Do Other Professionals Skip Restroom Breaks And Meals? - Page 7

No one is saying that nurses are the same as waitresses. The point was there are many people who work in environments that frequently cause them to miss breaks. Our pharmacists used to go without lunch many times if the infusion room was crazy. And if the infusion room was crazy, it's a guarantee they're getting slammed. There were only two of them v 10-15 nurses and about 80-90 patients a day.

I used to hold it and run around like crazy. Then I realized the same thing--no one is going to die in two minutes if I go to the BR. Even if they code while I'm in the BR, I think someone else will step in.

I don't disagree that we need better staffing, better compensation, etc. But the Martyr Mary act isn't helpful to our cause either.

I keep reading how the people complaining are Martyr Mary and yet generally it is within the same post people say you can find time to take a break. No, YOU can find time to take a break, that doesn't mean every other nurse out there does, as people and situations vary greatly. In addition, saying they can find time is suggesting the problem is them, and not with the environment many nurses work in. What I really don't understand is why we are arguing about whether or not there is a problem, instead of simply agreeing on what the problem really is: hospital systems and what have you that don't care about their staff and our inability as a profession to, and here is the key, collectively stand up for nurses/nursing. Unfortunately the best thing we've got right now that I know of is the ANA, which certainly doesn't stand up for us (nor have the respect/power) as the AMA does for doctors. A single nurse, or even a small group of nurses going to management about staffing issues, or even safety issues, is not going to phase the upper management of large corporate systems. Even pointing out research about the correlation of patient ratios and mistakes/errors won't work. Why? Because until that corporate entity is actually feeling the financial impact of those errors, they don't care.

It takes two minutes to get to the bathroom after you walk the halls in some facilities, lol!.... Another 2 minutes to pee and to wash hands and another 2 minutes to make it back.... You have to force yourself to say no to everybody and make them wait... I will make a public announcement at the nursing station that I have to go and now it's required to carry cell phones.... So I leave the phone at the nursing station, so that I don't get calls while I'm using the bathroom.. It's not bad time management, it's called a saturated workload.

OK. Whatever. No one in health care suffers more than nurses. Ever. Not previously, not now and not in the future. Nurses will always have the worst working conditions, the worst pay, the worst schedules, etc. They will be forced to stay in bad environments for the entirety of their professional lives. There will never be options. Future nurses will be required to have catheters and colostomies. They will have to have portable TPN and lipids so they will maintain their BS during their shifts. It will never, ever get better.

Does that cover it?

I remember taking less than 10 bathroom breaks while in nursing school.

A very wise nursing instructor would always end a long day of clinical by telling her students "Take good care of yourself, because noone will do it for you." And she's right. As I was a floor nurse for a long time, I was just as guilty as the next, going 8-16 hrs on the job without eating (I have kidney problems so I have always been pretty good about the pee breaks). I was down to a shocking 95 lbs on my 5'4 frame, sick all the time, and eventually my periods stopped. I had to quit my job at this specific facility, because on top of it all, it was extremely high stress and I was stuck doing at least 2 mandations a week.It took my health to finally put my foot down and start taking 15 minutes to eat.

I always find the time to pee. I don't always have time to eat...I've learned to eat on the run but sometimes that isn't possible, either. Where I work, we can tell management that we didn't get a lunch break and they will pay us the time we usually get docked for.

I'm wondering if anyone on this forum is or has been employed in a Magnet Hospital. I hear they're supposed to be nurse-friendly. Anyone out there have experience in one of them? Is it any better? Do nurses feel empowered to effect change?

To those who have said "it isn't just nurses..." Very true. Prior to nursing, I was a guest services manager for a very busy hotel. It wasn't uncommon for management to work 60 hours per week. Finally, near burnout, I quit. After 10 years, I'd had enough. I've learned my lesson, and I know my limits. I decided prior to nursing that I'm not allowing work to rule my life to that degree ever again. It is the fault of poor management that such conditions are imposed on nurses, or anyone in a service industry, for that matter. Unless there's an emergency, you need to somehow find the time to have a break. Easier said than done sometimes, but there are ways. One hospital I worked at, we were on a buddy system, for example, and we used to cover each other.