Do Other Professionals Skip Restroom Breaks And Meals?

I sometimes believe that inpatient bedside nursing is intertwined in a bizarre professional culture where the skipping of bathroom breaks and lunch periods is not only common, but occasionally encouraged by our peers and the powers that be. Can you name any other professionals who systematically place the needs of their clients above their own?

Countless nursing staff members who work in inpatient bedside settings such as hospitals and nursing homes frequently bypass the breaks to which they are legally entitled. According to a study that was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2005), nurses are regularly sacrificing their breaks and meal periods to provide patient care. Although many of us already knew that that this practice was going on for quite some time, it does not bode very well for our personal health or job satisfaction. After all, who wants to work anywhere from eight to twelve hours in a physically demanding role without any breaks? I can see why numerous nurses explore career options away from the bedside.

According to Fink (2010), while the research confirms what nurses have known for years — few nurses get full breaks; long shifts + heavy responsibility + lack of breaks = fatigue and increased potential for mistakes — part of the blame may lie with nurses themselves. Some nurses forgo their breaks, especially in facilities with toxic work environments, because their callous coworkers or unsympathetic supervisors will endlessly gripe about having to cover an additional patient load during the time away from the floor. Other nurses skip breaks because they feel they might fall further behind with their tasks if they sit down for an uninterrupted lunch or leave the unit to use the restroom.

And even though healthcare facilities must legally pay nonexempt employees who work through unpaid meal periods, the managerial staff at some of these workplaces may subtly discourage nurses from completing 'no lunch' paperwork by taking disciplinary action against workers who submit a large number of these forms.

It is clear that both bedside nurses and the powers that be share some blame for this problem. Facilities need to do their part by encouraging staff to take all legally entitled breaks while taking steps to ease the intense workload. The workload of bedside nurses can be made more manageable through safe staffing ratios, more streamlined charting, less redundant paperwork, and supportive management. Nurses must do their part by taking all breaks to which they are entitled and willingly covering the patient load of coworkers who wish to leave the floor for a break. Some hospitals employ part-time relief nurses who are on the unit solely to cover for breaks.

In summary, we must take care of our bodies and minds by taking breaks. No reasonable person can work nonstop day after day, year after year without feeling some type of resentment and burnout. To optimally take care of patients, we need to take care of ourselves first.