Do the doctors and nurses really sit apart in cafeterias?

Nurses Relations

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I see this a lot in TV shows. The doctors are at one table and the nurses are at another, generally with no mixing. Is this really how it is in real hospitals?

Edit: Where do Physician Assistants sit? I'm planning to go to school for that and am worried I will be a man without a country lol

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

Nope, we all mingle with each other and if we eat in the cafeteria it is with patients and families too. Where I went to school, we had a separate lunch room and line for the docs...and they let us use it when we had our graduation dinner...how kind lol

we eat in the breakroom. Doctors don't generally join us but a few have been known to and we don't mind. If we have potlucks the doctors are more than welcome to join and some of the attendings will bring us coffee/donuts/bagels on the weekends for all to share :D

There's no PA's in my unit but there were in the NICU and they typically ate with the NNP's (sometimes in their office...maybe cafeteria?) and I don't know where those doctors ever ate haha

Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

Yes they sit apart. My hospital doesn't have a special place for anyone to sit but let's face it, most docs won't be good company. It's not a case of docs not wanting to sit with other people, rather a case of nobody wants to sit with the doctors. They know that and so stick together. Very much like the nerds table in high school. Of course the joke is on us since nerds currently rule the world and make up most of the newly rich. PAs sit with the docs where they get to be second class citizens.

Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

I don't think I have ever eaten with a PA or MD. They usually eat in their office while working or will leave facility. Most nurses eat in the breakroom. We rarely have time to go to the cafeteria, wait for food, and eat all within 30 min.

If we have a potluck or cake, they will come to the breakroom and have a bite.

The lack of breaks seems to be an American thing. We take our breaks. Unfortunately we only have a cafeteria that is open to the public. Units tend to sit together and try to avoid families/patients.

Residents eat where ever and with whoever. The Surgeons eat either in the OR breakroom or in their own offices.

If there is food on a unit, the Residents appear as if paged STAT.

Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
My hospital doesn't have a special place for anyone to sit but let's face it, most docs won't be good company. It's not a case of docs not wanting to sit with other people, rather a case of nobody wants to sit with the doctors. They know that and so stick together. Very much like the nerds table in high school.

A shame.

Our ER docs are generally cool people. From every conceivable background and from a number of different corners of the planet ... but generally easy to get along with.

I see this a lot in TV shows. The doctors are at one table and the nurses are at another, generally with no mixing. Is this really how it is in real hospitals?

Edit: Where do Physician Assistants sit? I'm planning to go to school for that and am worried I will be a man without a country lol

please also do not base your decision to go into medicine on what you see on TV. I would say less than 5% of what is portrayed on tv shows is accurate...and that's probably being generous!

Specializes in LTC/Skilled Care/Rehab.

I never eat in the cafeteria (or very rarely...maybe a couple times a year). When I do take a break (usually shove food in as quick as possible) it is in the break room. I have never seen doctors in the cafeteria. I'm pretty sure they have their own break room. Most MDs at our hospital have offices in the hospital or really close to it. I'm sure that is where they eat.

I see this a lot in TV shows. The doctors are at one table and the nurses are at another, generally with no mixing. Is this really how it is in real hospitals?

Edit: Where do Physician Assistants sit? I'm planning to go to school for that and am worried I will be a man without a country lol

The questions is : does any employee sit in the cafeteria at work? I may have seen a a group of drs sometimes when I worked days. Nurses rarely if ever unless they were management. Rarely can more than 1 nurse go off the floor at the same time, and no one seems to interact with nurses from other units. Never new of a nurse to go to the cafeteria and actually eat her/his lunch there. On tv everyone goes to lunch together for hours until the next big trauma shows up. Once at night I went to the cafeteria and saw a PA sitting with 2 residents. There is hope for you yet.

How about their own private dining room?

Stocked with food, equipment, etc.

Looks like something in a 5 star hotel. (As seen through the window of the locked door.)

Not even near the cafeteria.

Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

needless to say, our facility caters to our doctors, interns,pa's etc. with their own private mini cafeteria, and lunch room which includes a couple of pin-ball machines one miss pac-man & one galactica arcade game machines, plus a billiard, and 2, 40inc. t.v.'s... what can i say that's how the cookie crumbles at times. however, on each floor we nurses have a 8x10 room with 3 microwaves, a regular fridge that is always full to the max, and most of the time the doctors come in to ask questions about any particular pt. during our breaks :banghead:

p.s. i made it a rule even when i was a staff nurse never to eat at the cafeteria, because most of the patients & their families are there and they usually come to ask questions related to their care.

Yes they sit apart. My hospital doesn't have a special place for anyone to sit but let's face it, most docs won't be good company. It's not a case of docs not wanting to sit with other people, rather a case of nobody wants to sit with the doctors. They know that and so stick together. Very much like the nerds table in high school. Of course the joke is on us since nerds currently rule the world and make up most of the newly rich. PAs sit with the docs where they get to be second class citizens.

hahahahahahahahahah. the nerd table. . i would say where I work that depends on the specialty. the ortho drs here do not look like they were ever nerds.

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