Break Time,or Releive Person!

Nursing Students CNA/MA

Published

what bothers you the most when it comes to break time, or relieve time?

when its your turn to take a break the person doesn't tell you they are back from break or are they taking too long of a break? and what about when its time to go home ? has any ever forgotten to tell you they will take over or what?

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Specializes in ICU, ER, Hemodialysis.

Rudness and unprofessionalism in any form frustrates me.

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I feel that both are dishonest. It's difficult to say which is worse, while it is unprofessional to not tell someone when one is back from break, taking a longer break is really bad. Someone may come back from break, may see something which needs to be done immediately and not tell anyone because s/he is toileting a resident as opposed to someone who comes back from break, doesn't tell anyone and spends their time with their feet up chatting with friends, reading, etc when there's work to be done.

While both are very unprofessional, I do have problems with the latter. It's a gray area.

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One time, one of my co-workers took a 45 minute lunch break (we get 30 min.) and it really cut into my lunch time. :trout: Other than that, there hasn't been too many problems with that.

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Specializes in geriatric, hospice, med/surg.

Taking too long AND not telling someone they're leaving to go take lunch, a quick smoke, or even shorter bathroom break if off the unit for that SHOULD be passed on but often is not the case. Is rude, I agree with above thoughts on that. Not all just from nurses, tho'. Most CNAs won't come tell us when they're leaving the unit. For a scheduled break, an unscheduled/unapproved break, to use their cell phone around the corner, grab a smoke or two or three, :nono: :smackingf and that is most annoying and unsafe of all!

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I worked at a Nursing home in which some nurses got upset because I took to many smoke breaks. In my defence I always informed the other nurse I was leaving the floor. I may go out 5 times in one shift to smoke. how long does it take to puff a quick one, 5 min. Some times I wouldn't even smoke a whole cigarette, smoke 1/2 and run back in. I don't take a lunch break so lets say worst case 5 smokes at 5 min at a time = 25 min. How is this any different from a 30 min lunch break. If the other nurse is on break I wouldn't leave. There were many that didn't mind, others did. The other nurse took 30 min lunch break. So I'm an adult and if I choose to split my break up in to tiny breaks why is this an issue. I know smoking is so not a good habit, and Its a choice, but that's the point, its my choice. does any one else see this as being inconsiderate to the other nurse.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, Hemodialysis.
I worked at a Nursing home in which some nurses got upset because I took to many smoke breaks. In my defence I always informed the other nurse I was leaving the floor. I may go out 5 times in one shift to smoke. how long does it take to puff a quick one, 5 min. Some times I wouldn't even smoke a whole cigarette, smoke 1/2 and run back in. I don't take a lunch break so lets say worst case 5 smokes at 5 min at a time = 25 min. How is this any different from a 30 min lunch break. If the other nurse is on break I wouldn't leave. There were many that didn't mind, others did. The other nurse took 30 min lunch break. So I'm an adult and if I choose to split my break up in to tiny breaks why is this an issue. I know smoking is so not a good habit, and Its a choice, but that's the point, its my choice. does any one else see this as being inconsiderate to the other nurse.

I believe that this is ok; however, some cna's will take a 15 min. break in the morning, 1 hour lunch, 15 min break in the eve., and 5 or so - 10 min "smoke breaks." This IS wrong and inconsiderate of fellow co-workers. This also applies to smokers in other jobs as well.

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>>I worked at a Nursing home in which some nurses got upset because I took to many smoke breaks. In my defence I always informed the other nurse I was leaving the floor. I may go out 5 times in one shift to smoke. how long does it take to puff a quick one, 5 min. Some times I wouldn't even smoke a whole cigarette, smoke 1/2 and run back in. I don't take a lunch break so lets say worst case 5 smokes at 5 min at a time = 25 min. How is this any different from a 30 min lunch break. If the other nurse is on break I wouldn't leave. There were many that didn't mind, others did. The other nurse took 30 min lunch break. So I'm an adult and if I choose to split my break up in to tiny breaks why is this an issue. I know smoking is so not a good habit, and Its a choice, but that's the point, its my choice. does any one else see this as being inconsiderate to the other nurse.

You might be an adult, but in the State of California, it's against the law and the facility could be fined if you do not clock out for a full 30 min. break after certain hours at work. It seems to place the facility in a liability situation if someone were to break, but if they later complain that they are not getting a lunch break.. you see the legal ramifications...

What happened at my last job, the smokers did what you did, in addition to demanding their 30 min. break, so they got an hour or more, while I got stuck doing all the work as a non-smoker. But it doesn't sound like your doing that... I do hope you can work it out there. :D

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Specializes in LTC.
I worked at a Nursing home in which some nurses got upset because I took to many smoke breaks. In my defence I always informed the other nurse I was leaving the floor. I may go out 5 times in one shift to smoke. how long does it take to puff a quick one, 5 min. Some times I wouldn't even smoke a whole cigarette, smoke 1/2 and run back in. I don't take a lunch break so lets say worst case 5 smokes at 5 min at a time = 25 min. How is this any different from a 30 min lunch break. If the other nurse is on break I wouldn't leave. There were many that didn't mind, others did. The other nurse took 30 min lunch break. So I'm an adult and if I choose to split my break up in to tiny breaks why is this an issue. I know smoking is so not a good habit, and Its a choice, but that's the point, its my choice. does any one else see this as being inconsiderate to the other nurse.

I don't know about anyone else but that would really annoy me. I used to work with a girl who took weird breaks and it was approved by the supervisors (she had a perfectly good reason for it), and even that was a pain in the neck although I tried not to get annoyed because her breaks being scheduled like that was necessary. Smoking like a chimney is not a good reason though. You may have informed the nurse every time but did you tell all the other CNAs? And did you fill them in on who was in the bathroom, etc? Probably not. 5 minutes might be "a quick puff" to you, but to me that is 5 minutes I wasted waiting for you to get back so I could get help toileting or lifting someone. Or 5 minutes I wasted covering your call lights and alarms while you were gone. You know that in this job there is a routine and every minute counts... by doing whatever you feel like doing, you are inconveniencing your coworkers.

That said, when i first saw this post I thought, "breaks...????" Everyone takes their 30 minute lunch because we have to go at specific times (going early or late will screw up the whole day for everyone), and we have to clock in and out for it, but I don't remember the last time I actually took one of the 2 10-minute breaks I'm legally entitled to. The smokers are the only ones who ever get them... the nonsmokers are left on the floor to pick up their slack while they sit outside for twice as long as they should.

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I worked at a Nursing home in which some nurses got upset because I took to many smoke breaks. In my defence I always informed the other nurse I was leaving the floor. I may go out 5 times in one shift to smoke. how long does it take to puff a quick one, 5 min. Some times I wouldn't even smoke a whole cigarette, smoke 1/2 and run back in. I don't take a lunch break so lets say worst case 5 smokes at 5 min at a time = 25 min. How is this any different from a 30 min lunch break. If the other nurse is on break I wouldn't leave. There were many that didn't mind, others did. The other nurse took 30 min lunch break. So I'm an adult and if I choose to split my break up in to tiny breaks why is this an issue. I know smoking is so not a good habit, and Its a choice, but that's the point, its my choice. does any one else see this as being inconsiderate to the other nurse.

We're told that in a 14 hour shift, we get 2 hours breaks, broken up however he like, with no longer than 30 minutes at a time. So someone can take as many quick smoke breaks as they like, as long as they don't add up to over 2 hours. We're actually really relaxed about breaks, as long as nobody takes liberties or leaves patients neglected to go to break.

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I don't know about anyone else but that would really annoy me. I used to work with a girl who took weird breaks and it was approved by the supervisors (she had a perfectly good reason for it), and even that was a pain in the neck although I tried not to get annoyed because her breaks being scheduled like that was necessary. Smoking like a chimney is not a good reason though. You may have informed the nurse every time but did you tell all the other CNAs? And did you fill them in on who was in the bathroom, etc? Probably not. 5 minutes might be "a quick puff" to you, but to me that is 5 minutes I wasted waiting for you to get back so I could get help toileting or lifting someone. Or 5 minutes I wasted covering your call lights and alarms while you were gone. You know that in this job there is a routine and every minute counts... by doing whatever you feel like doing, you are inconveniencing your coworkers.

That said, when i first saw this post I thought, "breaks...????" Everyone takes their 30 minute lunch because we have to go at specific times (going early or late will screw up the whole day for everyone), and we have to clock in and out for it, but I don't remember the last time I actually took one of the 2 10-minute breaks I'm legally entitled to. The smokers are the only ones who ever get them... the nonsmokers are left on the floor to pick up their slack while they sit outside for twice as long as they should.

The smokers are the ONLY people who ever get their share of break times. I mostly don't get a tea break in the afternoon because the PM shift is BUSY. Most I get is to run to the shop (RIGHT outside the unit doors) for a pepsi which I drink over the course of the afternoon. Plus, our workplace is smoke free, so they have a 5 minute walk to get off the premises, plus 10 minutes to smoke, plus time to walk back....

ETA: It doesn't really annoy me TOO much, because I just don't cover for them if I can help it, I just stay down my side of the unit and try to avoid going to theirs.

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The smokers are the only ones who ever get them... the nonsmokers are left on the floor to pick up their slack while they sit outside for twice as long as they should.

I'm at the point now that I 100% refuse to cover a hall for someone who wants to go out on a smoke break. All of the smokers know not to come ask me, because they already know what the answer is. I'm fine with lunch breaks, but not the 10-15 minute breaks, which I don't even get. If they take one, I end up going over to their hall for call lights galore (I know it's not all smokers, but the ones at my facility skip half of their work and do a terrible job just so they can get outside quicker) while I clean up their mess for those 10-15 minutes (OR LONGER). If I ever take a short break, they ignore all of my people, or they will go turn the call lights off and say "CoffeemateCNA is out on a break right now. You are going to have to wait" even if someone is on the verge of messing their pants. I got sick of it. So if they're not adequately going to cover my hall when I want to take a break (which is basically never), I'm not covering theirs. Period. :smokin:

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