to sleep during my break on the night shift?

[TupperwareTwat]

After 5 years of getting away with working lates, earlies and long days only, I have this week started mandatory rotation on to night shifts.
The NHS trust I work for now requires day shift workers to do a minimum of 4 weeks of nights per year and vice versa for night shift workers.
I began my 12 hour shift at 8pm on Monday. At 2am the Sister asked me if I would like to go for my break (1 hour unpaid). I told her that I would like to go somewhere to sleep and she said that we are not allowed to sleep during our break in case anything happens and we are needed.
I asked her what we are supposed to do on our 'break'. She told me that she takes a book and reads for an hour.
I took a book and a blanket and my coat to the rest room, pushed 4 stand chairs together, led down and rested my eyeballs for an hour. The Sister came knocking on the door after an hour and I got up and staggered back to work while she went for her break. I felt relatively fantastic after my sleep.
When I told DH about this he said I should not have told her I was going to sleep on my break, and that I could get sacked for this.
I don't believe that my employers should even expect me to remain on the premises on my unpaid break!
Or am I being unreasonable?

I used to go and kip in my car, less chance of them finding me in an emergency - which happened all the bloody time - bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.

Cremeegg, I and many other hcp put up with it because we have no option.

As traffic warden said, someone pushing, bleeding or fitting etc can't wait for me to finish my break.

If a ctg looks awful them I'm not prepared to leave it for 30 minutes unattended if no one can relieve me.

Its not just you OP. I used to do 12/13 hour shifts with no breaks or food at one time. The amount of ways an employer can screw with you is unbelievable.
Are you required to be on site during your breaks ? If not id bloody well leave and go sleep in my car or go shopping/anything rather than be there to cover their arses if they are busy and under staffed. They need to sort out their staffing levels not you.

Viva That's an intersting concept about not being insured if you are on an unpaid break but in my experience you are still considered "employed" and subject to the Trust policy, in the same manner that they can insist you do not leave the premises. It may be different if your Trust is more enlightened!
There are so many loopholes in employment law that the NHS can use to cover the service.

ENormaSnob - then you need to claim for the full shift. They are legally obliged to pay you if they're not providing enough staff to cover breaks. If they won't do it then you get your union involved. If they still won't do it then you have a day off in lieu every 8 days to make up for it. You'll all need to stick together.

ENormaSnob, but are your unions not involved, pushing for better conditions?

It's just awful that the NHS takes advantage of the goodwill of its workers in this way. I know that makes me sound naive, but I really am shocked reading about what some of you have to put up with.

I couldn't do your job, but I admire all of you who can and do.

If you are on an unpaid break then your time should be 100% your own

If you are effectively "on call" then you should be paid, albeit potentially at a lower rate then when officially on duty.

Anything else is taking the piss. This is in no way in conflict with putting the patients first and safe practice - it just means that the employer must pay you for what it requires you to do

OP in your shoes I would, before I next worked a night shift, find out whether your Trust would regard this as a disciplinary issue or not. Many do.

If you don't like what you find out and you feel strongly about it, contact your union and ask them to raise it with your Trust management.

My dad suggested I use these fake eyeball glasses for my next night shift!

No one seems to have mentioned that during an emergency, adrenalin kicks in and any "staggering sleepy" nurse would be pumping in about 30sec! The alarm alert is loud enough to hear, to wake you (we wake to house alarms crying babies etc. ok enough at home). I would say the risk of medication error, not doing adequate obs, insufficient note taking, needle stick injury, accident driving home would be far greater, than 'being sleepy' during an emergency.

They say 40min is one sleep cycle and that's all you need to be refreshed (and safer to practice). Personally though I prefer lots of coffee, chocolate and crisp apples!

I think part of the problem is that people respond very differently to naps and the subsequent waking up.

I'm a huge advocate of the power nap and bounce straight back into 'full alert' mode after a snooze.

DH on the other hand is worse than useless for the rest of the day if he's had a nap.

The NHS (in its usual style) has shot for the least common denominator and dictated that nobody is allowed a nap, just because some people don't cope well with the waking up.

Apart from anything else, if they aren't paying you, then you should be able to do what you like. I would be interested to see this tested in court actually, I can't think of any other situation where you are not being paid by someone for a given chunk of time, yet still have to do their bidding.

Yes, cake it's such a joke if you're responsible enough to care for patients but not able to make your own decision whether you would like a nap or not on night duty. "nanny state" comes to mind.

I worked nights for 15yrs, both NHS and private sector. I would almost always find myself a quiet corner and sit with my coat or a blanket and have a "Power Nap". I never completly went to sleep, but was usually in that "twighlight" world between awake and asleep, where you could hear sound etc, but as if from a distance. However- if an emergency buzzer or another sort of alsrm went off, it never failed to have me jumping up and going to see what had happened.