Top 10 Reasons We Get Fired: Sleeping on duty

Who has time to sleep at work!? I'm too busy to even think about taking a nap!I do really wish there was a quiet area designated for nurses to nap during breaks though. I think by giving RNs 45 minutes to lay down and recharge would be great in terms of productivity and safety. I know I feel recharged after a 20 minute nap... 45 minutes would be a sweet spot to actually be able to fall asleep, shake off the grogginess and return to the floor. I don't see this happening. With all the research showing the benefit of a quick nap I really wish hospitals would take this into consideration. After 10 hours I start to feel sluggish and I'm not functioning 100%. Maybe one day in a perfect world we'll be able to nap, have something to eat, and be able to empty our poor bladders!

California nurses are allowed to nap on their breaks although I don't know if this is by law or just a provision of contract negotiated by the California Nurses Association. Another reason to belong to a union. As a dialysis nurse we are frequently subjected to shifts lasting up to 18 hours and longer yet I have known coworkers who have been fired because they nodded off. Inform management that you feel unsafe to continue and it is refusal to accept assignment. Remind me again when slavery was outlawed?

There's an enormous difference between "nodding off at work" and dragging two blankets, a pillow and a recliner into a dark corner and settling in for a nap. I don't know anyone who goes out of their way to "report" someone for nodding off at work, but the intentional napping is another story.

I used to take a blanket into the conference room and use it as a pillow and nap for my lunch on night shift. Falling asleep by accident wasn't really possible though - too much to do. The times that I would sit down and chart and feel like sleeping, I'd get up and get some ice water and do something else.

I caught an aide sleeping IN A PATIENT'S BED once. Who does that? Apparently, she'd been disappearing for hours at a time, and we finally found out where she was going. So many things wrong with it! Infection control, violating privacy, and it kind of seems like abuse.

A lot of us take naps on our break and let me tell you, it is SO refreshing. I honestly feel so much better for the rest of my shift. People say, "I'd never wake up" if they took a nap, and I thought that at first too, until I tried it. I'm a big time nap proponent (on breaks only of course).

There is a HUGE difference between 'sleeping on duty' and taking a power nap during one's unpaid break time. I recently completed a research study looking at institutional practices related to night workers, and in 50% of the facilities I surveyed, napping during unpaid break time is a firing offence. This make ZERO sense when one considers the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of short naps during overnight shift work.I am happy to say that the hospital system I work for takes seriously the evidence I've presented and is taking steps to 'de-criminalize' this type of restorative napping.

Quote from meanmaryjeanThere is a HUGE difference between 'sleeping on duty' and taking a power nap during one's unpaid break time. I recently completed a research study looking at institutional practices related to night workers, and in 50% of the facilities I surveyed, napping during unpaid break time is a firing offence. This make ZERO sense when one considers the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of short naps during overnight shift work.I am happy to say that the hospital system I work for takes seriously the evidence I've presented and is taking steps to 'de-criminalize' this type of restorative napping.

I agree completely. Somehow it's acceptable for physicians to sleep during their shift but not nurses. I have made a couple of med errors and a report came out in the unit a few months ago where over 80% of the medication errors were made in the last 3-4 hours of the shift.I know that many, especially younger, nurses like the 12 hours shifts, but the bottom line it isn't safe to work that many hours, especially for night shift people.I would come home from work, have to wait for my children to get up, take them to school, it would be 8:30 or 8:45 before I would get to bed and then I would have to get back up at 2:45 to go and pick them up and then it would be 3:30 before I got home, by the time you waited through school traffic. I would fix a quick dinner and then get myself ready..by the time I went to work I had no less than 6 hours of sleep and most days had more like 4.That my friends..isn't safe by any stretch of the imagination.

One of the nurses I work with has been known to go into an empty patient room, turn on the tv and sit in a chair with the back facing the door, pretending to watch tv when in actuality, she is sleeping.This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I don't think napping should be allowed outside of an unpaid break (with someone covering your patient of course). You accepted the job knowing that you were going to have to work nights. It isn't "slavery" but a policy and safety concern.Also, one can't compare doctors to nurses as doctors are usually on-call and work FAR longer than twelve hours oftentimes having to do twenty-four shifts.

On my 12 hour work day, I do not get paid for 30 minutes, so you can bet I will take a refresher nap... It does the world of good.

Quote from ThePrincessBrideOne of the nurses I work with has been known to go into an empty patient room, turn on the tv and sit in a chair with the back facing the door, pretending to watch tv when in actuality, she is sleeping.This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I don't think napping should be allowed outside of an unpaid break (with someone covering your patient of course). You accepted the job knowing that you were going to have to work nights. It isn't "slavery" but a policy and safety concern.Also, one can't compare doctors to nurses as doctors are usually on-call and work FAR longer than twelve hours oftentimes having to do twenty-four shifts.