What Would You Do? Sleeping member of night staff
WWYD? Sleeping Night Staff Member
During a night shift in a care home, you discover a colleague asleep in a chair in the staff office. Residents are settled, call bells are quiet, and the staff member has recently been open about struggling with serious personal problems and exhaustion outside work.
Some colleagues feel sympathy and say, “They’re clearly overwhelmed and need support.” Others are angry, arguing that sleeping on shift puts residents at risk and damages trust in the team.
You know reporting it could affect their job and mental wellbeing. But ignoring it could compromise resident safety and dignity if someone needed urgent help.
What would you do?
* Do you wake them and deal with it informally?
* Do you report the incident through the proper channels?
* Or do you prioritise compassion for your colleague’s situation?
Where should the balance lie between accountability, staff wellbeing, and the duty to provide
I would deal with it informally I would wake them up and ask are they ok. Along with explaining the risk of not hearing call bells or motion sensors due to being a sleep i would also suggest that they speak with management and ask if they could take time of using annual leave if an option. Even though people do go through things in life we are in work to do a job and when this is looking after vulnerable people such as working on a dementia community we as staff have to be in the right frame of mind for there safety
