My one big issue

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in ER.

I can handle a heavy workload, but you know what? If some how management, the unit culture, the workload, the staffing ratios, cannot allow for a 15 minute break every 4 hrs, and a half hour break for lunch, then something is seriously wrong.

I don't care if you give them to me all at once. And I don't want to be paid time and a half for missing them. I WANT MY BREAKS!

I hear griping, I hear the union proclaiming how they are looking out for us, I hear management with all their goals, but if the union is too ineffective to make sure I get a break, what good are they? If my co-workers, the charge nurse, the management of the hospital doesn't value my rest period, THAT ALL THE EVIDENCE BASED INFORMATION says make me a better, healthier nurse, the what's going on here?

I'm sick of this attitude. Even McDonalds gives their workers breaks.

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

I agree. Some nights I am running from rapid call to rapid call with no break. Most nights I am able to take ample break time. Not getting a break on a daily basis is a huge issue. Once in awhile is understandable. Can you file a grievance for no break time with the union? If you do so it must be addressed right?

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Specializes in Med Surg.

Yep. It kinda sucks. The nature of my med surg job prevents a regular break schedule.

There are RN jobs that do provide time for breaks.

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Specializes in Family Medicine.

One of my biggest issues with this nursing gig. :angrybird10:

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I feel you. We don't have breaks too. :(

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Specializes in Critical Care/Vascular Access.

Med-surg floors aren't exactly predictable and the schedule is completely relative to what's going on with the patients from moment to moment so it's practically impossible to guarantee that every nurse and tech (or whoever else) on the floor will get a 15 minute break every 4 hours and a half hour lunch. Even if you have assigned nurses to cover for you, you can't guarantee they will be available when you're ready to break, or you will be for them. Unfortunately it's just not a realistic expectation unless you are fortunate enough to have extra nurses who go around relieving people for breaks (ha). So I hate to say it, but unless your facility operates a lot different than mine, it's just something we have to learn to work around.

As for me, I just take multiple quick unofficial breaks whenever I have the time. If I have a few minutes to spare I'll go eat a quick snack or just sit down in the break room with my phone on me. Occasionally I'll be eating lunch and have to stop to go hang a bag or give pain meds then come back and finish, but so be it. I almost never take an "official" break, but I always manage to get in some snack time, lunch time, and bathroom time.

I'm sure you know all this after 20 years and are just venting. I just don't feel very bothered by it like some people are. Just work with what you've got.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Haven't gotten a break since I started nights. At my hospital the day shift nurses get relieved by what's called a Churn nurse. Her job from 11a to 11p is to give breaks, do admissions, catch you up on your meds, etc.

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

Agreed! I'm grateful that at "my" hospital (where I did clinicals and have an offer, so I can't take away the quotes yet!), nurses ARE given their breaks. However, some nurses are more reluctant than others to TAKE said breaks, and THAT'S where the problem lies! Charges have to push it sometimes.

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If you want an uninterrupted lunch or even any break at all for that matter, you are in the wrong field. I am super jealous of people who get an actual lunch break and small breaks in between.

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Specializes in NICU/L&D, Hospice.

This issue is one of my biggest gripes with this profession. The problem is that the majority of nurses will just be "ok" with not getting breaks or a lunch and chalk it up to the profession. That is BS! We have labor laws/rights in this country and every time one single nurse is ok with not getting lunch or a break weakens the fight to make it happen. The hospital is more than happy when nurses have the mindset of "well...that's nursing". Since when???? Are we superhumans? NO! We are regular folk and we deserve to receive our breaks and lunches like all the other workers in the United States of America! Nothing irked me more than a nurse telling me they were just going to write down that they took a lunch (even though they didn't d/t short staffing) so they wouldn't get IN TROUBLE! What??? The hospitals are more than happy to have you poo poo away your legal rights to rest periods as you are only helping them make more money to line the CEO's pocket and mansion. You (generally speaking, not directed at OP) are effectively skipping breaks and lunch and the executives are buying mansions and luxury cars d/t not having to pay you for lunch. Enjoy working for free for an hour a day. Off my soap box. (ps...this is a generalized rant not directed at anyone who has posted...unless you have mentioned that you are ok with working for free and taking no lunch or break cause that's nursing)

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Specializes in Critical Care/Vascular Access.
(ps...this is a generalized rant not directed at anyone who has posted...unless you have mentioned that you are ok with working for free and taking no lunch or break cause that's nursing)

Sorry if people like me upset you. I just don't really care about breaks. I know if I really need one, I can usually take one, but I generally don't even care about taking one. I get physical rest when I sit down to chart or do whatever at the desk and my mind's on my job anyway until I go home so breaks just don't usually benefit me much. I do understand and respect that some people do want and need them, so I support our right to have them and do believe the should be available, but don't blame people like me for the nature of the job.

And who cares about the CEO? If I worried about all the people whose pockets I'm stuffing unnecessarily and without my willful consent I'd go crazy. You do it in nearly every aspect of your life whether you realize it or not.

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They have even found a way to make truck drivers take 30 minute breaks so companies do not mistreat them surely we can figure out how to let nurses take them also. At a place I used to work they automatically took out your 30 minute lunch unless you reported to two different people that you didn't get it. It wasn't until the wage and hour board stepped in and made them pay everyone back pay for not getting lunches did they magically find a way for all of us to get that 30 minutes away from the unit.

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