[Ginger35]

Well, I am from Ohio and can relate well. I come from an ER / Trauma background an now currently going for my MBA.

One thing that I have learned is that THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH!!! - They need to pay you for your time or turn them in to which ever board of your choosing.........You are not there to SUBSIDIZE the hospital!!! - Make sure you mention the word SUBSIDIZE.. - perhaps, some of these business people will understand that word!!!

They don't work for FREE - Why should you?!?!?!

[Dalzac]

We solved this problem by signing our time sheets with "No lunch" and copying it for our records and if we didn't get compensation we took it to the labor board. After the labor board investigated it the hospital had to give us the OT or added the lunch time to our PTO account We ended up getting more help. It was cheaper to hire another nurse than to give us all this OT and PTO time

[GoLytely]

Nip it in the bud. I know my saturation point is getting lower everyday, I wouldn't last a day at that job, and you shouldn't, either. There is one constant that never fails: if you allow yourself to be used you WILL be used. Every time.

[MrsWampthang]

One of the reasons I don't miss ER. It is always busy and becoming more so in this time of people having no insurance and no doctor to go to. My husband still works the ER and comes home telling me horror stories about how busy it was. In ER the nature of the beast is to be busy all day. It's all fine and dandy to say, "you have to step away and take your break" but the problem with that is, that you never know what is going to come in the door.

As for sending anyone home....are you kidding me?! Maybe the ER you work at is fairly slow, at the one I worked at, it could go from no patients, to the ER being full within a matter of literally minutes so there is no way anyone would ever get sent home.

At our ER the staff doesn't get lunch taken out, and they only work either 12 hours or 8 hours, so sometimes they actually get to eat and get paid for it.

The other thing is, you can't tell people "well don't come in during such and such time" because there is no good time to come to the ER. I have seen it busy around the clock with no one in the whole 24 hours being able to take any type of break, forget sitting and eating. I only knew one nurse who insisted on leaving the department to eat her dinner and she wasn't happy when she didn't get to do that. She eventually left though.

Bottom line is, standard rules of play don't apply in the ER. If you want to work somewhere that you get your regularly scheduled breaks, go somewhere besides the ER. I don't know where that place would be though. I work med/surg in an LTAC now, and sometimes don't get a break all day, so.......


Good luck with your job. Like someone said, being a nurse, you can do a lot of things!


Pam

[carachel2]

Bottom line is, standard rules of play don't apply in the ER. If you want to work somewhere that you get your regularly scheduled breaks, go somewhere besides the ER.

I totally disagree. I've worked in places where the management GETS that an ER needs flexible staffing. Management that understands you don't send people home at 10 a.m. just because the morning has been slow (yes, I've worked in a place like that and of course the ambulances start rolling in at 1030!).

[weirdRN]

I was told that it is Federal USA Labor LAW that you get 1 thirty minute unpaid lunch break per eight hour shift.

According to my job discription, I am supposed to get two fifteen minute breaks per eight hour shift and one unpaid thrity minute meal break. I'd like to know how I am supposed to get those fifteen minute breaks when I only have time to PEE once a shift? There is always some family member, some consult some satan blessed thing that needs some kind of attention.

Can you say Frustration?

[NicoleRN07]

I work in a very busy Level III trauma center, where we see approximately 180-220 patients per day. It is rare that any of us get an entire break. That, unfortunately is just part of working in the ER. You can't always stop to take a break, so when you can....enjoy it! Try Protein Bars....you can eat them while running down the hall, and you'll stay full.

[iceyspots]

dont put your health at risk!

[kman]

I think teeituptom has the right take.
Say no to slavery.


Karl

[ocankhe]

Yes, voting with your feet is one option. Complaining to the appropriate authorities is another. By the way there is a difference if you are paid hourly or on salary. For myself I have been there and if admin didn't adjust staffing I chose the feet option and let them know why I was leaving.