How do you get meal breaks?

[DawnJ]

HAH! What's lunch? I grab what I can at the desk during lulls.

All of a sudden, we are getting instructions from up on high that we must clock out for a 30 minute, uninterrupted meal break away from the unit. If we don't, they threaten to not pay us for the whole shift (which they would never get away with). Also, we are not allowed to leave the perimeter during our shift at all.

The issue is that as the senior position, I'm responsible for charge duties and all emergency response in the facility. Often, I'm the only RN there and there is never another RN who is trained for this position. So, regardless of if I'm on "lunch", I still need to monitor the radio and deal with emergencies and urgencies brought to me. That doesn't sound like being "away from the unit".

Worst case scenario I think of is running to an emergency off the clock and then getting sued and having the company throw me under the bus saying I wasn't really working because I was clocked out. This kind of thing is exactly why the officers sued and got paid breaks.

How does your facility handle this for the nurses?

[Psych77]

I'm a new grad RN and started working in a SNF. I have witnessed nurses not taking their 30min breaks. They just clock out for lunch, then go back to what they were doing (medpass, charting, checking the MAR, etc) then checks in after half hour. When I was orienting, I asked the nurses, what time do you take your lunch. I was told, most of the nurses just take like 5mins to eat their food then go back to work. On day 1 of me being on the floor on my own, I didn't get to sit down for 8hrs. I did medpass all through out, I punched out, then worked, then punched back in after half hour. This is the norm, they said. If you don't do this, you will be staying for hours. Nurses are always behind with their medpass because of the very high nurse-patient ratio, which is very unsafe, and gets interrupted with family members and patients asking for assistance, etc. There's no way the work being imposed to the nurses in my facility can finish the work on a reasonable time. Mostly finish at least 2hrs past their time.

How can we make a change? I hate to see that loving and care nurses are being exploited just like this. I care for the patients and the nurses. Any solid suggestions that we may take in order to turn things around?

That's ridiculous. I'm pretty sure I would quit at such a place, or somehow make sure you get your break. Nurses tend be self-sacrificing people, but I need a break to give proper care. We have a clinic, and if we have emergencies, we have the ability to cancel scheduled people. I see nurses who seem to not want to cancel people, but later say how they missed their break and are hungry. But I just started canceling people whenever needed because of so many emergencies. You need to eat to function at your best.

[NottaSpringChik, BSN, RN]

The company is work for has sites in many states. State law in my state requires employers to give a lunch break. So we are told we should clock out for lunch. If we are interrupted or miss lunch for some reason we're supposed to submit a form saying why we didn't have a full half hour off once we punched out or didn't punch out at all. My manager gets emails from corporate reminding this is the policy, which are forwarded. We all try to get lunch and per my state law if you're off the clock for lunch you may leave the work site and have no obligation to be available. If we don't take lunch my manager has chosen not to counsel us even if we don't fill out the forms. I have intention to take lunch but often choose not to leave the unit and grab a bite while working. I try and clock out and take lunch at least 50% of the time and I do not work when clocked out. If I did work for an emergency I would fill out the form but often if I just work through and dont clock out I dont report with the form the way I should.There's room for improvement on my part that's for sure. We should all make taking care of ourselves a priority. Why don't we I wonder! If the lunch policy was strictly enforced you bet I would be completely unavailable once I clocked out. The nurse practice act can not require you to work without pay. As long as other nurses are on duty you are not abandoning. If you are the only nurse available and state law requires a lunch you would need to be paid the entire shift and the company should get a waiver if state law requires a lunch. I've always said if there is a policy that doesn't work and managment draws a hard line be sure snd follow it EXACTLY. That is the only way to prove the policy is wrong. If everyone just creates a work around the policy will never be changed and you'll always be wrong.