Is the “check and change” policy appropriate for patients who need incontinence care and have sleep disorders?
Surveyor or family expectations of around-the-clock incontinence care may require staff to wake residents at night to “check and change” rather than allowing residents to sleep without interruption but this may be a barrier to the recognition, assessment, and optimal management of sleep disorders in the long-term care setting. Consider implementing a policy of “checking and changing” patients after 10 p.m. only if they are awake. • Is an inability to sleep resulting from being required to go to bed much earlier than one is accustomed to (due to an institutional policy on uniform sleeping and waking times for all residents) a sleep disorder? An inability to sleep that results from being required to go to bed much earlier than one is accustomed to is not a sleep disorder, nor is daytime sleepiness that results from being required to get up much earlier than one is accustomed to. • While assessment of the patient’s sleep disorder proceeds, is administering hypnotic medications an appropri
