I must make a confession

Nurses General Nursing

Published

This is something that is so dumb and so stupid, but I must confess this because it is eating me up inside.

The other night at work (1800-0700), I was so massively busy I didnt have time to get my dinner from the cafeteria. I am a big boy, and I must eat something or I will feel light headed and dizzy. I went into a patients orders, made a food request, and then picked up the food from the tray line, and chowed down in the break room.

Yes, I know it was dumb and wrong. I was very very hungry and I needed to eat.

Thats all I have to say

LOL. I'm sure there's plenty of times I would've loved to do that!!. Pack some power bars that you can just chow down for a half minute in the break room and finish the other half before you see the next patient. Or you can get that guu stuff that runners eat on the run! LOL!

Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

I was really surprised with the responses to this post. My first thought, was it's theft. That's still my opinion. I wouldn't have done it in a million years. I'll own up to eating grahams and drinking milk out of the floor supply, but to me there is a difference. All staff snacks on those things, and they're not designated patients only. I wouldn't make an issue out of it. Wouldn't report it, and wouldn't spend more that a minute or two considering it if I witnessed it. However, I was taught taking something that is not yours is theft.

As I'm in the minority here, please be nice.

No one is really condoning the OPs behavior. However, we certainly understand and some of us sympathize. I don't see how you are any different. You are drinking milk and eating crackers that you did not pay for it that is meant for the patient. A particular patient may not be charged but the facility is. So you are taking something that isn't yours. Don't you think you are the kettle calling the pot black?

I was really surprised with the responses to this post. My first thought, was it's theft. That's still my opinion. I wouldn't have done it in a million years. I'll own up to eating grahams and drinking milk out of the floor supply, but to me there is a difference. All staff snacks on those things, and they're not designated patients only. I wouldn't make an issue out of it. Wouldn't report it, and wouldn't spend more that a minute or two considering it if I witnessed it. However, I was taught taking something that is not yours is theft.

As I'm in the minority here, please be nice.

I was really surprised with the responses to this post. My first thought, was it's theft. That's still my opinion. I wouldn't have done it in a million years. I'll own up to eating grahams and drinking milk out of the floor supply, but to me there is a difference. All staff snacks on those things, and they're not designated patients only. I wouldn't make an issue out of it. Wouldn't report it, and wouldn't spend more that a minute or two considering it if I witnessed it. However, I was taught taking something that is not yours is theft.

As I'm in the minority here, please be nice.

You are right. He's like Jean Valjean in Les Miserable. He should go to prison for 19 years!!! :sarcastic:

Specializes in NICU.
I was really surprised with the responses to this post. My first thought, was it's theft. That's still my opinion. I wouldn't have done it in a million years. I'll own up to eating grahams and drinking milk out of the floor supply, but to me there is a difference. All staff snacks on those things, and they're not designated patients only. I wouldn't make an issue out of it. Wouldn't report it, and wouldn't spend more that a minute or two considering it if I witnessed it. However, I was taught taking something that is not yours is theft.

As I'm in the minority here, please be nice.

Eating stuff from the nourishment room is also theft, technically. Do you take pens from "floor supply"? What about bandaids? Wound gel (i.e. vigilon) in case you get a nasty burn while baking? IV catheters, tubing and bag of LR in case you get real dehydrated from gastroenteritis? All of those - including the tray the OP ate - are theft.

HOWEVER I think eating a tray or filching saltines, covered with PNB & jelly, is justified when you're running your ass off taking care of patients because you're working with crappy staffing and no support.

Specializes in Pediatric Private Duty; Camp Nursing.
...all bets are off if I do not get a break and it is the hospital's fault.

NO one in management will ever personally lose a wink of sleep if you pass out on the floor because you had no chance to eat because you just didn't have the time because you were too busy working your butt off for them. That which is legally wrong is often morally right.

I never ate from trays although many coworkers (day shift as meals are done by night) do. ( of pts who are discharged, then made npo or diet orders changed ) but i have drank coffee, soda and juice from the pantry. ice cream and graham crackers too. i feel like such a low life after ( i am serious, i feel awful and guilty now. how humiliating to get fired for that) we were told recently that it is for pts only and there are "spies". i don't know if the pt ice and water machine counts too. that is all i use now , but i will try to buy my own cold drinks at the vending machine. can i still take ice , if using my own cup and straws? now i am paranoid that this is all on camera and i will be fired after it is posted online !

I once brought a surgical mask home to clean out my cat's litter box. :poop: Then it occurred to me that the surgical mask came out of the department's budget, & it did not belong to me. :banghead: I don't now why it didn't occur to me before I took the mask home. I felt like a jerk.

The OP confessed on this thread b/c he is aware that he took something that did not belong to him, and he feels guilty about it. If he did it every day, then shame on him. A one time occurrence...well that makes for a funny post.

In all fairness, hospitals should provide nursing staff free meals, especially during the night shift. There are fewer nurses on the floor, less support personnel, and most of us have no time or anyone to cover us while we step out to get something to eat. Hey, just get the closest pizza place to deliver a few pizzas to each nurse's stations at around midnight everyday. On the theft issue, I think that both eating a pack of crackers from the pantry or ordering a tray technically meet the definition of the crime, but you can't really say that both actions are the same. Although not different in kind, there is a difference in degree. By ordering a meal, you are just not helping yourself to some food you found in the pantry, you are setting in motion the whole food services department, from the attendant who took your order to the cooks who prepared it and the person who delivered. In terms of costs to the hospital, in terms of institutional resources being used, it is a different game than raiding the pantry for graham crackers. But worst for me is the issue of lying, the deception used to get the cafeteria to send a tray, which appears to be a graver ethical violation. I summary, I think you crossed the line with ordering a tray, if you ask my opinion. Now go on and sin no more.

Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.
I was really surprised with the responses to this post. My first thought, was it's theft. That's still my opinion. I wouldn't have done it in a million years. I'll own up to eating grahams and drinking milk out of the floor supply, but to me there is a difference. All staff snacks on those things, and they're not designated patients only. I wouldn't make an issue out of it. Wouldn't report it, and wouldn't spend more that a minute or two considering it if I witnessed it. However, I was taught taking something that is not yours is theft.

As I'm in the minority here, please be nice.

So, if this hungry dude takes a tray, he's a thief. But you steal crackers and milk that aren't yours, and everything is groovy? Awesome.
Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

ouch...ouch....ouch!!

The crackers and milk is not just for pts where I work. There are also sodas, juice and tea for employees. Coffee too. (thank goodness).

As I stated EVERYBODY eats them. Freebie stuff. Provided without cost to the nurses, CNAs..... Gratis.

I didn't think I was passing judgement, said as much in my post. Nonjudgemental here. Making an observation only. I said I wouldnt give it a minutes consideration even had I seen him do it. However, I find it hard to believe, even those who don't like what I wrote, would argue a pack of crackers = a meal tray charged to a patient.

Consider that my post just added an avenue for discussion.

Imintrouble: why "own" up to something if it was okay in the first place?

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