Do Nurses eat their....lunch? - Page 4

Weather it's healthy or not, it is reality! For a clinical instructor to tell students this is rediculous! I would not say this makes us doormats.......many times I could have taken a break I was just too busy and barrily ahead with all I had to do and for me taking a break would have put me behind and that is more stessful. Change of shift is 1/2 an hour away and you still have a VAC dressing to change, a PICC dressing to change, I&Os for all the patients, charting still for 3 or the 5 patients, and one of your patients IV just blew--which you found out when you run in to hang ABX. Thanks but I want to get out on time or close to it......and daycare closes...so I gotta get my son........who has time for a break!?? ....many may say you do what you can on your shift and what you don't get to goes to the next shift........24 hour operation.......however I worked with nurses on that unit--not there anymore--that expected that you finish all the things that need to be done on your shift......if I was to say "Hey this guy's PICC dressing needs changing today but I got slammed to I didn't get to it...." they would resond "well you are gonna stay to do that right, oh and that IV that blew......she is a tough stick, I can't get her so can you stay and do it? " that kind of thing........it sucks but it's reality. And from what I have read --the majority here report the same situation. So new nurses and students....you may have it in your mind that you won't give in to this culture but things change once you are in the real world of nursing for a while....and the shortage doesn't help. When you have more patients because there are less nurses on a shift its not easy!

Every workplace has a different reality and a different culture. Eight hours without a lunch break is tough, but 12? on a regular basis?=no way.

It is not acceptable at my workplace, a top 100 hospital, to ask the outgoing shift to stay over to change a PICC line dsg they couldn't get to, etc. My advice to new grads is to carefully weigh their job options and go with a place where they will be supported and, among other things, allowed time for lunch. Ask around, observe, come shadow for a shift. Even in these economic times, you don't want to jump into a job blindly just because you got an offer and then find out that you are not getting the support you very much need as a new nurse and are shuddering at the thought of your next shift. It's better to hold out than to quit after a very short time or be fired and then look less desirable to the next employer.

For the most part (when i was working on a unit) i got my breaks in. The bottom line is time management. This is not to say that i didn't have my shifts where everything is quickly going to pieces and I am eyeing up the half eaten tray sitting in front of room 36 (ewww... i know) but, again, for the most part, yes. I did get my lunch.

I have been a nurse on a tele floor since only August and yes, I eat my lunch. There has maybe been a hand-full of times when there just is not a free moment, but I still found time to sit and eat. I always make it a point to just say, "ok, this can be done in a half hour." I also always leave the floor and eat in the cafeteria alone, so at least I feel I am getting a break.

I am a new nurse,currently working on post-partum,NBN 12 hour day shifts.Getting 90 minute break(half an hour for brkfast,1 hour for lunch) per 12.5 hour shift.It is impossible to get a 15 min break,and 60 or 30 min is far fetched. We can not have water bottles at the station either.The infection control nurse writes ppl up for that.Oh,did I mention I am17 wks pregnant and the unit is understaffed...

Very few times in my career did I get to sit down and enjoy a 30 min. lunch. (And NEVER in the cafeteria.) I worked many, many 12 hr shifts where you didn't get your 30 min. lunch, and you could forget about a "break." In ICU, it seems as soon as you wanted to go get lunch, here would come a doctor, wanting to place a swan, chest-tube, something to take your time up. Or here would come the admissions, right at lunchtime or suppertime. I just learned to deal with it over the years.

lunch? what is this lunch of which you speak? for me, there are days when i eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner in my car.

Very rarely do I actually ever get to clock out and eat lunch. Normally I'm shoving whatever food I brought in my mouth as I'm charting or doing some paperwork. Luckily the CNA's where I'm at will ask if us nurses want anything and will pick us up something when they go out.

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I think they do. On the units I've had rotations, generally half of them report off and go for ~45 minutes, then the other half goes. I can't think of a situation when a nurse was called back from the break room, generally the nurses on the ward handle whatever needs to be done. They also get 1/2 hour breaks at 9am and then a dinner break around 5pm. I've had classmates get in trouble for not taking breaks - the instructors saw it as a bad habit to compensate for poor organization skills since we only have 2-3 patients.

needless to say, when i use to be a staff nurse i never had time to go to lunch even though my nm keep saying "gitano you have to go to lunch" however, if i did my task wouldn't be completed at all and it would put me behind schedule. therefore, i always brought with me a protein shake and plenty of healthy bars plus finger food that i didn't have to place in the mico, it was eat as you go those days. having said that, this is the reason why some of us are obese, because the only food available and easy to eat when you're in the run were the ones in the vending machines, and those are full of sugar, bad calories, and preservatives. with that said, the facility where i work has gotten rid off those vending machines and in it's place healthy snacks have taken over, along with juices and so far it's working nicely