[tiger]

do you take your breaks??? i do.

[nur20]

BREAKS ?????? LOL

[PhantomRN]

At our place the charge nurse writes down on the assignment sheet who is supposed to cover who so we can take breaks, but that is only for show as NO one takes a real break in our hospital. We will take the 5 minutes to run to the cafe and get food but that is it.

Who covers your pts while you are gone?

[BeachNurse]

OK, not to gloat or anything, but I RARELY miss a lunch break. Of course I don't work at the bedside so that makes a huge difference.

[fergus51]

Depends on the day. I do L&D which seems to be feast or famine. Some days I don't even pee other days I get all my breaks, uninterupted.

[Q.]

On the unit (L&D) I wouldn't really get a break and would often eat while watching the monitors or charting. In the clinic, I DO take a lunch break (30 minutes) which is usually pretty uneventful but sometimes I am interrupted. I suppose it's my own fault because I eat at my workstation.

Clinic and hospital are WORLDS apart.

[thisnurse]

i take cigarette breaks. i get interrupted sometimes but not that often. i might take 4 or 5 a night if im lucky but i never take lunch EVER and i never sit down for a full break. just not possible. i never have a problem with anyone covering for me cos im only gone five minutes. they would rather cover for me for 5 mns than one half hour at once.
i always see my patients before i leave and my coworkers rarely need do anything.
and its a very sore spot with me hearing some of the nonsmokers complain about smoking breaks. EVERYONE NEEDS A BREAK....EVERYONE. ill be glad to give them a break when they want to take it. i dont care what anyone does on their breaks...smoke, tv, eat, use the phone...whatever it takes to get the hell away from the insanity for a few.
i will grab something to eat but i never get to eat it all at once. im always interrrupted. the other night/day when i did 16 i got something to eat and decided to sit in the lounge and eat it all at once. i wasnt in there five minutes before i found out i missed some blood work. thankfully someone else drew it for me so that time i did get to wolf it down.
but ya know...i dont even care bout lunches or breaks as long as i can leave during the shift to go outside for a few. thats all i need.

[RN-PA]

On our floor, (Med/Surg, 3-11 shift) the smokers are the only ones I ever see take a break, usually once before and once after dinner. (And I don't begrudge them their breaks; most don't abuse them.) I never take a break other than a 15 to 30 minute dinner break and I usually don't leave the floor since by the time I am ready to eat, the cafeteria's closed. (I almost always bring my own dinner from home for that reason.)

I know I should take breaks for my own sanity but I always feel like there's too much to do and I often end up waiting until close to 8:00 to eat dinner, which is bad because I haven't eaten since 1:00 or so and haven't stopped for a minute since 2:45. I know I need to take better care of myself on the job for the sake of my psyche and to function better. But I find it difficult to fight "the tyranny of the urgent" and figure I'll digest better if I can get as much as possible accomplished before I sit down.