Breaks in the ER

jayne109, RN · Nov 8, 2004

I just recently transferred from a busy Neuro Floor to a Level ONe Trauma Center. It was quite a change and what they told me is EVERYONE gets to eat and pee. Some days, we get to go to the cafeteria. Most days, though, the charge nurse or secretary orders food for us and we go to the break room and eat for 15-30 min depending on how many pts we have. Everyone gets a lunch break, and the smokers get their breaks so everyone is happy, to a point.

RNin92 · Nov 9, 2004

You know when I first read this I thought...breaks...what are breaks? Oh yea, I remember now...

:rotfl:

I work charge 07-19.

I try VERY hard to get everyone off the floor for 30 minutes at lunch. Morning breaks are kind of hit or miss...but usually do-able before 09. After that forget it...the county awoke!

I don't care about the smokers...whatever it takes to keep everyone non-homicidal!!!

I just want the leg bag off!!!

hee hee

:coollook:

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Nov 13, 2004

Breaks, can you define breaks

chellet98 · Nov 13, 2004

Break-a moment to breath, re-coop, re-vamp, smoke, talk, use the restroom, consume food, and most important of all......a moment that is just for you, so you can take the best care of others:)

ERNurse678 · Nov 18, 2004

When I first started in the ER I thought that I would never see a "30 minute" lunch break. However, I soon realized that the only way I would get a lunch break was to look at everyone else and say "I am going to lunch, keep an eye on my pt's" Everyone else seemed to get breaks, so why shouldn't I? Also, it all depends on having a good charge nurse. We have great charge nurses at our ER and they will all come around and say, who hasn't had a break? Anyone who says that you need to learn to deal with not getting a break is wrong. You can not give your pt's the best care that they deserve when you don't take care of yourself first.

Kingbandit · Nov 19, 2004

My questions for you would be: ARE you the only one that takes a break? If you are then that could be why you get the rolled eyes look. Another thing, do you help your coworkers when you aren't busy and they are or is this when you take your break? One more thing, are you taking your breaks during a time that you have patients and are busy? And, do you expect your coworkers to cover your patient load so you can take "your 40 minute break?" ER nurses are a whole different breed and with the exception of one, the nurses where I work never leave the department for meal breaks for any length of time, let alone for 40 minutes. The charge nurses are good about letting us go to the gift shop or letting the smokers go out for a few, but ONLY if there is NOTHING going on, patients in holding patterns waiting for test results, doctors, etc. Are others in your department getting or even taking breaks? Look around, if the pattern is that your coworkers stay in the department and eat and take only scant pee breaks or whatever, then I would suggest that you amend your behavior to match theirs, or you will be the object of resentment among your coworkers. As I said, ER nurses are a whole different breed, we learn to inhale food or go with none for 12 hours, as well as hold our bladders for 12 hours, and we learn to take care of patients non-stop for 12 hours without a break to "regroup." There are times when we have down time, but there are times when we are full for 8 to 12 hours straight, taking care of multiple patients one right after the other, and NO ONE even thinks of taking a break, let alone asking for a break. Does it exhaust us, yeah, but the occasional patient that gives you the adrenaline rush makes up for the exhaustion. In answer to your question, if you ever expect to take a full break then ER is not for you. If you EVER get a full break then consider yourself lucky, but never EXPECT to take a full 40 minute break, cause odds are it ain't gonna happen.
As for the second situation you mentioned. You should not have had to be there at 7am if you are supposed to get off at 6am and you certainly shouldn't have been expected to stay. That's what the incoming shift is for. Fresh blood! If you are routinely getting off an hour late then that's wrong and your relief needs to step up to the plate and take over for you so you can go home. That's one of my biggest beefs is that there have been times that I have had to chase down my relief who is chit-chatting in the nurses station instead of coming into the room I am in and relieving me. :angryfire
Good luck in the ER,
Pam

I am a new grad who is precepting in our ED I hear other preceptees B$#ching about no breaks or that they better get their lunch if that is your expectation then ER is not for you. How can you expect a person in pain to wait while you Regroup NOT it aint happening. Find another job IMHO of course.

MassED, BSN, RN · Sep 3, 2005

I have a question for all you ER folks.......will I ever get a full breaK in the ER???!!!! I transfered to the ER in July formerly from Med/Surg and postpartum. It has been quite a transition and I am still adjusting. My main concern is that I rarley get a break and when I do the staff usally rolls their eyes or makes a comment like "you will be the only one getting one". What is up with this? It is only 40 min in a 12 1/2 hour shift and I personally need it to re-group and be able to take care of more patients. I understand sometimes it just isn't possible but I feel like that is a staffing issue, not me being "weak". This morning when I announced I was leaving @ 7am (my shift is 6pm to 6am) I was yelled at by fellow staff and the charge that "you can't be seroius, we have a cardiac arrest coming in!" My goodness if I waited around long enough there will always be something!
I am very frustrated and do not feel comfortable here yet, I love the pace of the ER, I work hard and want to stay, any advice here
Chelle

as for that charge RN about you staying for a code coming in, well "my shift ended at 6am, if I stayed for every imminent code, I'd never leave." After 12 hours, there's relief, so the new crew can handle something imminent. That's a poor Charge to throw that in your face. You need to backlash in her or him for that comment. That kind of crap wouldn't fly where I work (or most places). I frequently do NOT get a 30 minute break, but I do eat when I'm hungry, at some point. I have food behind the nurse's station, as most of us do, and nibble as we go. That's just part of the life of an ED nurse.

Billiegirl · Sep 3, 2005

Welcome to the land of expanding bladders and shrinking stomachs! I'm supposed to get an hour worth of break but it normally translates into ten minutes of grabbing and scraffing food. Yes, it is dangerous and not healthy for anybody.

Take those chances to go to CT, wait for an ambulance outside, go to the helipad a few minutes "early", SIT when you chart. If you do get those magic lulls take that break!

Short of all heck breaking loose, I leave when my shift is over. I've had to stay over a few times but it was justified. Your right, if you stay until everything is done, plan on being buried under the floor boards! Then you still wouldn't get that break!

It takes some time, but if you are that special ER breed your bladder will expand and your stomach will shrink. Good luck!

Billie

nursejennie76 · Sep 4, 2005

I have a question for all you ER folks.......will I ever get a full breaK in the ER???!!!! I transfered to the ER in July formerly from Med/Surg and postpartum. It has been quite a transition and I am still adjusting. My main concern is that I rarley get a break and when I do the staff usally rolls their eyes or makes a comment like "you will be the only one getting one". What is up with this? It is only 40 min in a 12 1/2 hour shift and I personally need it to re-group and be able to take care of more patients. I understand sometimes it just isn't possible but I feel like that is a staffing issue, not me being "weak". This morning when I announced I was leaving @ 7am (my shift is 6pm to 6am) I was yelled at by fellow staff and the charge that "you can't be seroius, we have a cardiac arrest coming in!" My goodness if I waited around long enough there will always be something!
I am very frustrated and do not feel comfortable here yet, I love the pace of the ER, I work hard and want to stay, any advice here
Chelle

Well if you need a "full break" then I would get out of the ER. In my ER we are not docked pay for a lunch break, as the floor nurses are so one is not expected. Most of the time I do get to inhale some food at the nurses station, but the other day all I had was a couple tortilla chips dipped in salsa in 12 hours and that was becasue the secretary's husband had brought in some snacks for her to share. I had a acute MI go to the cath lab, a spontaneous pneumothorax that got a chest tube, and a stroke patient getting TPA. Not to metion the other patients I had that were not as serious. The rest of the nurses were just as busy, and usually are so there is no way I could take a break because there would be a disruption of patient care.

snoozie · Sep 4, 2005

Things like this make me sooo angry. This is the Number 1 reason I left the first ER I started at! I worked 11a-11p. Never got a break, would have if the day staff would have actually gone to break when it was offered to them, but they were all too stuffed from eating breakfast at 9 am (when it was slow) to go to lunch at 11 or 12 and I couldn't go until all those who came in before me went. Then it would just get too busy and breaks were waysided. The worst was when the night staff came in. I always had to ask at 11:15 who my relief was because they woldn't just assign someone. They always rolled their eyes and purposefully loked over there shoulders at the clock, turn back around to glare at me and responded "I haven't assigned someone yet" which left me hanging until 1130 when I had to ask again and then track down several people to disperse my patients to and I never left there earlier than midnight. After not eating all day you tend to get really really cranky when you can't leave on time. And no, I don't smoke and didn't take "fresh air" breaks!! I went to the nurse mananger and the nurse educator and nothing ever got resolved. I was labeled as being too "food oriented" and always wanting to leave early. Taking a break and signing out to your relief by your scheduled time to leave shouldn't be criticized. I was miserable. I feel your pain.

I left that ER and never looked back. Now I work somewhere that I always get a break and leave on time unless I decide to stay and help out (which is always compensated and appreciated, not expected) During interviews I told them the specfic reasons I decided to leave and asked what the break policy is. I tried to speak to the nurse educator and other staff members about the work environment. I also tried to schedule interviews and walk through the dept during busy times, observing if anyone was on break and observe if the general feeling of the dept was one bad chaotic negative energy or if people seemed to be working together (I know, hard to observe from a 10 minute walk through).

Good Luck!!!!

fotografe · Sep 4, 2005

I hope you are getting paid for your "break". These stories make me glad I belong to a union. When I graduate and am looking for my first nursing job, I will actively seek out a union shop.

My ICU is staffed with only two RN's at night. We are not allowed to leave for breaks but are told to sit and eat 'when you can' at the nurses desk. :angryfire We do not get the opportunity to collect ourselves and regroup. By the end of the night I am so stressed out sometimes that I find I can't sleep when I get home. And admin. says there is no staffing shortage.
(thanks for letting me vent).

Jen2 · Sep 4, 2005

I also work in a level 1 trauma center and I find myself getting breaks on some days and not getting breaks on others. When I work 7a-7p I always get a break when afternoon shift comes in at 11:00. When I work 11a-11p, I usually get a break when night shift comes in at 7p, but the cafeteria is closed and it is usually vendng machine food unless I packed my lunch. On night shift it is rare to get a break as there is no relief to overlap shifts. On the several occasions where I have worked 8 hour shifts I have never been able to take a break. I usually carry packs of crackers with me to eat and run. I do get docked 1/2 for lunch. If I don't take one, I mark it down as no lunch and get paid for it. I don't really see it as a big deal, just part of the job. Yes sometimes it is my choice. Just the other day, I had just started 1 patient on a nitro drip, 1 patient on dopamine and 1 patient on nipride. I chose not to take a break, just because I wanted to watch my patients myself since I was the one that started the drips, so I just ate my crackers and continued to monitor them. I will however, sit down to start IV's, go to CT scan as often as I can when my legs are really tired, and sit down to chart or when I call report. My preceptor told me, "Sit down every second you get a chance," and I listened. I am usually too busy and wrapped up in my own patients to worry if others are going on break or not. If I can go I do and If I can't go I don't. When I do get a break I usually stay away from the department for no longer than 30 minutes. I can't enjoy it because I am wondering if someone is titrating that drip I just started, so i want to check my patient. I am just anal nd I can't help it. Talk to me in a few years and I am sure my opinion will change since I am a new nurse and just starting out.