Do you nurses get breaks?

I have to say, the best thing for someone who wants to go into nursing to do is to get a job as a tech. Nursing is nursing. The tech work is the basic primary work of any nurse who is at a bedside, so being familiar with the practice will make you a better nurse. Or it will prove to you that you don't wanna do this kind of job.

As for breaks, I have always secheduled myself mentally so that if I am a good nurse and get all my beginning of the shift stuff done, I can walk away for about 5 minutes around 10 then eat lunch around 12 and then take another break around 3. I keep this schedule as close a as possible, because if I don't get to walk away, my brain will explode.

BTW, I smoke too, but even I see some smokers take advantage and go out too many times. If, at the end of the day, my patients are happy and clean and quiet, I have taken my nurses notes outside to the picnic table and charted while smoking, but the way the floor was set up, all someone had to do was knock on the window for me to come back up if it was something I needed to take care of.

We call it a break if we get to sit, eat and talk at the same time. We still check when alarms go off, though. No matter how organized we are, the docs seem to like a midnight c/s, or we will have to attend a high risk delivery. I can get a half hour's pay if I claim it for a missed break, some nurses never do. It's not what we are supposed to get, but at this point no-one is rocking the boat.

We were once told by an HR manager, that we would all get "a 30 minute break and not be responsible for our patients". LOL Not that someone extra was available to cover us for during that time, but it looked good in print.

I had one job where I was the only nurse for 65 pts in LTC. I didn't a lunch break for over 2 years. Usually, I got one ten min break a shift, but only if I really busted my butt and was determined to get that ten min break, no matter what. Now I work dialysis. I usually get one or two lunch breaks a week.

Even the most organized nurses with great time mgmt skills face not getting their breaks. When the work load is too great, it can't be avoided.

Generally, working conditions in nursing are poor. I enjoy nursing...when I am allowed to do it! I spend much of my time doing paper-work, cleaning out trash cans, refilling soap dispeners and paper towel dispensers.. and generally running around like crazy. There is no housekeeping on my unit.

There are things I love about nursing, and things that really frustrate and sadden me.

Nursing is a rough field. To deny it would be unrealistic.