Hungry Nurse or Troublemaker?

JVRB4 · Aug 12, 2009

Where I was working there was only 1 RN on each shift. While I was in orientation my preceptor told me that because she was the only RN (I didn't count due to orientation) she could go to caf and get lunch but had to return to the floor to eat. This meant that I also returned to the floor to eat. We had to clock out however we had to be on the floor and if their was a ph call for RN we had to take it, if there was a pt needing a narc IV push or PCA we had to go give it etc. After I came off orientation I generally worked thru lunch but I did not clock out and I would write on the form we had that I did not get lunch. Most of the time I would get paid for that time but sometimes I didn't depending on if "they" felt it was reasonably necessary for me to need to work thru to get things done.

donnasRN · Aug 12, 2009

Sorry if this is a repeat from what others have said, I didn't read every post so please bear with me. I do payroll for my entire unit and Nurses are told they HAVE TO take their break. If the unit gets busy, code, etc. and they are unable to, they write in the time book that they didn't get a break and they get paid the extra 30 mins. for their break. Usually another Nurse signs off as well that the Nurse didn't get their break to ensure no one is doing it repeatedly to get extra money. We don't have a clock in/out system for breaks b/c the meal breaks are already incorporated in the shift time (13 hour shifts, but get paid for 12) so I have to manually add in missed breaks. But, if you work through your break you should get paid for it!

EverNurseRN · Aug 12, 2009

i would never work for free...they don't pay us enough as it is! just for illustration: if you work five days a week, and worked through your lunches all year long, you'd roughly be giving the company $3900 per year in free labor..if you only work three days a week, it'd be about $2300...uh, no, don't think so...

learning08 · Aug 12, 2009

OP: let us know how it works out! You are absolutely right, and the charge nurse is in the wrong. Good for you for standing up for yourself!

nicurn001 · Aug 12, 2009

i would never work for free...they don't pay us enough as it is! just for illustration: if you work five days a week, and worked through your lunches all year long, you'd roughly be giving the company $3900 per year in free labor..if you only work three days a week, it'd be about $2300...uh, no, don't think so...

for me that would be $6000 for 5 shifts / week / 48 week year ( took out time for vactions ).i have never missed a lunch break in the 33 years i have been a nurse , except for when an emergency happened !.

i notice some saying the op is being a floormat , i believe she is simply part of the fabric , of the carpet that makes up the nursing body of facilities , where nurses do not take a real lunch break . if we allow it , it will happen ( in this case if nurses allow management to not ensure breaks can be taken , they won't worry about it )

KY RN · Aug 12, 2009

I'm going in early to talk to the Staffing Coordinator Person and to the DON. I don't want to cause problems but I want my break. If that is the culture here, it is best I look for another job. I am able to take a break at my other jobs and it hasn't been a problem. At this facility, there were other RN' on the floor also, therefore, that wasn't a factor in not taking a break.

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Aug 12, 2009

I have recently started a new job. I'm on my orientation period. I asked when we take our lunch. I was told by the Charge Nurse that we have to clock out for lunch for 30 minutes but continue to work. Otherwise, the work is not completed.
:nono:I said, "uhm, no, I don't think so. I always try to take my lunch." She said, "You're new here. We have to work through lunch to get everything done." Ok, fine, I will work through lunch but I want to be paid. She got snotty and said "we don't pay for your time on lunch. It's obvious you are not going to last long here."

Ironically, this is the EXACT same phrase that I got, when I started in Nursing.

A problem...as long as nurses "work over" after clocking out, or "work through" meal breaks, management continue to pile on the work and expect it of all. You know, you cope with short staffing once or twice, or stat start chemo because of "an emergency", or give what amounts to conscious sedation on a floor not equipped for it, "just this once because the pt needs it".....and it starts happening over and over again....because after all, "you managed perfectly fine,the last time."

Eventially, you find yourself charting at 2130, when you were supposed to be off at 1930....you haven't eaten more than a couple of crackers, with stale jelly on them that you scammed from the unit kitchen, you have only drunk 1/3 of your 24 oz soda, and its a good thing, because you haven't peed since 0615 AM. And you still have cares not done, because your floor was short a tech, 2 RNs and you had no secretary. Plus, an MD ordered MS/Ativan on a pt, and assistance to do a bone marrow, and the pt desats (you're using a dynamap, since you have no monitors), resulting in pushing reversal agents, while getting called stat to another room, because your confused pt is crawling out of bed and about to fall (no more sitters because they are expensive, and no restraints because of public protest). Meantime Dr. X, a nasty little man with short man's syndrome, comes in and pitches a fit because there are NO stamped progress notes, and what the h#77 have you being doing all day, filing your nails?????, and demands that you round with him now!!!!!!!!!!!!

After you entertain certain fantasies about improper use of a Jamshidy ( large bone marrow aspirator ), and what to do with a body (load it in a linen bag and dump him in the laundry chute (it never works right, and it will be stuck and probably tossed on another floor, where it will take 3-4 days before anyone repairs it and tossed again repeat process several times, by several different floors), and with the odor in the soiled utility, no one will notice...........By that time it will be 2230........ and you will be burned out beyond belief... and you will be to tired to do it again for the next two days.

Employers that foster the, "we are to dedicated to eat or leave the floor for a break" and employees that foster that, use nurses' natural dedication to their patients to overwork and abuse us. And the more that we allow, the more pervasive that it will become. Until it eats us alive and spits us out.

allnurses Guide · Aug 13, 2009

Amen to that, Carol.

Until nurses realize that "nursing" does not = self sacrifice, the administration will continue to abuse their good natures. People treat you the way you let them treat you. It's time we all stood up together and said "this is not acceptable" or started calling the labor board every single time. Of course emergencies happen, but as a routine matter there's no way I'd tolerate this.

diane227, LPN, RN · Aug 18, 2009

Under federal law it is illegal to force an employee to work during their lunch. If they are required to work during their lunch period, under the law they must be paid for that time. You might want to get on the web, pull up that law and give her a copy. And stand up for yourself with this woman. She is just trying to intimidate you to see how far she can push you. You just tell her that you might be lasting a lot longer than she thinks you will.