Lunch breaks

I never thought of that- but I suppose we aren't allowed to use hospital equipment for anything other than patient care.

And who would clean the whirlpool afterwards- surely you can't have sex AND scrub it down all in 30 min.

Cue:" My wife says I'm no good at sex, but I don't see how she can judge that in 30 seconds!" Plenty cleaning time!

How many of you have managers that will help cover for you while you get away on a break? Just curious.

Why do nurses only get 30 minute lunch breaks? That's not enough time for working 12 hours. That's barbaric. If you work 10/4 instead of 12/3, do you get 1 hour lunch breaks?

I get a headache if I don't eat at least every 4-5 hours. I am NOT a volunteer and I DO take my breaks. 12 hours is just too long to go with only a 30 minute break. Studies have documented that breaks refresh the mind and relax the body. Let's not burn ourselves out by volunteering our time and sacrificing our breaks.

For years the nurses in my ICU didn't charge for missed lunch breaks. Now we are getting tough. Title 22 in California cleary states that the staffing ratio is 2:1 at all the time, not 4:1 during lunch time. If someone can't come up and relieve us of all of our pt. care duties for 30 minutes we charge them 1/2 hour overtime. State of Cal has also passed the no lunch break or break penalty law that state if any hourly paid worker misses their lunch or 2 breaks the facility will pay them an hour of straight time wages for missed lunch and an hour of straight time wages for missed breaks. This is on top of the 1/2 hour of time and a half for no lunch. It's amazing when you stand up for yourself and money is involved how know we get a lunch break about 95% of the time.

We get 2 15 min breaks and a 30 min unpaid lunch. I do use my 15 min breaks to smoke. As far as I am concerned the others can take their 15 min to get off the floor and do whatever they wish. For sake of your sanity you should take a break.

We must be a bit lucky, we have a Nurse's union that is fighting on the nurses behalf, if we do not get our 1/2 hour break (uninterrupted I might add) we get paid time and a half. Occasionally if the ward is extremely busy we might miss out, but when the ward is slow we are able to leave early or have extended meal/smoko breaks.

I never take a break, b/c I want to get all my work done so I can get out on time to put my kids on their buses. I am not even going near the smoking issue. As long as my pot of coffee is working and I can have caffeine while I work I am happy. I lied I think I had a break in Jan of 2001.....I was working sick and had to get off the floor, and I am not kidding about the date of the last break. I get paid for all 8 hrs of work, and I give my pts all 8 hrs. Maybe I am wrong in doing that. I don't know if we can leave since our company changed to paid lunch/ breaks. It doesn't matter to me anyway. Laura LPN

My aunt was L&D nurse (now in home health). She couldnt break for smokes much so she just chewed the nicotine gum, she quit smoking but still chews the gum.

i'm a charge nurse on a 48bed skilled floor where sometimes i am the only nurse on. recently the cna's who are union put up a fuss because they were being made to take breaks or have a slip signed by nurse stating they did not take a lunch-30min. so now, managment states that all nurses must take a lunch or have a good reason why not. i hardly ever get a break, and if i do its frequently interupted. i'd rather leave @ 4pm with no break than 4:30-500 with one. and what really gets me is all non nursing staff sit around for an hour or so, and don't punch out. what about them?

In the hospital where I work we (nurses) are the only people that don't get lunch breaks, aside from the "grab something that doesn't bite back and stuff it in" break that you don't even need to pause to take. And I'm including the aids, unit secs, et. all who all find adequate time for them.

As far as smoke breaks are concerned, there are smokers who take 5 15min breaks in an 8 hour shift and still submit "no lunch break" when they sign out. Non smokers don't take the breaks because their first instinct is to get charting done where smoker's first inclination is "when can I smoke?".

I don't want to offend anyone, but isn't that partly why it's an addiction?

So please don't say "nonsmokers should take their breaks" , it doesn't work that way.