Lunch breaks

greeneggsnham · Dec 2, 2003

lets see, lunch break? Oh yeah, thats when the pharmacy delivers medications, when Dr's offices call with orders, and when the Education department chooses to give us our inservices (and no, we do not get paid lunches)!

lanilpn · Dec 2, 2003

I always beleived in scheduled lunch breaks-but they don't always work. i was always the one waiting for peple to return from their lunch so that i could go-worked in m.d. office. my doctor ALWAYS ran behind. by time they all got back i would get 10min. the unit couldn't be without a nurse present. when i went to my supervisor it turned out to cause more trouble. i didn't know that my doctor went to the manager complaning that my supervisor was doing a bad job cause i wasn't getting a lunch. my supervisor made such a big deal about how i HAD to leave the floor right at 12:30 , and wouldn't let up till i left.

i think that if you work together with all the staff, a common ground can be met so that all get a lunchand patients are not neglected.

in a perfect world it would work great for all. :rolleyes:

i hope you come to that common ground:)

-manda

Mart24 · Dec 3, 2003

I think your supervisor has a problem. It is your right to get a lunch break and she needs to keep you informed about what is happening if yours is delayed. Also, she seems to hold grudges. Bad trait in a supervisor. :cool:

lanilpn · Dec 3, 2003

I agree with you mart24, she does hold grudges- i no longer work there. she did make life pretty difficult when she came in. She was quick to blame others. i went to the office manager, but that didn't do any good( they are freinds outside of work-why she got the job). thank goodness i'm no longer there:)

dragonfly954 · Dec 3, 2003

We are made to take a 30 min break unpaid.If you don't take lunch you get written up.You are not allowed to leave the facility and have to carry a wireless phone in case the covering nurse needs to ask you a question.No breaks are scheduled by managment.Only 2 can go for a lunch/smoke break at the same time.You can't eat at the nurses station.What I encounter is most will take lunch breaks early and start their other breaks even before everyone has gotten a lunch because their friends from another floor are on lunch.No one says anything because mgt and these few nurses are friendly on the outside of work.If you say anything,watch out.New administrator and a suggestion box outside her door solved that for awhile:).Our biggest reason for wanting to leave on break was on payday:bank right across the street.Mgt told us we had direct deposit available!

ktwlpn, LPN · Dec 3, 2003

Originally posted by greeneggsnham
lets see, lunch break? Oh yeah, thats when the pharmacy delivers medications, when Dr's offices call with orders, and when the Education department chooses to give us our inservices (and no, we do not get paid lunches)!

I think that with team work and excellent time management you can get break in acute care...Don't be a martyr-

RNKPCE · Dec 3, 2003

I have heard you can leave the grounds for a lunch break but by the time you get to your car and go anywhere you would have to turn around and come back. We are suppose to get 2 15 min breaks and 30 min unpaid lunch. What we usually get is a 30-45 min lunch( if it is not out of control we combine one break with lunch) and eat in nurses break room on the floor. Never take the 2nd 15 min break. The breaks are suppose to be space evenly with lunch falling in the middle. Yeah right. on 3-11 how would that work. Out of report at 3:30, make rounds on patients. before you know it, it is 5p the cafeteria opens and the first group goes to lunch. Cafe closes at 7:30 weekdays, 7p weekends. Some people have to leave the floor to buy food before it closes but eat it later.

Also we do get paid a full extra hour for each meal or 15 min break missed, this is law. It doesn't happen too often on my shift but we do charge for and we don't work for free.

When ratios in Calif are implemented and you can't cover anyones patients if it puts you over the ratio it should be interesting to see how many meals or breaks are missed.

AndiMac · Dec 6, 2003

I work in an itty bitty 11 resident facility, my lunches are usually spent eating with the residents, then running outside to hotbox a cigarette. Sometimes I do the same as the rest, spend my lunch with my tray at the nurses station charting and smearing my food across charts.:) I try to go out and smoke as often as I can. I figure if I can't take my full breaks, I'll split them up and take what I can. 2-3 minutes to smoke equals 5 cigarrets in 8 hours? Since there is only one nurse, I can't leave, atleast i feel that I can't. I don't know that it is written anywhere, but with it being asssisted living ... there is no nurse 3rd shift ... so where would it be different if I DID leave?

Sometimes I wonder if they consider charting time as break time...

CCU NRS · Dec 6, 2003

Originally posted by moonshadeau
I am interested in knowing if any facilities allow a person to leave the facility for their lunch break. In my facility it is sort of an unwritten rule that you hang around at least in the building where you can be reachable by phone. (The phone system doesn't work in all parts of the building either). Particularly interested in cardiac units who tend to be a bit more critical with fewer staff.

My personal belief, I would love to leave the facility to have lunch somewhere else. (if you get a lunch) But I also believe and know that it adds extra stress to the nurse that now has twice as many patients to cover for?

What do you think?

I work in an area where there is another facility right across the street and many of my fellow nurses think they have a better cafateria than we do there is also a burger joint right across the street which a few of us sometimes go to and then there is always the ever popular delivery Chinese, Pizza, Deli sandwiches, etc

Chrislynn2003 · Dec 6, 2003

My 30 minute lunch is included during my shift. I stay clocked in for 8.5 hours. Sometimes there is hardly enough time to go to the cafeteria to eat, yet alone leave the building.

Christine

mattsmom81 · Dec 6, 2003

If we must leave the premises we are SUPPOSED to badge out and have supervisor approval. There are people who abuse this privilege however.

I try to get off the unit, walk stairs, etc. for my unpaid 1/2 hr. Some nights it doesn't work and we get zero breaks out of the unit. But if we were to leave, we would make it impossible for the rest of the staff and we would not only be way overtime, something adverse may happen to our patients. That is how most of us feel on night shift. We are not staffed well enough.

But we really enjoy our occasional slow nights...that's payback for us.

AndiMac · Dec 7, 2003

in reply to myself, i just found a letter to staff from our don at work last night, that says we are not allowed to leave for any reason, other than emergencies. apparently it is an issue at my workplace and didn't know it ... :rolleyes: