Do you have 30 minutes for lunch?

Misskala · Oct 20, 2013

I worked on a Med-Surg floor and we squeezed in 10-15 mts for lunch, often with someone poking their head in the break room to ask questions about one of your pts.

I now work 12 hour shifts in a subacute inpt rehab center, and we are supposed to get 2 x 30 mt lunches so we get paid only for 11 hours. We only break once for 30 mts in the AM. We were told we could write "missed" 2nd lunch on our time cards and get paid for that 2nd half hour, but no one does. My 1st 2 days on the job was last week, and we didn't take our 2nd lunch but I'm going to ask to get paid for it. I think it's wrong for companies to have this policy but then kind of expect the staff to not really take them up on it. I'm going to!

Vishwamitr · Oct 20, 2013

Most hospitals have a written policy about breaks. In an extraneous circumstance, if an employee is unable to take a break (code Blue, suicide, fire, etc), he/she must fill out a form to get paid for the unavailed break because there are legal ramifications for the employer (such breaks are paid at over-time rate). Nurses/CNAs are also allowed to call nursing-supervisor for relief. If your administration ever hears that you are claiming that you did not get any break, you have a lot of explaining to do.

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · Oct 20, 2013

Pfft! I am lucky if I get to go to the bathroom!

microkate · Oct 21, 2013

I work on the rehab unit of a SNF and almost always take my break. We generally have 4 nurses on the floor and we all cover for each other. I just do a pain med check before I go. When I get floated up to the LTC hallway - I still take my break. Med pass will run late regardless, I may as well be fed and have gone to the bathroom.

Kurious RN · Oct 26, 2013

I work in the ICU. The patients are very sick and rarely any nurse on my floor take a 30 min break. They all eat sitting at their desk so they can look at the monitors. I feel that eating at the desk is unsanitary and I can't do it. So, it's very hard for me to ask another nurse to look after my patients while I go to the break room to eat my food because none of them do it. So, I basically have to go to the break room and eat my food in 5-7 minutes.

brithoover · Oct 26, 2013

I am not a nurse but but why on earth would someone not take a break after working 12 hours or 8 for that matter? Not only is it unhealthy for the nurse but the patient as well since the nurse will be presumably working on half a tank? I would probably pass out before the end of my shift so that would be a real issue for me but again I am not in the field (yet) so maybe I don't fully understand the culture[/quote']
If you had 20 hrs of work to squeeze into a 12 hr shift you wouldn't break either. Sometimes it's the choice or having a break or leaving really late

LaRN · Oct 28, 2013

Too bad the toilet is about 2 feet from the eating table. Our break room/locker room/toilet room is designed by someone who definitely doesn't have to use it. Very embarrassing for the toileter, very distasteful for the eater. But I do get my 30 minutes, short of some true disaster.
The break room is really ugly, but I do get my 30 minutes.

I had this same situation at a previous job. many times I had to put off eating due to someone dropping a stinky in the toilet. because there were other toilets nearby that could have been used, we would get downright hostile when it happened. :madface:

Medic2RN, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Oct 28, 2013

I work in the ER. If it's not busy, a float nurse covers us for lunch, but when is an ER not busy? Lately, we do get to eat. If I don't get a full 30 minute lunch and only get to throw food in my head, then I clock NL. If I have to eat at the nurses station (which is gross to me, but sometimes necessary), then I clock NL. If someone interrupts my lunch with work stuff, then I add those minutes to my lunch.

I don't feel bad about it and I don't work for free.