Let them snooze?
I'm in AMAU, so not a traditional ward, but I have noticed there are two schools of thought when it comes to night shift and looking after patients:
- Leave the lights on, all patients to have 2 hourly obs no matter how stable they may be as they are in hospital for a reason, one nurse even told me 'they're not in hospital to rest, but to be treated!'
- Dim lights as much as possible, only perform 2 hourly obs on patient who actually need it, 'sleep aids healing'.
I am curious what everyone thinks. Personally I like option (2) but can understand (1), especially as patients can always deteriorate unexpectedly and 'I wanted to let them get their beauty sleep' is hardly a good defence! I am aware as well common sense comes into play here - obviously if it was someone I was worried about I would be monitoring more closely!
Another point is that with the current bed pressures AMAU is not the short-stay unit it once was - it has become like a traditional ward with patients regularly staying for more than two days.