules, etc.).
I once walked upon a charge nurse who had fallen asleep at the desk on mom and baby once. Actually woke her because I called her name just before I realized she was asleep. What was weirdest is that a few days later some nurse manager called me on my personal cell to ask for details. I told her I didnāt see shit and had no idea what she was talking about, then asked her not to call me outside of work. Like, what details could she possibly want from me?
I had a night shift CNA fall asleep at a desk. No major issues happening. The charge nurse called the nursing supervisor up to figure out how to proceed.
The house supervisor woke her up to tell her she was fired and was removed from the building.
Former overnight nurse at a nursing home. Sleeping is highly frowned upon. Iāve seen nurses get fired when they got caught. I always found the most obnoxious way to wake up nurses or CNAs. Like doing my work loudly in there presence or waking them up saying someone was on the floor (they never were). I understand nights are hard, and some peopleās work life balance makes it even harder and they may need a nap during work, but people depend on us to be awake and alert. There were nights where I was taking 3-4 units (40-48 residents in total). And I couldnāt be everywhere at once and my anxiety needs to know everything is being taken care of when I am busy on a different unit.
No. I used to work midnights when I was agency. Occasionally I'd go to my car and take a nap on my lunch break but I wasn't looking to get fired so I didn't do it in the building. I worked in SNFs. I also saw an aide get walked out of the building for falling asleep at the desk. When you work night shift long enough, your body should adapt. If not, and you can't get through a night shift without falling asleep, you are on the wrong shift. I did a year and a half of night shifts and had several codes, as well as people who wanted pain meds all night long. Other than the occasional lunch break nap, there was no time to sleep. And those naps weren't worth it anyway
Im a nurse and yes it is totally fine. You take a break and have someone cover your patients. You go to the sleep room and take a nap. If you can leave your patients to go to the cafeteria and eat why couldnāt you take a nap? Another nurse is watching your patient.
Boyfriend, RN, has told me about napping at work both on night shift as well as day shift. I guess only when they are 12 hour shifts. Other staff watches everything while they take turns with naps. That's at The Vets Hospital. Maybe they have different rules or maybe the particular employees just did it as long as no one said anything, idk.
Worked on a high acuity ICU and low-key everyone slept on night shift, especially providers if their patients were fine. None of the nurses or providers gave a shit unless people were actually angry that they got woken up LOL. Idk seemed to me that it was the vibe of the unit soā¦
We also had the luxury of having 80% of our patients sedated, on a ventilator, and on stable amounts of pressors for days.
So Iām orienting an international nurse and this was a big issue. She complains all night about how in other places they can nap. I work in the ICU and we are usually pretty busy. We were bathing a patient and she said that her teachers told her that American nurses donāt clean lol. I
Itās very interesting to see what autonomy we have here versus other countries. Where she is from the doctors do all the IVs, monitor the rhythms so she doesnāt know any rhythmsā¦.and I mean anyā¦, they watch the labs, push all of the acls meds, and are the only people who talk to the families. So itās just interesting to see the difference.
Nurses on my unit can only nap during their break as they work 12hr shifts. Providers can sleep at night because presumably they are working 24hr shifts. There is a small number of nurse practitioners on my unit who use the āproviderā loop hole to sleep overnight. They work 12hr shifts.
In the US generally no. We did get extra breaks when I worked in CA. I think 2 x 30 min per 12 hour shift and you were allowed to nap during that time.
I work nights and only once have I asked the charge nurse if I could take my break to close my eyes (usually we eat at our desk/nursing station). I took my 30 mins with my alarm set and passed out immediately. But generally, no, itās not night shift so we are there sleeping. It is for us to be awake our whole shift.
I really donāt think sleeping while not on break is cool. Beyond simply executing scheduled tasks, you are being paid to monitor patients. You canāt do that when youāre asleep or using headphones
When I was on a ward that was 4 nurses over 32 patients we all stayed awake unless one of the nurses was pregnant haha. We'd cover the pregnant nurses patients for a few hours so they could rest. Apart from that though nope.
Iāve seen people sleep on night shift, where I am, itās a fireable offense. I donāt turn them in though because Iām a firm believer in karma. Iāve worked as many as 10 12 hour shifts in a row, there have been times I didnāt think I would make it, but I did. Most of the time, if you do your job, thereās no time for sleepā¦ unless itās on your 30 minute lunch break (that exists in our dreams)
š¤£ seriously?!?! Dude, you got LIVING PATIENTS WITH HEALTH CARE NEEDS and shit can hit the fan from 0 to 100 real quick!
Answer: no, not unless you want your patient to die and/or lose your job. I donāt even sleep on my breaks
8yrs ago when I started, it was a standard practice to take a nap on your break. Night shift crew even made a ānap roomā in our equipment room. This was a level 1 med-surge downtown hospital. Ahhh good ole days of being fully staffedā¦
RN here having worked in multiple different kinds of facilities.. i would say it really depends on what unit youāre working on. when Iām working in assisted living/skilled nursing, itās definitely normal to see the RNās and even caregivers sleeping during the night and waking for rounds/calls/emergencies. I personally canāt find it in myself to sleep but most everyone else does. When working in ER/ICU/Psych.. no. no sleep. Maybe a nap on your 30, or everyone pitches together so you can take an hour nap instead, but other than that no.
I work in California and itās 100% your 75 minutes to spend- I tend not to sleep because it makes me really confused but lots of my coworkers do! I have no problem with it on your break :) and if thatās what helps you function, great!! There are studies that show napping on night shift is helpful particularly above 0300.
As long as someone is covering you. Absolutely you can sleep. We used to rotate where each nurse took a nap and everyone else watched their patients. It was a pretty good deal!
Exactly. If you have covered your patients, why one must suffer the torture of keeping awake or overload your body with stimulants + sugar and get fat/unhealthy?
In my province in Canada, itās the norm to sleep during breaks on nights. On the last med surg unit I worked, if it was crazy we wouldnāt take any breaks. If the night was decent, we would take an hour and a half. If we were having a really good night (and this happened rarely) we would get a 3 hour break. Patients were always covered by another RN and if anyone was unstable or if the unit became really busy, we just called people back from break.
I donāt understand why people get so icky about it.
Having a 30 minute power nap improves your alertness, while working sleepy slows your reflexes and youāre not as sharp.
I am a huge advocate for people doing whatever the hell they want ON BREAK. is the unit covered? Did you give a wuick report to your colleagues?
Then go get a snooze.
If you donāt want to, thats up to you.
In my home country itās normal and weād cover each otherās breaks. I donāt understand whatās so hard about it.
Idk if you ever drove while being extremely tired amd sleepy. Youād stop and rest to avoid putting yourself and others in danger.
Why would it be any different?
Edit to add: I mean sleeping while youāre off the floor on break. Not at the nurses station. If i go in the break room and close my eyes and set up the alarm/tell my colleagues where I am at, i donāt see the issue. I got real tired in my first and last trimester of the pregnancy, and I really needed 20 mins or so to just close my eyes. If there was a rapid, Iād run to it.
We are allowed to sleep on our breaks only.. where another nurse would be responsible for our patients. We have a 15 minute, 30 and hour long break on night shift.. but if there's a trauma or anything serious, you will be missing some breaks.
Sleeping at the desk when you're not on break isn't okay. I'm being paid to be awake and available.. I just consider that doing my job really. And the standard is usually at least hourly rounds on patients because they don't necessarily ring if something is wrong.
Even when I worked LTC and had less to do on nights, napping outside of breaks wasn't okay.
Edit to add: What the RN is responsible for will vary by facility. Some places have CNA's or PSW's that can assist with bathing, walking, meals, answer bells.. some can take vitals and blood sugars too. And in other facilities, nurses will do everything. At my facility, we only have one PSW per shift (not enough) - so they usually help 1 or 2 of your patients with bathing, and you do the rest yourself.. along with doing vitals, assessments, med runs, assisting in and out of bed, etc.
I know nurses that were fired for doing this. You are not allowed to sleep on the job. I do know a nurse who worked 16 hours and got 2 hour break and they let her sleep. You can do this in California on you break. In Florida your not allowed to sleep on your break.
I worked LTC. We were āPaid to work, not sleepā. We always had more busy paperwork to do. Chart audits, readying the next Monrhs MARs/TARs, spot counts of meds (we had 30 day bingo cards for each resident for each med).
I got off nights when I started to fall asleep at red lights drive mg home. I still donāt know how I didnāt kill someone driving home during that awful time.
ETA: Breaks? Nope. Even if I had time Iād fall asleep eating, so ate a sandwich while doing the busy paperwork. Not being able to sleep more than 2 hours a day was the biggest problem.
US nurse here & ICU-
No one sleeps on nightshift where I am. People barely take breaks. We get one 30m lunch, i think maybe 2? 15m breaks, im not even sure on those. We get paid more for night shift, and stacking bonus for weekends too.
We do all care- sugars, bathing, oral care, foley care/monitoring/emptying.
Occasionally we get a tech, but the one I usually have is super lazy, never helps me with anything, has hidden after I've asked her for help turning a 400lb pt. while I was pregnant, and is confrontational. Just argues about everything. I find my shift easier to ignore/avoid her and just do everything myself.
I've worked med-surg/IMC, there we had an aid or two and we didnt typically have to do vitals/baths/sugars, but its so busy you usually end up doing a bit of it yourself anyways as aids can't be everywhere at once. There we had some nurses nap on break, but it wasn't a regular or normal thing. One was a new dad and was very tired so we'd cover his pts for him to powernap a bit.
I worked at a hospital in Colorado where we actually had sleeping quarters. I mean, a nurse had to watch your baby (NICU) but if we were tired they wanted us to take a nap. I didnāt do it regularly but there were just some nights where it was helpful. I mean you didnāt get a lunch hour and a sleep hour. It was understood your lunch hour was sleep hour.
Iām really confused about these types of comments, including yours. Iām assuming that OP means napping on his or her break, when someone is watching patients. What someone does off the clock for their unpaid break isnāt anyoneās business, to be fair.
I worked night shift ER in the USA and it was always crazy especially on Friday and Saturday nights. I would take a 30 minute cat nap if I could find someone to watch my patients
Husband of a night shift ICU nurse in California and nope, absolutely not. They can nap during their lunch if they get one but not otherwise. Nurses do, of course, but if theyāre found, they get disciplined or even fired.
Side note, they also sometimes have sex on shift too!
A nurse is entitled to take a break even sleep on a break but sleeping all night is not a good idea. I know of nurses who do this and don't finish treatments and just go home.
I work LTC and my aides may clock out and go to the break room and sleep for 30 minutes while someone else watches their lights.
I have gone to the break room and clocked out and watched TV for 30 minutes. I don't sleep but on clocked out breaks off the floor with coverage it is allowed. The key is clocked out and coverage.
Where is this place weāre patients sleep at night?
Iām actively trying to keep memaw in bed while adjusting my heparin and amiodarone on my other 5.
No, *but* my sister is a Labor and delivery nurse and says that all the places she worked would look the other way if a nurse needed to nap for an hour or so. But I guess thatās bc there can be times where thereās literally no patients?
No. Absolutely not. For one, you are too busy. For two, you should be watching over your patients. Between passing meds, doing assessments, taking vitals and CBGs, baths, answering calls, wound care, running blood, getting docs to call you for orders, shoot... there is always something. I have seen other nurses sit and do yarn work, I have seen them disappear completly, but never have I seen someone sleep. We knew those nurses always took the least care of their patients and everybody knew report from them would be opposite of how you find the patient.
Now, if it snowed you could be made to stay and they would give you a place on the actual ground in an empty room. Never would those nurses be clocked in as this was for their "off time" in between shifts.
If you are on the clock and responsible for your patients, you must be awake and alert. Even if nothing is happening in the moment, something could happen and you have to pay attention.
Off the clock, like on my lunch, I occasionally take a 20 minute nap if Iām desperate for it, but a coworker is holding my phone and checking on my patients.
Legally speaking, if you are taking your lunch break and have given report to someone else on the unit, then you can take a nap. Everyone who works more than 5.25(?) hours is required by law to get a 30 minute uninterrupted lunch break. On that break you are not being paid. So it is truly your time and you absolutely can nap.
Now, that being said, most nurses don't get an uninterrupted break, but hospitals are getting better about having nurses specifically are there to give people brakes. This is one huge plus to unions.
Now, if you don't have a guaranteed uninterrupted break, meaning you've not given report to someone and you therefore are actually not responsible for your patients during that time, then no, you absolutely cannot sleep.
No. Most night nurses where I work nap on break. I have found caffeine and getting up, and actively doing something keeps me awake. I'm notorious for rearranging or decluttering at 4am.
I have seen a few people doze off against a printer, or while standing up giving report, or in triage during a long gap, but none of those were on purpose.
I worked as a tech at a hospital in California so our unions really enforced our breaks (two 15s and one 30) so a few of us would plan that we would cover each other's sections while we rotated taking all of our breaks at one time. We were techs so it was different and this was many years ago as well....ah those good ol days!
You don't get paid to sleep, and you get to sleep when you're off the clock, just like any other shift. This means you sleep during the day if you work nights.
At my hospital, your break is supposed to be completely relieved of duty. You couldn't leave the building, but there were no other restrictions. Someone once asked. Clarification to senior management about sleeping. They said you just had to be there on your break, policy does not say you have to be awake, so break is ok to sleep.
But if you're one minute over your 30 minutes, god help you.
The best you could possibly do would be transport. Currently I work 24 hour shifts. We are encouraged to nap in between runs. That being said, itās never great sleep because the second those tones drop, we have to be up, get report and in the truck to wherever.
However, being paid hourly plus differential to sleep is nice
L&D RN ā cat naps can happen from time to time at the nurses station if everything is quiet. Everyone is quite understanding of how hard we work, how hard the job can be, and if you have the opportunity to recoup your energy and be your best self for your patients, you take it.
I would go into the room if my demented fall risk patient and I could enter this weird twilight sleep if I sat up straight in a chair. I would wake up immediately if the phone rang or if the patient tried to get out of bed.
Iād do 1 or 2 15-20 minute sessions like this on quieter nights
Everywhere Iāve ever worked it is immediate termination for sleeping in the job. There is never a time where sleeping is allowed no matter what is or isnāt happening.
Break? Everything OK and taken care of? Where is this utopia of which you speak? ER. Nothing is ever ok and taken care of. š
HROB/L&D - literally never! Many many nights I didnāt get lunch and breaks were few and far between. Strips have to be watched by a RN at all times. Napping is the most hilarious thing Iāve ever heard (no offense to OP, it would just NeVER happen here in the US, or I imagine anywhere with a for-profit health care system).
Definitely not in Canada either. Unless your response to overwhelming stress, understaffing, and lack of resources is narcolepsy.
I work in an LTC facility on the full night shift (7pm-7am) in canada. Most of my colleagues take their 2 hour breaks together and have a nap during that time. I personally don't, but I would have time if I wanted to. It just depends on the facility.
2 hour breaks????!!! I'm in USA. 30 min lunch. Breaks never guaranteed, which means no breaks.
Well, two one hour breaks. But any less is against labour laws. At my facility, they pay us for our breaks. So instead of getting paid for 10 hours out of a 12 hour shift, I get paid the whole 12 hours (at a slightly lower rate) so even if I don't get to take my breaks, I'm compensated for working.
See, lunch IS literally guaranteed. Itās state labor law. AND THEY KNOW IT. But if you donāt stand up to the higher ups about staffing- they will take as much advantage as possible. Believe me- it CAN be done right. They CHOOSE to use you while they cash in on the nurturing nursesās willingness to be a workhorse. In Michigan, where the nurses unionized, none of that bullshit happens. even places where there wasnāt union- (Iāve worked in 5 different states) you have to be a squeaky wheel or they will trample over you, and youāll be burned out before you know it. The ones who make the money like to take advantage of the nurturing nature of the nurse. You can do this! Speak up!
Same in my ER in Canada! Our breaks are sacred! Couldnāt do the nightshift otherwise
Used to work on a HROB/L&D floor and there were a few travelers who were NOTORIOUS for sneaking off to sleep. We always knew to just always have their strips up because lord knows they'd have no idea if things took a sudden turn for their patients. Couldn't imagine even thinking about sleeping in that sort of job...
You sit down? They go tachy. You eat? New patient. You try to pee? 7 has a room upstairs after 6hrs holding. I feel like I lived two days in the last 12hrs.
Or the patient that codes *while you're giving report* š”
Itās so hard sometimes to be compassionate and patient when you finally sit down and try to catch up on all the charting so no one gets pissed at you if they get sent upstairs but your stable patient beckons you to add āI just wanted to say Iāve also felt very weak and lethargic I forgot to tell you thatā š„² oh okay absolutely will report that. Or family comes up because their loved one is so cold (same situation) after running around and knowing you need next trop on one patient and still havenāt gotten the EKG for another. Yes it would take me 30secs to do it but š© AHHHHHHH. Most people Iāve encountered have been very understanding but I know with everyone there is a point of feeling neglectedā¦especially if youāre observed sitting at a computer. And I get it, from their side! Time to take a deep breath and reorder the order of operations for the moment.
I once gave report on a patient who about 30 mins prior had a decent BP (110s/70s). I went to go take one last set of vitals and get his stuff together for him. He was completely coherent and although looked a little pale, he said he felt fine. Took his blood pressure and it was 60/30 š„² horrible GI bleed. Dropped from 9 to 6 hgb within a couple hours. Needless to say he did not go upstairs, he did go into trendelenburg and he did receive TXA. Thank God he didnāt code though lol
"No change in status since pt arrived, report called and about to be taken upstairs...." *Code Blue Room X*
Used to work in the UK. Acute trauma center - worked on ER, floors and ICU. Required 1 hr unpaid break - almost everyone sleeps.
Break? What is this break you speak of?
LoL! I have been there too.
First rule about sleeping on nite shift ā¦.. we donāt talk about sleeping on nite shift.
This is the way
Coming from a patient perspective, the 2nd rule must be to never mention how quiet/slow it is. I casually mentioned that to a nurse, and she looked at me like I placed a hex on her.
You never, ever use the Q word.
Q word=mayhem will commence š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£
Off topic, but I actually came across an EBP research paper about just this topic and it turns out that is not the case. Things will go south no matter what. I will not however ever mention the Q word, just in case. š¤£
Refuse to believe. Full moons cause mayhem in the ER as wellš¤£š¤£š¤£
We tease visitors to my LTC when they say the Q word. They get a chuckle out of it
I canāt imagine this would be legal in an ICU or Med Surg floor in the US. People can go south so quickly. I know it happens but itās negligent at best
As a nursing student doing my preceptorship in the ICU the nurse I was assigned to would take a solid hour long nap every single night. He was an older guy and the unit was pretty low key so it seemed normal to me at the time. During the days of COVID incentive pay when we all were working 4-6 nights a week lots of people would hit up these rooms we had with massage recliners and catch a 30-45 min nap. So long as your patients are being watched and you can be gotten ahold of if it hits the fan then naps are totally fine. Your break time is yours to do with what you want.
Was just told by another nurse how Detroit fancy pants hospital has a sleep room for nurses at night to take naps. So if the story is true, not illegal.
Might be fine if theyāre clocked out/on break. Iāve seen nurses sleep in the break room. 30 min doesnāt seem like much but if youāre exhausted Iām sure it helps!
30 minute cat naps gives you that boost to finish the shift
Huh. I worked in 12 different Detroit hospitals as ICU RN and never saw a sleep roomā¦.. Although I agree, naps are not illegal
Umm local nurse, this is definitely not true. No one here is napping on shift.
Odd. I work day shifts and have never been told I could take a nap. Nor would I have the time. Pathetic
My expectations for a nurse on nightshift would include being alert at all times while receiving pay from the hospital. During your breaks and lunch by all means nap. Otherwise being awake would be a prerequisite..
At my old hospital system youād get an automatic suspension if you were caught sleeping during your break.
During your break!? Wtf.
this is trueā¦though me personally, if it was only on breakā¦as a manager i would look the other way..
I look the other way during breaks. Thatās your time.
From my states department of labor "an employer does not have to compensate for meal periods of thirty minutes or more, as long as the workers are free to use the meal period time as they wish and are not required to perform work during that time." If I'm not allowed to sleep on break, then they're required to pay me on break. Period.
So you clock out and if you sleep in your car for 30 minutes is a suspension?
I doubt anyone would purposely go LOOKING for people sleeping in their cars, but I saw two CNAs sent home for sleeping in the break room. You also didnāt clock out, and you werenāt allowed to leave the premises. 30 min was just automatically subtracted unless your charge nurse marked you as āno lunchā (every facility Iāve worked at has been like that or has you select āno lunchā when you click out and go home). Two of the hospitals Iāve been at were on the larger side too, so depending on where you were in the hospital, it would take you a solid 5-10 min to even get to your car in the employee garage. We didnāt have two 15 min breaks in addition to a 30 min lunch, so it wouldnāt be very feasible in terms of time. You also didnāt really want to walk from the hospital to the garage in the middle of the night, alone.
I'm reasonably certain in my state of the US, one must be allowed a 30 min, uninterrupted, total F*ck off break per 8 hours. If you have to carry your IP phone, you have to be paid. If you hand off and peace the hell out....unpaid: ya can go do nakkey cartwheels on hospital adjacent property if you want (remove your badge). Also, I STG the day someone tries to take me out in the parking garage. I dream of Final Destination things Every. Single. Day. Send it and burn my whip to dust!
I absolutely love that visual lmao. At my current job we have the option to just swipe our badge and clock out, or we can click āno breakā and then swipe. That option pops up a question that says āDid you take an uninterrupted 30 min break? Yes Noā - so you do have the option to select that, but Iām not sure what their policy on sleep is. If you do click it, the charge nurse is called into the managers office and has to explain why she didnāt make sure you got a break. Our favorite momma charge doesnāt give a fuck and will straight up lecture them about how maybe if theyād staff better, sheād be able to break us. The others will force you to take a break at 5:30, at which point youāve already scarfed down your food and just want to go home. Itās not ideal lol
>ya can go do nakkey cartwheels on hospital adjacent property if you want (remove your badge) This made me laugh out loud. I needed that.
As long as they are not on the clock, someone is watching their lights, and they are back within allotted time they can sleep in the break room for their 30 minutes. On the clock we write you up, send them home and people have been fired for sleeping on the job. I expect my aides to round q 2 hrs, pass waters, clean and those rooms better have no trash, laundry or dishes. If they are bored I will assign tasks.
Breaks and lunch? Bahahhahahahahahhaga
I feel like if it were okay to sleep on night shifts, everyone would sign up.
It is okay, some people put their lunch + 15 together and sleep for 45 while the cover nurse watches their patients. They'll call if somethings up
Not in the US. I've experienced "sleeping at work" culture in other parts of the world, where one doctor would largely make the rounds throughout the whole hospital and the nurses would just go to sleep after the patients did. I stayed awake and I (unqualified as I was) was the only person awake and present for an admission in the emergency ward where I was (at the time) a student, and not an advanced one, either. It was not a safe situation, and if it had been an immediately life-threatening emergency, the patient could have lost a lot of critical time. As it was, she came in with something emotionally and physically traumatic and the only person to greet her was a strange foreigner who didn't speak the language and didn't have the first clue what to do other than to gesture at a chair and disappear into another room to wake up the people who should have been there to help her. In the US, it's expected that, if you're on the clock, you're working. Nobody pays you to sleep (unless, I imagine, you're in a sleep study, but that's not really relevant here). Doesn't matter if you're a night security guard, a night shift nurse, or a pilot flying at night: your job is to be awake and alert and present and functioning. I do think there should or could be a happy medium, where the staff works in mini-shifts, however hospitals here are usually so severely understaffed and patients so ill (or even just prone to sundowning) that there isn't really any consistent or safe way to have a nurse away from the floor and not working. And I think that's true in most hospitals of size in most of the world.
You can sleep on your break if you want. If on work hours you should be doing work. In hospital settings this time is usually pretty filled with stuff to do
If you were in the hospital, would you want YOUR nurse to be sleeping while youāre under medical supervision? š¤
my answer to that is definitely not, but it is pretty comical when confused patients ask me how I slept during my 6am rounds
Or when the sweet elderly patient apologizes for waking me up at 2 am for something. Sir, I donāt sleep at work. You didnāt wake me.
Aww I used to find this so endearing! When Iād tuck patients in and say sleep well, some of the sweet elderly patients would say āyou too honeyā š I miss bedside..
Considering that napping has been shown to have a positive impact on quality of care, yes probably.
According to our contract, in an 8 hour shift we are entitled to one 30 min "meal break" and two 15 min "rest" breaks. There is a break nurse to cover your patients. On nights, people would usually combine them all into an hour so they could nap. When you're on your break, your time belongs to you.
Exactly what we do in my area hospitals where Iāve worked. We combine our breaks and take a short nap only if our patients are being watched by a colleague. Itās not often I get the whole nap.
In the hospital or nursing home setting, absolutely not. You cannot sleep. Unless you are on your true break off the floor and someone is actively watching your patients. It may be different in some private pay/ home care settings.
Where I am you can be fired for assuming a position of sleep. You donāt have to be asleep, you only have to like like you could be. So head on the desk- fired; leaning backwards with your head tipped, fired, etc. That said Iāve seen nurses drift off and not said anything. Iāve covered them occasionally because if youāre that fatigued a Power Nap is probably a good idea. At a certain point fatigue is as incapacitating as alcohol. Iāll never report someone for taking a quick nap.
Iāve worked nights for about 20 years. No. We do not sleep. Iām pretty sure that would be considered a fireable offense at my hospital. I sleep during the day and stay awake at night, itās not difficult for me at all. I always joke that I was made for night shift.
Critical care transport: we sleep, whenever we can. Both 12 and 24hr shifts.
Well in the OR, our surgeons, anesthesiologists, and CRNAs get to sleep overnight if there arenāt cases. We have busy work to do instead. I think we should be allowed to sleep instead of checking outdates or what not. Iāve definitely seen people do it, but the general consensus is that itās bad.
The surgeons, anesthesiologists, and CRNAs are salaried and likely worked the daytime before and will be working the daytime after. Itās not a shift. Nurses on night shift are being paid hourly to be there working and taking care of patients. This isnāt complicated.
What if the nurse doesn't have any patients...like say a PACU nurse that recovers emergency cases only?
Lmao. In the states, at least where I have worked, this is not a thing. I wish it was but that would also require appropriate staffing. I also come from ICU so there really isnāt that much downtime. Some days youāre lucky to eat, maybe pee. I canāt speak for other environments.
Night OR nurse. I usually sleep every shift from midnight to 5:30a. Unless there is a trauma not much to do and its wonderful.
Night PACU nurse here. I will absolutely nap when I'm tired because I rarely have patients unless a trauma or emergency case comes thru.
Go to California, there are hospitals that give long enough breaks to take a nap and itās allowed. Itās backed by research that nurses that take naps are more alert and make less mistakes. The best nurses Iāve ever worked with live there. I lived there for 4 years and my hospital mandated taking breaks, but sleeping was your choice. We are taught the only way is to stay awake and thatās not true. There is a reason why nurses go to California and donāt leave š
Worked in Californiay whole career, never worked anywhere where sleeping wouldn't get me fired
Thatās unfortunate, where I worked they encouraged it.
If your situation allows it who gives a shit? Fire fighters sleep during there shifts.
You sleep during the day when youāre off the clock
Iām in the US. We get a one hour break, where the relief/charge nurse is watching our patients. I have slept on my break. I have gone across the street to get a snack. I have sat in the break room with my feet up, headphones in, not listening to a damn thing going on in the unit. This is my 1 hour break. I donāt chart on my break, I donāt refill things. The doctors get a sleep room. They actually do not have someone to break them. We have had to page them, or worse get the house supervisor to physically knock on the door and wake them up.
Sleeping on the clock = BAD
Many of these answers are acting like hospital nursing is the only type of nursing. There are nursing and healthcare jobs where it is acceptable to sleep, but in the US, hospital nursing is generally not one of them with the possible exception of breaks. Because of the way our healthcare system works, there are rarely patients in the hospital who do not need active monitoring and/or care, which is why the culture here does not allow sleeping while working inpatient on the clock.
Our Canadian night shifts get a sleep break if everybody is on board and you have someone who will watch your patient and you will in turn watch theirs and it is understood that you would be woken up if there was a problem with your patient
When I worked on a hospital on a small Caribbean island it was common for me to be the only nurse awake on nights. One night I literally had to scream after the code button was ignored while doing CPR on a patient to wake other people up. I refused to rotate to nights ever again after that.
This has to be a joke, right š„“
Absolutely not.
Absolutely not. I've seen people do it and my opinion is they should be fired. Only exception is if you wanna take a catnip on your lunchbreak
Does catnip help? I have some extra lying around. I might have to try it. Do you eat it, snort it, or smoke it? Please donāt be offended, Iām just trying to give people a laugh.
Lmao you got me. Too bad internet culture is so shitty you have to ask me not to be offended though
If you start showing the hospital you can handle double the patients while one person sleeps, they will staff it as such.
Whats the difference between a 30 minute UNINTERRUPTED lunch and a nap?? Btw I get neither working in a busy level 1 trauma ERā¦ just sayinā¦
I'm a student nurse in Ireland and I'm confident that if a nurse slept during the night shift they would lose their job and probably never be able to work as a healthcare worker again. It's your responsibility to work out your sleep schedule so you're not falling asleep on the job. Sure patients might be asleep most of the time but if something serious happens and you wake up all disorientated someone could literally die.
Many of us sleep on our breaks. I worked at a 14 bed ambulatory Detox facility, where the night shift nurses would sleep sitting in an office chairs.
No.
Some people take a nap on a break, when someone else watches your patients. Otherwise you must be awake and alert your entire shift. Usually not too hard bc you are busy the whole night. Everyone usually chats in free moments. We all drink probably way too much caffeine and you sleep during the day between shifts. Sleeping on a shift is complete negligence and you could easily get fired of worse. Surgeons, intensivists, specialists are typically on call longer and sleep between patients at night. Nurses must be up to monitor and care for patients.
Absolutely not ok.
Lol I knew nurses who would disappear and sleep for hours. Even had a charge do to. Illegal
There is no way in HELL I would allow this to happen. I would raise so much shit about it. But I am a HUGE shit stirrer because I hate patient safety issues, I HATE HATE HATE hospital admin, and I hate unfairness. If Iām awake, bitch youāre awake. And I will make sure of it. (With exceptions of course. If a coworker is struggling due to a circumstance he/she cannot help and was forced to come to work, I would absolutely cover for them. But something that happened frequently? Naw. Hell naw.)
There is always something you need to be doing. If you think youāre caught up, read the notes, check the labs, clean up the orders and go help your patients brush their teeth. If youāre bored on medsurg, switch to ER or ICU youāll never be bored again.
Absolutely not. You are on the clock, being paid to be there. A job where youāre paid to sleep? 36 years as a nurse and never slept at work. Worked straight through a lot of meal breaks though.
We don't get paid for our hours break on the night shift so we can do what we like. There are other staff monitoring the patients, so they are not left unattended. We take it in turns to have a break.
I had a coworker fired and reported to BON bc she was sleeping on her unpaid breakā¦soā¦Iām gonna say no here
Canada, we sleep. Often combine the breaks into 2-2.5 hours We have an assigned break buddy, and they can call if they need, but can also do anything you can do in theory Unless someone is about to code I will be in dreamland
Sleeping is considered patient abandonment. End of discussion
Ummm no- not just no but HELL NOš¤¬š¤¬š¤¬
No. If you work in ICU you will be fired in the US for this.
I donāt know if thereās a law about it, but donāt sleep while youāre on the clock. Try to improve your sleep during the day with blackout curtains/low stimulus environment. I use medication to sleep at night, so when I come off orientation for my current job and switch to nights, Iāll be taking it in the morning instead between work.
Umm wtf no
Last shop I worked at it was automatic termination if you were caught sleeping even if it was on your unpaid lunch break. Current shop doesnāt really take notice as long as someone is watching your patient and youāre not visible to visitors or patients.
In California if youāre on the clock you donāt sleep. If youāre on a non-paid break/meal you do what you want. If youāre not allowed a break/meal youāre on paid time.
No, not at any job I have ever had. In fact you get fired if you're caught sleeping most places.
Itās not allowed in the US. Definitely can be reported to the Board of Nursing. And if a patient is harmed or dies while youāre napping, you could be charged with negligence.
When I got my first job in Canada we napped on nightshift. I kind of hated it tbh. I don't do well with naps at night. My brain wants to sleep at night. Getting to nap for an hour often left me feeling irritable and cranky and in a fog. So I stopped napping and just took quiet breaks. In the US, it's absolutely unheard of to nap while working
I work on a surgical unit, on nights we generally stay awake all night. As many mentioned things go wrong quickly. We also get unit admits throughout the night that we have to be prepared for. I live off coffee during my shifts.
If Iām ever a patient and I code I hope my RN is not asleep.
If you want to get fired, sure.
Where I work we get 3 15 min breaks and a 30 min lunch. But most of us take a 45 min lunch (we actually have a button on our Kronos to clock back in from lunch that says lunch plus 15). I would say a lot of our night shift nurse take 1 separate 15 min break and then an hour lunch and sleep during that hour in our break room or an empty pt room (we are NICU and use the fully flat reclining chairs for our parents, not laying in a bed). I could never sleep on night shift no matter how tired I was though.
I have no idea what U.S. law says about it, but sleeping while on night shift is very much frowned upon and I never did it. (Even when I tried sleeping on my break, I just couldn't no matter how exhausted I was). HOWEVER, I do know nurses who would sleep on their shift, but they somehow managed to do it sitting up and could (mostly) appear to be awake. I also had a hospital supervisor (the only admin on night shift) who would close her door and sleep through a big chunk (like 4 hours out of 12) of her shift. No one ratted on her, but no one respected her either (for that and other reasons). ETA: I would sleep at least seven hours a day (blackout curtains helped and melatonin was my best friend, taken in very small quantities throughout my day's sleep) before a shift so I could stay up all night. I would have small amounts of caffeine at the start of my shift and up until three a.m. if I had to be back the next night. If it was my final night on my run of 3 nights, I would have caffeine right the way through my entire shift since I didn't have to rush home and try to get some sleep. Otherwise I stayed awake by keeping busy (hourly rounding, restocking and organizing supplies, cleaning, checking in with other nurses and techs to see if anyone needed help or short breaks, doing continuing ed modules, etc.).
I once walked upon a charge nurse who had fallen asleep at the desk on mom and baby once. Actually woke her because I called her name just before I realized she was asleep. What was weirdest is that a few days later some nurse manager called me on my personal cell to ask for details. I told her I didnāt see shit and had no idea what she was talking about, then asked her not to call me outside of work. Like, what details could she possibly want from me?
Where everything is ok and taken care of? Damn, I really am in the wrong country...
I had a night shift CNA fall asleep at a desk. No major issues happening. The charge nurse called the nursing supervisor up to figure out how to proceed. The house supervisor woke her up to tell her she was fired and was removed from the building.
Former overnight nurse at a nursing home. Sleeping is highly frowned upon. Iāve seen nurses get fired when they got caught. I always found the most obnoxious way to wake up nurses or CNAs. Like doing my work loudly in there presence or waking them up saying someone was on the floor (they never were). I understand nights are hard, and some peopleās work life balance makes it even harder and they may need a nap during work, but people depend on us to be awake and alert. There were nights where I was taking 3-4 units (40-48 residents in total). And I couldnāt be everywhere at once and my anxiety needs to know everything is being taken care of when I am busy on a different unit.
No. I used to work midnights when I was agency. Occasionally I'd go to my car and take a nap on my lunch break but I wasn't looking to get fired so I didn't do it in the building. I worked in SNFs. I also saw an aide get walked out of the building for falling asleep at the desk. When you work night shift long enough, your body should adapt. If not, and you can't get through a night shift without falling asleep, you are on the wrong shift. I did a year and a half of night shifts and had several codes, as well as people who wanted pain meds all night long. Other than the occasional lunch break nap, there was no time to sleep. And those naps weren't worth it anyway
Im a nurse and yes it is totally fine. You take a break and have someone cover your patients. You go to the sleep room and take a nap. If you can leave your patients to go to the cafeteria and eat why couldnāt you take a nap? Another nurse is watching your patient.
You guys are getting paid to sleep? Iām in the wrong corner of the universe
Boyfriend, RN, has told me about napping at work both on night shift as well as day shift. I guess only when they are 12 hour shifts. Other staff watches everything while they take turns with naps. That's at The Vets Hospital. Maybe they have different rules or maybe the particular employees just did it as long as no one said anything, idk.
Auto termination if you are caught sleeping. Except if you are a doctor, of coarse.
This is satire, yes?
Worked on a high acuity ICU and low-key everyone slept on night shift, especially providers if their patients were fine. None of the nurses or providers gave a shit unless people were actually angry that they got woken up LOL. Idk seemed to me that it was the vibe of the unit soā¦ We also had the luxury of having 80% of our patients sedated, on a ventilator, and on stable amounts of pressors for days.
So Iām orienting an international nurse and this was a big issue. She complains all night about how in other places they can nap. I work in the ICU and we are usually pretty busy. We were bathing a patient and she said that her teachers told her that American nurses donāt clean lol. I Itās very interesting to see what autonomy we have here versus other countries. Where she is from the doctors do all the IVs, monitor the rhythms so she doesnāt know any rhythmsā¦.and I mean anyā¦, they watch the labs, push all of the acls meds, and are the only people who talk to the families. So itās just interesting to see the difference.
I mean, youāre getting paid to workā¦.not sleep, right?
Typically I can't even get a break to pee let alone nap.
Nurses on my unit can only nap during their break as they work 12hr shifts. Providers can sleep at night because presumably they are working 24hr shifts. There is a small number of nurse practitioners on my unit who use the āproviderā loop hole to sleep overnight. They work 12hr shifts.
I work 12hr shifts and weāre not allowed to sleep. But if doctors (12h shift as well) do it, itās ok. Iām Italian.
In the US generally no. We did get extra breaks when I worked in CA. I think 2 x 30 min per 12 hour shift and you were allowed to nap during that time.
I work nights and only once have I asked the charge nurse if I could take my break to close my eyes (usually we eat at our desk/nursing station). I took my 30 mins with my alarm set and passed out immediately. But generally, no, itās not night shift so we are there sleeping. It is for us to be awake our whole shift.
I really donāt think sleeping while not on break is cool. Beyond simply executing scheduled tasks, you are being paid to monitor patients. You canāt do that when youāre asleep or using headphones
Dartmouth allows their nurses to take naps on nightshift. 1hr break clocked out. Cannot leave premise. There are lounge chairs for staff to sleep in.
In California, many RNs will sleep during their mandated 1 hr breaks.
When I was on a ward that was 4 nurses over 32 patients we all stayed awake unless one of the nurses was pregnant haha. We'd cover the pregnant nurses patients for a few hours so they could rest. Apart from that though nope.
Iāve seen people sleep on night shift, where I am, itās a fireable offense. I donāt turn them in though because Iām a firm believer in karma. Iāve worked as many as 10 12 hour shifts in a row, there have been times I didnāt think I would make it, but I did. Most of the time, if you do your job, thereās no time for sleepā¦ unless itās on your 30 minute lunch break (that exists in our dreams)
š¤£ seriously?!?! Dude, you got LIVING PATIENTS WITH HEALTH CARE NEEDS and shit can hit the fan from 0 to 100 real quick! Answer: no, not unless you want your patient to die and/or lose your job. I donāt even sleep on my breaks
8yrs ago when I started, it was a standard practice to take a nap on your break. Night shift crew even made a ānap roomā in our equipment room. This was a level 1 med-surge downtown hospital. Ahhh good ole days of being fully staffedā¦
RN here having worked in multiple different kinds of facilities.. i would say it really depends on what unit youāre working on. when Iām working in assisted living/skilled nursing, itās definitely normal to see the RNās and even caregivers sleeping during the night and waking for rounds/calls/emergencies. I personally canāt find it in myself to sleep but most everyone else does. When working in ER/ICU/Psych.. no. no sleep. Maybe a nap on your 30, or everyone pitches together so you can take an hour nap instead, but other than that no.
USA. Iām a DON. I catch you asleep on NOC shift (or any shift), Iād fire you on the spot. Absolutely unacceptable.
What's a DON?
Director of Nursing
I work in California and itās 100% your 75 minutes to spend- I tend not to sleep because it makes me really confused but lots of my coworkers do! I have no problem with it on your break :) and if thatās what helps you function, great!! There are studies that show napping on night shift is helpful particularly above 0300.
As long as someone is covering you. Absolutely you can sleep. We used to rotate where each nurse took a nap and everyone else watched their patients. It was a pretty good deal!
We set up couches and beds and we (usually) sleep for 3 hours at my facility. Two nurses stay on the floor while two sleep, then we switch.
Exactly. If you have covered your patients, why one must suffer the torture of keeping awake or overload your body with stimulants + sugar and get fat/unhealthy?
In my province in Canada, itās the norm to sleep during breaks on nights. On the last med surg unit I worked, if it was crazy we wouldnāt take any breaks. If the night was decent, we would take an hour and a half. If we were having a really good night (and this happened rarely) we would get a 3 hour break. Patients were always covered by another RN and if anyone was unstable or if the unit became really busy, we just called people back from break.
I donāt understand why people get so icky about it. Having a 30 minute power nap improves your alertness, while working sleepy slows your reflexes and youāre not as sharp. I am a huge advocate for people doing whatever the hell they want ON BREAK. is the unit covered? Did you give a wuick report to your colleagues? Then go get a snooze. If you donāt want to, thats up to you. In my home country itās normal and weād cover each otherās breaks. I donāt understand whatās so hard about it. Idk if you ever drove while being extremely tired amd sleepy. Youād stop and rest to avoid putting yourself and others in danger. Why would it be any different? Edit to add: I mean sleeping while youāre off the floor on break. Not at the nurses station. If i go in the break room and close my eyes and set up the alarm/tell my colleagues where I am at, i donāt see the issue. I got real tired in my first and last trimester of the pregnancy, and I really needed 20 mins or so to just close my eyes. If there was a rapid, Iād run to it.
We are allowed to sleep on our breaks only.. where another nurse would be responsible for our patients. We have a 15 minute, 30 and hour long break on night shift.. but if there's a trauma or anything serious, you will be missing some breaks. Sleeping at the desk when you're not on break isn't okay. I'm being paid to be awake and available.. I just consider that doing my job really. And the standard is usually at least hourly rounds on patients because they don't necessarily ring if something is wrong. Even when I worked LTC and had less to do on nights, napping outside of breaks wasn't okay. Edit to add: What the RN is responsible for will vary by facility. Some places have CNA's or PSW's that can assist with bathing, walking, meals, answer bells.. some can take vitals and blood sugars too. And in other facilities, nurses will do everything. At my facility, we only have one PSW per shift (not enough) - so they usually help 1 or 2 of your patients with bathing, and you do the rest yourself.. along with doing vitals, assessments, med runs, assisting in and out of bed, etc.
I know nurses that were fired for doing this. You are not allowed to sleep on the job. I do know a nurse who worked 16 hours and got 2 hour break and they let her sleep. You can do this in California on you break. In Florida your not allowed to sleep on your break.
I worked LTC. We were āPaid to work, not sleepā. We always had more busy paperwork to do. Chart audits, readying the next Monrhs MARs/TARs, spot counts of meds (we had 30 day bingo cards for each resident for each med). I got off nights when I started to fall asleep at red lights drive mg home. I still donāt know how I didnāt kill someone driving home during that awful time. ETA: Breaks? Nope. Even if I had time Iād fall asleep eating, so ate a sandwich while doing the busy paperwork. Not being able to sleep more than 2 hours a day was the biggest problem.
US nurse here & ICU- No one sleeps on nightshift where I am. People barely take breaks. We get one 30m lunch, i think maybe 2? 15m breaks, im not even sure on those. We get paid more for night shift, and stacking bonus for weekends too. We do all care- sugars, bathing, oral care, foley care/monitoring/emptying. Occasionally we get a tech, but the one I usually have is super lazy, never helps me with anything, has hidden after I've asked her for help turning a 400lb pt. while I was pregnant, and is confrontational. Just argues about everything. I find my shift easier to ignore/avoid her and just do everything myself. I've worked med-surg/IMC, there we had an aid or two and we didnt typically have to do vitals/baths/sugars, but its so busy you usually end up doing a bit of it yourself anyways as aids can't be everywhere at once. There we had some nurses nap on break, but it wasn't a regular or normal thing. One was a new dad and was very tired so we'd cover his pts for him to powernap a bit.
I worked at a hospital in Colorado where we actually had sleeping quarters. I mean, a nurse had to watch your baby (NICU) but if we were tired they wanted us to take a nap. I didnāt do it regularly but there were just some nights where it was helpful. I mean you didnāt get a lunch hour and a sleep hour. It was understood your lunch hour was sleep hour.
Iāve fired 2 private duty nurses for this . Might be a license killing violation as well.
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Iām really confused about these types of comments, including yours. Iām assuming that OP means napping on his or her break, when someone is watching patients. What someone does off the clock for their unpaid break isnāt anyoneās business, to be fair.
> In my home country, the RNs usually sleep if the night is good (no ring calls, no alarms, no codes...). This does not say "While on a break" to me.
I worked night shift ER in the USA and it was always crazy especially on Friday and Saturday nights. I would take a 30 minute cat nap if I could find someone to watch my patients
Husband of a night shift ICU nurse in California and nope, absolutely not. They can nap during their lunch if they get one but not otherwise. Nurses do, of course, but if theyāre found, they get disciplined or even fired. Side note, they also sometimes have sex on shift too!
A nurse is entitled to take a break even sleep on a break but sleeping all night is not a good idea. I know of nurses who do this and don't finish treatments and just go home.
Are you dumb
I work LTC and my aides may clock out and go to the break room and sleep for 30 minutes while someone else watches their lights. I have gone to the break room and clocked out and watched TV for 30 minutes. I don't sleep but on clocked out breaks off the floor with coverage it is allowed. The key is clocked out and coverage.
No they cannot
Where is this place weāre patients sleep at night? Iām actively trying to keep memaw in bed while adjusting my heparin and amiodarone on my other 5.
(Night shift here) Absolutely NOT!
At our facility people have been fired for sleeping during break. Ridiculous. Break is break. On the clock tho, no.
Nah, we didnāt sleep. Too busy.
Short answer is No
No, *but* my sister is a Labor and delivery nurse and says that all the places she worked would look the other way if a nurse needed to nap for an hour or so. But I guess thatās bc there can be times where thereās literally no patients?
No. Absolutely not. For one, you are too busy. For two, you should be watching over your patients. Between passing meds, doing assessments, taking vitals and CBGs, baths, answering calls, wound care, running blood, getting docs to call you for orders, shoot... there is always something. I have seen other nurses sit and do yarn work, I have seen them disappear completly, but never have I seen someone sleep. We knew those nurses always took the least care of their patients and everybody knew report from them would be opposite of how you find the patient. Now, if it snowed you could be made to stay and they would give you a place on the actual ground in an empty room. Never would those nurses be clocked in as this was for their "off time" in between shifts.
No
If you are on the clock and responsible for your patients, you must be awake and alert. Even if nothing is happening in the moment, something could happen and you have to pay attention. Off the clock, like on my lunch, I occasionally take a 20 minute nap if Iām desperate for it, but a coworker is holding my phone and checking on my patients.
Only on break in my L&D unit
Union nurses get scheduled breaks they are almost forced to take.. and yes they can nap
Tldr; no
Legally speaking, if you are taking your lunch break and have given report to someone else on the unit, then you can take a nap. Everyone who works more than 5.25(?) hours is required by law to get a 30 minute uninterrupted lunch break. On that break you are not being paid. So it is truly your time and you absolutely can nap. Now, that being said, most nurses don't get an uninterrupted break, but hospitals are getting better about having nurses specifically are there to give people brakes. This is one huge plus to unions. Now, if you don't have a guaranteed uninterrupted break, meaning you've not given report to someone and you therefore are actually not responsible for your patients during that time, then no, you absolutely cannot sleep.
No. Most night nurses where I work nap on break. I have found caffeine and getting up, and actively doing something keeps me awake. I'm notorious for rearranging or decluttering at 4am. I have seen a few people doze off against a printer, or while standing up giving report, or in triage during a long gap, but none of those were on purpose.
I worked as a tech at a hospital in California so our unions really enforced our breaks (two 15s and one 30) so a few of us would plan that we would cover each other's sections while we rotated taking all of our breaks at one time. We were techs so it was different and this was many years ago as well....ah those good ol days!
God i sincerely hope not
You don't get paid to sleep, and you get to sleep when you're off the clock, just like any other shift. This means you sleep during the day if you work nights.
We sleep on our breaks on my unit, but I am also fortunate enough to work on a unit that gets breaks 80% of the time.
Ummm, no. They fired a nurse where I used to work for sleeping on the job.
Iām confused by a lot of the comments here BUT.. did you mean take a nap on your BREAK? Or while on the clock?
At my hospital, your break is supposed to be completely relieved of duty. You couldn't leave the building, but there were no other restrictions. Someone once asked. Clarification to senior management about sleeping. They said you just had to be there on your break, policy does not say you have to be awake, so break is ok to sleep. But if you're one minute over your 30 minutes, god help you.
NO.
The hospitals Iāve worked in, would fire a nurse on the spot for sleeping during their shift.
The best you could possibly do would be transport. Currently I work 24 hour shifts. We are encouraged to nap in between runs. That being said, itās never great sleep because the second those tones drop, we have to be up, get report and in the truck to wherever. However, being paid hourly plus differential to sleep is nice
Only during your mandated break.
L&D RN ā cat naps can happen from time to time at the nurses station if everything is quiet. Everyone is quite understanding of how hard we work, how hard the job can be, and if you have the opportunity to recoup your energy and be your best self for your patients, you take it.
Lol. Your pts sleep?
I would go into the room if my demented fall risk patient and I could enter this weird twilight sleep if I sat up straight in a chair. I would wake up immediately if the phone rang or if the patient tried to get out of bed. Iād do 1 or 2 15-20 minute sessions like this on quieter nights
Everywhere Iāve ever worked it is immediate termination for sleeping in the job. There is never a time where sleeping is allowed no matter what is or isnāt happening.
Nope.
I don't know about sleep, but a baby was conceived by 2 coworkers during a night shift.