Need a little help with something that has been bothering me

[medicrnohio]

I started a new job in MICU in November. It turns out that the nurses on the unit do not take their lunch break or any other breaks. When I asked about leaving the unit for a lunch break I was told by my preceptor "Oh we don't leave for lunch breaks. We just stay right here and eat in the kitchen." The kitchen is a little room no bigger than my closet and my closet is small. She said that we don't leave because there is no one to cover our patients. This is happening in all of the ICU units at my hospital. The thing is...they take 1/2 hour from my pay every workday for a lunch break that I don't even take. I know I shouldn't have let it go this far but I really need some insight into this situation. I know it seems petty but that is 1 1/2 hours of missed pay every week.

[pipersjo, ADN, BSN, MSN]

I completly understand where the OP is coming from. I am not even a nurse yet (I work in telemetry) and over the weekend had a patient DIE and no one else in the room noticed. I stepped out to grab something to eat and, of course, that's when it happened. The only good (if you can call it that!) thing about it, was that it was a MICU patient and they expected it to happen. We get yelled at all of the time for not taking our breaks, but I step out for 5 minutes and somehing like this happens. I'd like to see management cover our breaks if they are so insistent that we get them!

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Never even thought about it.

First, it is what it is.

Second, taking that route is a sure-fire way to lose. No one is going to back you up, so management will just call you a liar and your coworkers will agree.

See? Lose-lose.

Unfortunately, I DO see. I have felt this way for a long time: if I say something to someone important, no one will step forward and stand with me. They prefer to look like "good" employees. So I'll get screwed over as the "petty" employee.

And if I do nothing (which is where it's at now), I simply work through my unpaid meal breaks AND my paid breaks, which amounts to an hour of free work time for my hospital unit. EVERY time I work. So that's an hour times six shifts a week, equals six hours of free time I work for them each pay period. I don't even want to multiply it further.

I have read time and again from those who say "talk to your union representative!!!" We're not unionized. I read "don't take it, TAKE your breaks!" and 'patient abandonment' comes to mind, since there IS NO ONE to take my patient load. I'm not being a martyr, I'm protecting my license AND my conscience. Would you leave a daycare with nine special needs children in it for a half hour break, knowing that no one is available to watch the kiddies? I think not. Or I'd HOPE not.

So I guess the answer is accept the shift differential as a bribe to shut up and do the ridiculous. Know that days gets their breaks and nights won't, but hey, you get another five bucks an hour. Wonderful.