Why do we not get paid for lunch even if we never get to take one?

Nurses General Nursing

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Why do I work from 7-7:30 (12.5 hours) but only get paid for 12? This happens EVERY shift, not just once in a while. They say it's our responsibility to take a lunch but it's almost never possible. Some shifts I don't even get to pee and do my charting standing up during a spare minute between tasks. If we have 2 RNs for 14 patients on a busy med-surg floor with frequent admits and discharges, when IS there time for a break?!

And how is it ok that you're required to show up for a 5 hour morning class and then come to work for another 13 hours that night? And repeat it the following day as well?

Is this the norm for the industry or do I just have a crappy job?

Specializes in OB.
Just wanted to second this. Often other nurses will go on break and those of us left on the floor are scrambling to keep up with call lights and patient needs. Then we fall behind and aren't able to take OUR breaks. I appreciate the right of everybody to to a take, but it doesn't seem possible sometimes to fairly distribute it.

When they come back from their break, can't you tell whoever you were covering "I need to give you report now so I can take my break. I did ABC for your patients, I need you to do XYZ for me"????

It horrifies me to read people here constantly saying "I can't even stop to pee." STOP AND PEE!!! You don't need to ask someone's permission! You are a human, and need to take care of yourself so you can care for your patients.

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Specializes in ICU.

My hospital, very well known, is in current litigation on this. Some nurses had enough. Not sure what is going on, but they sent an email for everyone to say yes or no is they have ever not been compensated for working through a lunch. This happens A LOT!!

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Specializes in Pedi.
I can't answer the question of don't know vs. don't care, but I have to comment on the pee thing. Nobody is going to die if you use the bathroom!!!You are a professional, not a slave..not even a serf. You don't have to ask permission to go to the BR. You go.

Call lights can ring for two minutes. Phone can ring, or the caller has the option to wait on hold or leave a message. The pt can wait two minutes for her antibiotic or pain meds. If an MD approaches you about helping w/ a procedure, you say "I will be there in two minutes." If a CNA needs help w/ a transfer, "I will be there in two minutes." If a pt is discharging and their ride is here, "I will be there in two minutes."

The only thing that really can't wait two minutes is a coding pt.

Sure in code situations, our needs have to wait...but really, where do you work that your pts are constantly coding? I work in a level 1 trauma/neuro/SICU, in between a level 1 trauma PICU and a very busy MICU and a regional burn unit. We don't even have a code every single day!

Practice in front of the mirror if you need to--practice saying, "I will be there in two minutes."

You are a professional. You do not have to risk a UTI, incontinence, or even extreme bladder discomfort. You will be there in two minutes.

Even if your patient does code while you're in the bathroom, everyone available is expected to respond to a code, are they not? In all the codes I've been involved in, I don't think any were ever a patient assigned to me. I remember one time when a patient coded and her nurse was off the floor. Everyone who was on the floor participated in the code. I also remember one time when I was peeing and the code light went off (it could be heard in our bathrooms). I went in to help when I finished with my business. Both of these patients were fine.

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I agree with many here. I have never understood the line of thought in refusing to use the bathroom. Obviously there are times that are inappropriate, but I use the bathroom 4-5 times in a 12 hour shift. Pounding caffeine and water takes its toll ;)

BSN GCU 2014. ED Residency ;)

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses

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I'd like to know if nurses who work in California in acute care work for institutions that follow ratios "at all times"? Do you have a nurse charge or lunch relief who you give your patients so you can go on break and truly be relieved? Where I work we do, rarely do we not and that is only when the staffers have tried all the tricks in their bag to get the extra help.

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FWIW, I could NEVER convince everyone on a shift to file the variance. There were just too many people who were scared to attract attention to their "poor time management". :madface:

Some were just not "rock the boat" kind of people, you name it, they had a reason for not doing it. In the end it screws EVERYONE, because unless everyone participates, it's just one or two people who are the 'problem'. :(

On the flip side, I used to work with a nurse who would declare it was her break time, and walk off the floor. Charge couldn't do anything because she WAS entitled to a break, and since none could be officially scheduled (too many variables in patient load on off-shifts) there wasn't much to do. Except have the nursing supervisor talk to her about breaking only when there was sufficient coverage, but we all knew what a crock THAT was. So....she took her breaks but we all were KILLING ourselves trying to cover those 30 minutes. And, yes, she got paid back FULLY by having no one available to help her at other times, and sometimes her meds were late or missed. Nice? No. But sometimes it gets ugly when only one person takes a lunch..... and everyone else is tired of covering. I can tell you that at one point, she DID stop that, finally, when it became clear to her she was VERY unpopular to work with!

Rock and a hard place. Entitled to lunch, but not entitled to screw over everyone else AND the patients. Just....not pretty

That is one of the most screwed up things I have ever heard. Screwing over a colleague for taking her breaks, rather than lobbying management so that everyone could take them. What horrible selfish immature people they must have been. Breaks are part of OH&S, and should be taken. Good on that woman for looking after herself for as long as she could, until she was bullied out of it. SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

Very true.

Even if your patient does code while you're in the bathroom, everyone available is expected to respond to a code, are they not? In all the codes I've been involved in, I don't think any were ever a patient assigned to me. I remember one time when a patient coded and her nurse was off the floor. Everyone who was on the floor participated in the code. I also remember one time when I was peeing and the code light went off (it could be heard in our bathrooms). I went in to help when I finished with my business. Both of these patients were fine.
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I can't answer the question of don't know vs. don't care, but I have to comment on the pee thing. Nobody is going to die if you use the bathroom!!!You are a professional, not a slave..not even a serf. You don't have to ask permission to go to the BR. You go.

Call lights can ring for two minutes. Phone can ring, or the caller has the option to wait on hold or leave a message. The pt can wait two minutes for her antibiotic or pain meds. If an MD approaches you about helping w/ a procedure, you say "I will be there in two minutes." If a CNA needs help w/ a transfer, "I will be there in two minutes." If a pt is discharging and their ride is here, "I will be there in two minutes."

The only thing that really can't wait two minutes is a coding pt.

Sure in code situations, our needs have to wait...but really, where do you work that your pts are constantly coding? I work in a level 1 trauma/neuro/SICU, in between a level 1 trauma PICU and a very busy MICU and a regional burn unit. We don't even have a code every single day!

Practice in front of the mirror if you need to--practice saying, "I will be there in two minutes."

You are a professional. You do not have to risk a UTI, incontinence, or even extreme bladder discomfort. You will be there in two minutes.

I had a coworker come to me in tears while we were at the Accudose. I was extremely concerned, and then she whisper - asked me to please please please give the patient in room ### their PRN morphine. I was stumped as to why she was in tears, and that's when she confided in me that she had to go change her scrub pants - she'd wet herself.

A GROWN-$*% WOMAN WET HERSELF AT WORK.

I told her in unprofessional language to get gone and to take a 10 minute breather to think about her priorities. (We're friends outside of work so she understood my manners.)

I told her that there is ALWAYS 3 minutes to pee. No one is best served by her peeing herself like a toddler.

Shortly after that, she put in for a transfer to the surgical/ortho floor. She can't manage the chaos of our floor efficiently and needed somewhere a little more even paced.

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That is one of the most screwed up things I have ever heard. Screwing over a colleague for taking her breaks, rather than lobbying management so that everyone could take them. What horrible selfish immature people they must have been. Breaks are part of OH&S, and should be taken. Good on that woman for looking after herself for as long as she could, until she was bullied out of it. SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!

Wrong. Plenty of lobbying. Plenty of complaints; as I said, not everything disclosed here but the POINT was that it was impossible to have everyone take all their breaks. And after lobbying efforts don't work.....people either go with what it IS, or they quit. We had both happen.

And it's easy to point fingers and blame without knowing what else was at stake. I know FULL well that there are others here who know exactly what I'm talking about, but don't want to post it because they, too, will get told "shame, shame" rather than have any understanding whatsoever thrown their way. Guess I'll take the bullet for them, no problem ;)

I'm not going to keep defending the situation to those who didn't live it and think to blame rather than try to understand what might have been going on, because *I* know what went on, and how we survived it. Or didn't survive it, as was the case of those who left. And after a time....so did I!

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Specializes in Med Surg, Specialty.
I had a coworker come to me in tears while we were at the Accudose. I was extremely concerned, and then she whisper - asked me to please please please give the patient in room ### their PRN morphine. I was stumped as to why she was in tears, and that's when she confided in me that she had to go change her scrub pants - she'd wet herself.

A GROWN-$*% WOMAN WET HERSELF AT WORK.

I told her in unprofessional language to get gone and to take a 10 minute breather to think about her priorities. (We're friends outside of work so she understood my manners.)

I told her that there is ALWAYS 3 minutes to pee. No one is best served by her peeing herself like a toddler.

Shortly after that, she put in for a transfer to the surgical/ortho floor. She can't manage the chaos of our floor efficiently and needed somewhere a little more even paced.

I hope you gave her a lot of support. Your 'toddler' line really bothers me. I had a fellow student pee herself in class once, have peed on myself for a medical reason, and have had experiences with other people and myself bleeding through in a public area. Its tough. People are quick to heap blame on the employee that they are not managing their time well when oftentimes there is more to it than you realize.

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I hope you gave her a lot of support. Your 'toddler' line really bothers me. I had a fellow student pee herself in class once, have peed on myself for a medical reason, and have had experiences with other people and myself bleeding through in a public area. Its tough. People are quick to heap blame on the employee that they are not managing their time well when oftentimes there is more to it than you realize.

In my opinion, you are projecting. I never mentioned anything about bleeding through - I know that no one can fully predict when Hemorrhage Hour will be upon them. And has crap-all to do with my coworker, who admitted she had been drinking plenty of water but kept putting off bathroom breaks because so n so needed zofran, so n so was coming back from surgery, and t'other wanted to ambulate.

There isn't more to it. We're friends on the outside, and she full well admits she struggles with the chaotic pace of our floor and with understanding that not everything can be done in the 12 hours we're given to change lives. Given her tendency to leave 1-2 hrs after because of her charting, and her verbal expression, it *is* time management.

That, and this ridiculous belief that nurses are superhero martyrs who never get tired, have functions of elimination, and eat once a day.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

I haven't read all the replies.

Many nurses must fight their employer to get the pay they are entitled to for missed lunch breaks. Many other nurses will be afraid to take on that fight and will forfeit the $ rather than risk their employment in "right to work" states where they can be fired for any and no reason.

I, personally, am not a professional who will work for free (unless I am seeking a volunteer experience). If I am required to work 8.5 hours with an unpaid lunch break then I had better have a chance to sit for 30 minutes and take a break. If the employer hasn't provided adequate staffing to accomodate that then they are going to pay me for that time, and in most cases they will pay me a premium for their failure.

I am willing to die on that hill, some folks aren't.

When management is inconvenienced by short staffing they typically do something about the staffing. If the nurses simply cover the short staffing by not eating lunch, not requiring that they are paid OT for that loss of break, and work off the clock to complete nonpatient contact duties there is NO incentive for management to change a thing other than to toy with the notion that they might be able to get by with a little bit less still.

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