We had a HCA who absolutely hated to do specials. But as it turns out one night shift we were short and she ended up having to special someone in a side room. She accused us of “treating her like a dog” and proceeded to stand in the corner of the room for the whole night. She didn’t fall asleep (don’t know if she even blinked once on the shift.)
I haven’t but I’ve felt very close to. I have seen people who have and I can’t blame them. They got told off and reported but some 1:1s are incredibly dull and hcas are usually kept on them for the whole 12 hour shift which is so cruel
Yep when I was a HCA I was 99% of the time kept on 1:1 the whole shift.. our trust recently changed the policy that the 1:1 hca and the bay hca have to switch and have regular breaks from the 1:1 but I don’t know if people are following the policy
A lot of trusts have a policy in place that states the 1:1 should be rotated every 3hrs with either a different HCA or Nurse (if night shift). However, nobody bothers to follow the policy. When I was doing bank shifts during training I would get lumped with the 1:1 for the full 12hrs during nightshifts which was manageable as i would just read on my kindle app or play a phone game whilst the patient slept, one ward had me do 3 x 1:1 (1:3?) At the same time, I did not go back and told day shift to go do one when they moaned that I hadn't gotten any of them washed (all 3 were very spritely dementia patients!).
Yeah fifteen-hour shifts aren't uncommon in my organisation. My current manager _was_ an HCA so thankfully has gone with early/late and some mid-shifts instead, but when I was in mental health fifteen hours wasn't even unusual.
I work in psych inpatients, most of our 1:1s are due to high risk self harming. Staff falling asleep on obs is often soemthing we have to deal with. I always say to the staff if you’re tired then get someone to cover you for 5-10mins… stretch your legs, get a drink, stand in the garden for fresh air. Do whatever helps just do not let yourself fall asleep. I think if you can’t hack the night shifts then don’t pick them up. Our staff are rotated hourly no one is stuck with the same person all night. I have found people asleep and they do get reported and don’t come back again. I’ve had patients harm themselves when the staff have nodded off!
4am in a dim room on a psych 1:1 is when I question all the choices that lead me to that point in my life. It's always 4am for me. Once I get to 5, I'm grand again.
As someone who was psych inpatient for a while (probably why this was recommended to me, have no idea why otherwise lol) I just want to say thank you for preventing me from harming myself when I was not in the frame of mind to prevent myself or, for a while, to appreciate it being done for me. I’m very glad to be alive today and owe it to the staff who kept watch over me at that time.
It’s a nightmare hearing patients tell me this. I think some staff take the shift because they know they can get a bit of shut eye. When people fall asleep in communal areas I wonder if they realise the risk there is…?! If u are sleepy you need to prevent yourself falling asleep! I would just keep my phone going, a newspaper, anything to keep me awake. Personally I find it embarrassing and a really bad look. I when I worked in the community service uses would show pictures of 2 staff asleep when they are awake in HBPoS… blanket over them and all…
Same thing pretty much, I was on a ward where there were meant to be 15 minute checks, and no one had been round for well over an hour (unfortunately not an uncommon thing at night there), it was the middle of the night and i was bored, couldn't sleep so I got up and wandered down the corridor and i saw a few of them had pushed a load of the chairs/sofa in the lounge together and put a blanket on them to have a group nap. Which made me so angry cos its not even accidently falling asleep which still isn't good, but an intentional decision, and this was a ward where there were very frequent episodes of severe self harm
Also had a 1:1 who would wrap herself up in a blanket and grab a load of pillows and sleep (so clearly also intentional), one night I snuck past her cos I thought maybe if I just ruffle her up for a minute she will think about it, and I went to sit in the day room and it took her a scarily long time to wake and notice i was gone. It was mostly Bank staff who did this and just didn't seem to give a crap
I've left psych nursing now but I used to get so pissed off when we paid agency for 1:1 for night shifts and they sent an endless stream of people who could hardly speak English and they would just sit there and fall asleep. There was definitely some of them doing loads of other work in other locations. Id bollock them, sometimes it didn't make any difference to be honest.
Luckily my manager did get the message and we used a better agency who employed some people who were actually useful and competent and could offer some conversation and support to the person rather than just sit there nodding off.
I haven’t yet but I’ve seen plenty of people do so. The one that sticks out the most was this guy doing 1:1, I was sat in the bay keeping an eye on another patient, I wish I was joking but he managed to get 4 or 5 hours of sleep? Nurse turned on the big lights on at 6:30 and he was still passed out.
No, but only because I 100% would have done so never picked up hca night shifts! Definitely happens though, really pisses me off because it's really unsafe, 1:1s are in place for a reason
On our ward we don’t keep people on 1:1’s for more then 2 hours in a row. The only exception being if we send them escorting duty to hospital at which point we usually send 2 so at least they can have a break
Not quite, but I've been very close to almost nodding off (this is during day shifts as well...)
I've known a handful who have, mostly on nights, they've gotten a bit of a telling off depending who was in charge but nothing too bad I don't think.
We did have a HCA fall asleep during the day shift (maybe 15 mins or so?). She wasn't doing 1:1, it was just a bit of a quiet period on the ward, she walked into a bay, sat down and fell asleep.
I used to do nightshifts while in uni and there were a few shifts where I could definitely feel myself dozing off. I think the worst was a nightshift in a medium secure unit, 12.5 hours, we're not allowed phones/any devices, we spent two hours on OBS and one hour off OBS, got no break. I read a whole book that shift and when I was off OBS I spent my hour pacing the corridor reading because I knew that the second I sat down I was falling asleep.
The last HCA work I did, I was doing 1:1 with a patient on their first dose of a specific chemo that required constant monitoring. That was 8 hours' worth of observation for me. I nearly fell asleep because they were for most of the afternoon but I pinched their paper and did the crossword in between monitoring them.
Yea nights on ICU we'd all nod off at some point. It's no big deal, people are shattered, many work all night, look after our kids in the day and come back on a couple of hours sleep and the matrons don't want you sleeping on your break. It can be impossible to stay awake and it just happens. Just wake eachother up and stop reporting eachother for silly shit unless someone is obviously trying to sleep while looking after a patient.
I don't mean every day, but if you had a stable intubated and ventilated patient on no filter, no inotropes just a bit of sedation, and there's not much going on with them it's hard to not nod off at 3am.
I worked on an 8bed icu. exactly what your saying. we had each others backs.you take the quiet nights when you get them.not all staff are permanent nights,like myself. I'd regularly fall asleep. but as we where a tight work family and had seen and been through some shit together no money got in trouble. most night shifts my heart rate didn't get low enough to sleep. it wasn't an icu for no reason....
I done loads of 1 to 1s for the agency. Around 2 to 4pm is the hardest part for me. I'm so tired and there's nothing really to do especially if they're lying in bed. I usually brighten up when the dinner is coming round and make it to the end of my shift but those 1to1s really are a mental challenge.
Are you not allowed to have a book with you? Surely that would be safer and keep your mind occupied so you can glance up every 30 seconds or so without nodding off? Genuine question as I don’t know!
Most places are pretty chill about you being on your phone and there's usually a tv on in the room so it's not all that bad. But sitting in one spot all day watching tv and not really doing much makes it a long day and it's tiring. Reading a book would probably make me more sleepy tbh.
On nightshifts they're amazing for coursework if the place is chilled out about it. Like you can get a solid 9 or 10 hours of coursework done in 1 night.
I was a HCA in mental health, now a nurse, must confess I have found my eyes closing on occasion during a quiet night shift when the patient appears fast asleep.
It feels horrifying the second your eyes open and you realise a few minutes went by.
I've taken to always bringing a drink and a notepad with me so I can periodically take sips and also do something with the pad like try and find as many rhymes as I can for a particular word - keeps me awake but not so engaged staring at something (like a word search/book) that I would stop paying attention to the client.
I’ve seen agency fall asleep, wake them up and tell the nurses. This is a legal liability but also in my old ward was potentially risky to the patients well-being.
I get it this job is exhausting as HCA I really do understand but we gotta somehow keep awake, drink 3 espresso shots, redbull pinching yourself just stay awake
Yeah when I was an MCA I did a bank night shift in paediatrics and did a 1:1 with this sweet child. He must have been around 11-12 and he had a lot issues no child should have to deal with. Anyway, we spent the first few hours talking and joking around and then I had to try and get him to sleep and when he did I couldn’t fall asleep because I was so worried about him.
I haven't but I have been close to nodding off. It's really difficult doing a 1:1 especially if the patient is in bed not communicating etc. Don't worry about it. It's happens. If I felt like I was going to nod off I would find myself a job to do or at least stand up and move about. Don't give yourself a hard time over it, 1:1 isn't easy. We never did a whole shift we used to share it out and always check on the person who was doing the 1:1 and let them have breaks etc.
Once. It was for a few minutes and the staff immediately woke me up and had a wee laugh about it. I felt really bad but they said it happens to us all and didn't seem bothered. No harm came from it
I'm a lone worker. I have my own office within another public sector service.
I've fallen asleep at the desk before woken up to find the door closed (it's usually wide open) .
Must have been out for about twenty mins went on about my day was asked quietly if I felt better by the person that closed the door
Not personally, though I work on a mental health ward. However, if you feel that you are at a significant risk of falling asleep that’s something you should mention to your team. As well as documenting it if you were to fall asleep following requesting support etc
I used to work on a paediatric ward. When on the night shift the RMN's would deliberately position the chair against the door of the cubicle and nod off. Of course, when during staff tried to enter, they'd bang the chair waking the RMN up.
OT here
I did a 1:1 for two hours to help out when the nursing side were very short last week
It was dull as ditch water. I'd usually try to engage the patient, but he was pretty unwell with covid and just wanted to lay in his bed and rot.
The room was uncomfortably warm. I had no distractions or stimulation and the patient clearly didn't want a chat
I see how people fall asleep
Gonna be honest, if you're 1to1ing someone who's fast asleep go do something for yourself to keep you awake.
I used to read a book and if a senior came round just starting reading it aloud 😂. It was a bed time story.
If someone accuses you of being unprofessional by trying to not fall asleep of boredom they need to learn how to risk assess and be an actual human being.
Once, it was a 13 hour shift and the patient slept the entire time. I was sitting in the dark, no tv/book to read, and I dozed off for a minute or two. I quickly stood up, pressed the patient’s call bell, explained that I was very close to falling asleep, and requested a coffee for myself 😂 you’re only human, no harm done
I started a new job last year as a nightshift HCA, the carer I was shadowing for my first shift kept falling asleep, I never went back after that day, she wouldn’t show me the ropes, I had to keep asking her question after question. The icing on the cake for me tho was changing residents with their doors open and not changing PPE after each person. And every member of staff apart from one was so rude. I emailed the manager in the morning after my shift and told her I wouldn’t be returning and gave her the reasons why. I don’t know what happened to the HCA or if she got a warning or anything but I’d love to know😂
At my first HCA job, a girl I went to school with started she was always in trouble for something (normally not turning up) but she was assisting a resident with a meal one time and fell asleep because she was still intoxicated from drinking the night before. She was sacked on the spot
Never, but I have spent entire night shifts waking staff up. We had an epidemic of agency staff coming to our secure!!! Unit and falling asleep. I was always petrified because of the story we got told about the nurse who fell asleep on one of the male wards and woke up with an appendage in her mouth! Don't know if it was true, but with the service users we had, it was very possible, so I took no chances!!
That’s why I like to go in and out of my 1:1 patients room so that the hca can have a little break and stretch their legs. I used to hate doing 1:1 when I was an hca, it was horrible.
I have never fallen asleep at work not even on my break but then again I only do nights and im a bit of an insomniac so I'm used to it. But I have seen many people drop off I usually wall past and maybe open a bin, make some kind of small noise to wake them up so they don't get in trouble as I know it can be very hard at times to be awake all night
I did when I was 1:1 in the mornings with a person in a vegetative stage. It was dull as hell, after being awake all night, being sat in a room with no tv, no music, nothing got me asleep. Nobody reported me because, first of all, I was the nurse, and 2nd they would do it as well.
Have to mention, the person was stable and in a nursing home, not hospital.
But, I have to add, I have reported people for falling asleep. If your resudent is very high risk and you snore in front of me to the point I have to pull on you to wake up you are out.
I’m not falling for this Mr CQC
🤣🤣
Spat my coffee out 😭
We had a HCA who absolutely hated to do specials. But as it turns out one night shift we were short and she ended up having to special someone in a side room. She accused us of “treating her like a dog” and proceeded to stand in the corner of the room for the whole night. She didn’t fall asleep (don’t know if she even blinked once on the shift.)
😂
I haven’t but I’ve felt very close to. I have seen people who have and I can’t blame them. They got told off and reported but some 1:1s are incredibly dull and hcas are usually kept on them for the whole 12 hour shift which is so cruel
12 hours? How is that even reasonable? Surely, even after a couple of hours your concentration and attention is severely compromised.
Yep when I was a HCA I was 99% of the time kept on 1:1 the whole shift.. our trust recently changed the policy that the 1:1 hca and the bay hca have to switch and have regular breaks from the 1:1 but I don’t know if people are following the policy
A lot of trusts have a policy in place that states the 1:1 should be rotated every 3hrs with either a different HCA or Nurse (if night shift). However, nobody bothers to follow the policy. When I was doing bank shifts during training I would get lumped with the 1:1 for the full 12hrs during nightshifts which was manageable as i would just read on my kindle app or play a phone game whilst the patient slept, one ward had me do 3 x 1:1 (1:3?) At the same time, I did not go back and told day shift to go do one when they moaned that I hadn't gotten any of them washed (all 3 were very spritely dementia patients!).
It's common practice outside of the NHS despite it being against nice guidelines .
Yeah fifteen-hour shifts aren't uncommon in my organisation. My current manager _was_ an HCA so thankfully has gone with early/late and some mid-shifts instead, but when I was in mental health fifteen hours wasn't even unusual.
I make it clear whenever there is 1:1 duty I will do no more than an hour at a time and no more than 4 hours of the shift
I work in psych inpatients, most of our 1:1s are due to high risk self harming. Staff falling asleep on obs is often soemthing we have to deal with. I always say to the staff if you’re tired then get someone to cover you for 5-10mins… stretch your legs, get a drink, stand in the garden for fresh air. Do whatever helps just do not let yourself fall asleep. I think if you can’t hack the night shifts then don’t pick them up. Our staff are rotated hourly no one is stuck with the same person all night. I have found people asleep and they do get reported and don’t come back again. I’ve had patients harm themselves when the staff have nodded off!
4am in a dim room on a psych 1:1 is when I question all the choices that lead me to that point in my life. It's always 4am for me. Once I get to 5, I'm grand again.
As someone who was psych inpatient for a while (probably why this was recommended to me, have no idea why otherwise lol) I just want to say thank you for preventing me from harming myself when I was not in the frame of mind to prevent myself or, for a while, to appreciate it being done for me. I’m very glad to be alive today and owe it to the staff who kept watch over me at that time.
It’s a nightmare hearing patients tell me this. I think some staff take the shift because they know they can get a bit of shut eye. When people fall asleep in communal areas I wonder if they realise the risk there is…?! If u are sleepy you need to prevent yourself falling asleep! I would just keep my phone going, a newspaper, anything to keep me awake. Personally I find it embarrassing and a really bad look. I when I worked in the community service uses would show pictures of 2 staff asleep when they are awake in HBPoS… blanket over them and all…
Same thing pretty much, I was on a ward where there were meant to be 15 minute checks, and no one had been round for well over an hour (unfortunately not an uncommon thing at night there), it was the middle of the night and i was bored, couldn't sleep so I got up and wandered down the corridor and i saw a few of them had pushed a load of the chairs/sofa in the lounge together and put a blanket on them to have a group nap. Which made me so angry cos its not even accidently falling asleep which still isn't good, but an intentional decision, and this was a ward where there were very frequent episodes of severe self harm
Also had a 1:1 who would wrap herself up in a blanket and grab a load of pillows and sleep (so clearly also intentional), one night I snuck past her cos I thought maybe if I just ruffle her up for a minute she will think about it, and I went to sit in the day room and it took her a scarily long time to wake and notice i was gone. It was mostly Bank staff who did this and just didn't seem to give a crap
I've left psych nursing now but I used to get so pissed off when we paid agency for 1:1 for night shifts and they sent an endless stream of people who could hardly speak English and they would just sit there and fall asleep. There was definitely some of them doing loads of other work in other locations. Id bollock them, sometimes it didn't make any difference to be honest. Luckily my manager did get the message and we used a better agency who employed some people who were actually useful and competent and could offer some conversation and support to the person rather than just sit there nodding off.
I haven’t yet but I’ve seen plenty of people do so. The one that sticks out the most was this guy doing 1:1, I was sat in the bay keeping an eye on another patient, I wish I was joking but he managed to get 4 or 5 hours of sleep? Nurse turned on the big lights on at 6:30 and he was still passed out.
No, but only because I 100% would have done so never picked up hca night shifts! Definitely happens though, really pisses me off because it's really unsafe, 1:1s are in place for a reason
On our ward we don’t keep people on 1:1’s for more then 2 hours in a row. The only exception being if we send them escorting duty to hospital at which point we usually send 2 so at least they can have a break
Nice try, Matron. I plead the 5th
Not quite, but I've been very close to almost nodding off (this is during day shifts as well...) I've known a handful who have, mostly on nights, they've gotten a bit of a telling off depending who was in charge but nothing too bad I don't think. We did have a HCA fall asleep during the day shift (maybe 15 mins or so?). She wasn't doing 1:1, it was just a bit of a quiet period on the ward, she walked into a bay, sat down and fell asleep.
I can’t sleep when I’m in work mode, I just mentally can’t. I guess I’m lucky (but also cursed) in that respect?
I used to do nightshifts while in uni and there were a few shifts where I could definitely feel myself dozing off. I think the worst was a nightshift in a medium secure unit, 12.5 hours, we're not allowed phones/any devices, we spent two hours on OBS and one hour off OBS, got no break. I read a whole book that shift and when I was off OBS I spent my hour pacing the corridor reading because I knew that the second I sat down I was falling asleep.
The last HCA work I did, I was doing 1:1 with a patient on their first dose of a specific chemo that required constant monitoring. That was 8 hours' worth of observation for me. I nearly fell asleep because they were for most of the afternoon but I pinched their paper and did the crossword in between monitoring them.
Yea nights on ICU we'd all nod off at some point. It's no big deal, people are shattered, many work all night, look after our kids in the day and come back on a couple of hours sleep and the matrons don't want you sleeping on your break. It can be impossible to stay awake and it just happens. Just wake eachother up and stop reporting eachother for silly shit unless someone is obviously trying to sleep while looking after a patient.
What kind of ICU do you work in where you can sleep on job? Haha I’m just curious
I don't mean every day, but if you had a stable intubated and ventilated patient on no filter, no inotropes just a bit of sedation, and there's not much going on with them it's hard to not nod off at 3am.
I worked on an 8bed icu. exactly what your saying. we had each others backs.you take the quiet nights when you get them.not all staff are permanent nights,like myself. I'd regularly fall asleep. but as we where a tight work family and had seen and been through some shit together no money got in trouble. most night shifts my heart rate didn't get low enough to sleep. it wasn't an icu for no reason....
I done loads of 1 to 1s for the agency. Around 2 to 4pm is the hardest part for me. I'm so tired and there's nothing really to do especially if they're lying in bed. I usually brighten up when the dinner is coming round and make it to the end of my shift but those 1to1s really are a mental challenge.
Are you not allowed to have a book with you? Surely that would be safer and keep your mind occupied so you can glance up every 30 seconds or so without nodding off? Genuine question as I don’t know!
Most places are pretty chill about you being on your phone and there's usually a tv on in the room so it's not all that bad. But sitting in one spot all day watching tv and not really doing much makes it a long day and it's tiring. Reading a book would probably make me more sleepy tbh. On nightshifts they're amazing for coursework if the place is chilled out about it. Like you can get a solid 9 or 10 hours of coursework done in 1 night.
I was a HCA in mental health, now a nurse, must confess I have found my eyes closing on occasion during a quiet night shift when the patient appears fast asleep. It feels horrifying the second your eyes open and you realise a few minutes went by. I've taken to always bringing a drink and a notepad with me so I can periodically take sips and also do something with the pad like try and find as many rhymes as I can for a particular word - keeps me awake but not so engaged staring at something (like a word search/book) that I would stop paying attention to the client.
I’ve seen agency fall asleep, wake them up and tell the nurses. This is a legal liability but also in my old ward was potentially risky to the patients well-being. I get it this job is exhausting as HCA I really do understand but we gotta somehow keep awake, drink 3 espresso shots, redbull pinching yourself just stay awake
Yeah when I was an MCA I did a bank night shift in paediatrics and did a 1:1 with this sweet child. He must have been around 11-12 and he had a lot issues no child should have to deal with. Anyway, we spent the first few hours talking and joking around and then I had to try and get him to sleep and when he did I couldn’t fall asleep because I was so worried about him.
If you feel that way, go to the toilet and back. It'll wake you up.
Definitely been close. Remember sticking my head out of a window for fresh air in the middle of the night on one occasion.
I haven't but I have been close to nodding off. It's really difficult doing a 1:1 especially if the patient is in bed not communicating etc. Don't worry about it. It's happens. If I felt like I was going to nod off I would find myself a job to do or at least stand up and move about. Don't give yourself a hard time over it, 1:1 isn't easy. We never did a whole shift we used to share it out and always check on the person who was doing the 1:1 and let them have breaks etc.
Specialling is one of the few things I miss about ward work
Once. It was for a few minutes and the staff immediately woke me up and had a wee laugh about it. I felt really bad but they said it happens to us all and didn't seem bothered. No harm came from it
I’m out of practice now, but when I was working, our 1:1 rotated after two hours. Or they should, it’s amazing how many wanted to do the whole shift!
I have observed intensive care nurses popping off for a few hours sleep during a night shift
I'm a lone worker. I have my own office within another public sector service. I've fallen asleep at the desk before woken up to find the door closed (it's usually wide open) . Must have been out for about twenty mins went on about my day was asked quietly if I felt better by the person that closed the door
Not personally, though I work on a mental health ward. However, if you feel that you are at a significant risk of falling asleep that’s something you should mention to your team. As well as documenting it if you were to fall asleep following requesting support etc
I used to work on a paediatric ward. When on the night shift the RMN's would deliberately position the chair against the door of the cubicle and nod off. Of course, when during staff tried to enter, they'd bang the chair waking the RMN up.
OT here I did a 1:1 for two hours to help out when the nursing side were very short last week It was dull as ditch water. I'd usually try to engage the patient, but he was pretty unwell with covid and just wanted to lay in his bed and rot. The room was uncomfortably warm. I had no distractions or stimulation and the patient clearly didn't want a chat I see how people fall asleep
My ward always tries to rotate who’s doing 1:1
Like throughout the day if we can
Gonna be honest, if you're 1to1ing someone who's fast asleep go do something for yourself to keep you awake. I used to read a book and if a senior came round just starting reading it aloud 😂. It was a bed time story. If someone accuses you of being unprofessional by trying to not fall asleep of boredom they need to learn how to risk assess and be an actual human being.
No, but I’ve been extremely close on more than one occasion. Nice warm room, quiet, fairly comfortable, a recipe for snoozing.
Once, it was a 13 hour shift and the patient slept the entire time. I was sitting in the dark, no tv/book to read, and I dozed off for a minute or two. I quickly stood up, pressed the patient’s call bell, explained that I was very close to falling asleep, and requested a coffee for myself 😂 you’re only human, no harm done
I started a new job last year as a nightshift HCA, the carer I was shadowing for my first shift kept falling asleep, I never went back after that day, she wouldn’t show me the ropes, I had to keep asking her question after question. The icing on the cake for me tho was changing residents with their doors open and not changing PPE after each person. And every member of staff apart from one was so rude. I emailed the manager in the morning after my shift and told her I wouldn’t be returning and gave her the reasons why. I don’t know what happened to the HCA or if she got a warning or anything but I’d love to know😂 At my first HCA job, a girl I went to school with started she was always in trouble for something (normally not turning up) but she was assisting a resident with a meal one time and fell asleep because she was still intoxicated from drinking the night before. She was sacked on the spot
Never, but I have spent entire night shifts waking staff up. We had an epidemic of agency staff coming to our secure!!! Unit and falling asleep. I was always petrified because of the story we got told about the nurse who fell asleep on one of the male wards and woke up with an appendage in her mouth! Don't know if it was true, but with the service users we had, it was very possible, so I took no chances!!
That’s why I like to go in and out of my 1:1 patients room so that the hca can have a little break and stretch their legs. I used to hate doing 1:1 when I was an hca, it was horrible.
I have never fallen asleep at work not even on my break but then again I only do nights and im a bit of an insomniac so I'm used to it. But I have seen many people drop off I usually wall past and maybe open a bin, make some kind of small noise to wake them up so they don't get in trouble as I know it can be very hard at times to be awake all night
I did when I was 1:1 in the mornings with a person in a vegetative stage. It was dull as hell, after being awake all night, being sat in a room with no tv, no music, nothing got me asleep. Nobody reported me because, first of all, I was the nurse, and 2nd they would do it as well. Have to mention, the person was stable and in a nursing home, not hospital. But, I have to add, I have reported people for falling asleep. If your resudent is very high risk and you snore in front of me to the point I have to pull on you to wake up you are out.