NO LUNCH??? NO BREAKS??? Is that common in nursing?????

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Feb 26, 2009

In jobs I've had in the past I almost never got breaks- I would come in to work thinking "Today is the day- I'm going to get a break!"

I'd work myself into a frenzy, organize everything just so- work like a high-octane well oiled machine- and just as I's start walking to the break room, a resident would fall out of bed, get a skin tear, an alarm would go off- always something. As the only nurse for 65 LTC pts, I just could not take a lunch.

Where I work now, I am the only licensed person in my facility most of the time. I sometimes don't get lunch. but one nice thing is as the only licensed person I get a paid lunch- per state law. And this is a "right to work, at will" state.

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Feb 26, 2009

Ya know, I really wish I had known or realised all this when I was a senior in high school, making the decision to apply to 4 year nursing programs so that I could major in nursing.
I wish somebody, anybody, could have been honest with me, when I was 18 years old and making the decision to become a nurse. If I had known that as a Registered Nurse I would never be able to take a lunch break and rarely get the chance to use the bathroom during a shift, I would NEVER have become a nurse.
I think this entire thread should be read by all nursing students and should be read by people thinking about going to nursing school. Nursing students need to know the reality of how horribly nurses are mistreated.
All I ever heard when I was starting nursing school in 2000 was "nursing is the best job security", "nursing is recession proof", "nurses never have a hard time finding a job", etc etc. All lies. Nobody ever told me the reality that I would have to learn how to work for 12.5 hours on an empty stomach without any lunch break. Nobody ever told me that I'd have to learn how to hold it in for 12 hours, have to learn how to ignore my bowel and bladder, since bathroom breaks are a luxury in nursing.
If I had read this thread and read these responses years ago when I was deciding on majoring in nursing, I NEVER would have gone into nursing. I wish I could have read all this, I could have avoided all the unhappiness I've experienced since working as an RN.
Nursing students need to read all these responses, they have to know how horrible nursing is, how poorly nurses are treated, and they need to know that getting a nursing job is not easy and nursing is NOT recession proof!

You are right on the money.

Most pre-nurses don't want to hear it, though. They reply with those totally inane "nursing is what you make it" posts, and think that those of us who know the realities of nursing are grumpy old burn-outs. They'll find out. The hard way.

You know what's sad? People DID tell me. Including my own grandmother, a retired VAMC nurse. I listened politely and thought, "Well, these people were surely in it for the wrong reasons! How can anyone be unhappy when they are truly helping sick people?" I decided that my moral character was higher than theirs and I would have a different experience.
Young and dumb, friends. Young and dumb.

You said it, sister!

The nurse supervisor invoke poor time management , as a convenient charge to make against the bedside nurse for missing breaks ,has already won half the battle , because it puts you on the defensive and attacks one of the bases of nurses psyche ie. they should be able to cope with all that comes at them .
An accusation of Poor time managment , also conveniently takes the focus off of the real problem , poor staffing . So it is almost a reflex action , if faced with staff who want to take a legally required break , nursing supervisors will say you are a poor time manager , rather than they are poor human resource managers !.

A very true and very accurate post.

I know nurses in California, and they have everything i have said and so much more. Great pt ratios; Nurses filling in for their breaks; Guaranteed raises for years to come.
Now that i see you are a second semester nursing student, i am editing my post of the irrelevant information i was giving you. Become a NURSE in California before you stand up here and try to tell me i am wrong. Maybe you should add "2nd semester nursing student" to your experience. You could have saved me this entire post.

:up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up:

LilyBlue · Feb 26, 2009

Ya know, seriously I do not mind having to wolf down something in 2 minutes, drinking a coke at my cart, or what have you. The part that ****** me off is that I don't get paid for a half hour of work I do.

makes needs known · Feb 26, 2009

I used to not take a break when I thought I had too much to do. Now our management takes out a 30 min even if you work right through the whole shift. So I take my full 30 min break. By not taking a break, are you stopping pts from dying? They get sick, they fall, they die, even when you never take a break.

Most healthcare facilities have a personal policy book, does yours? What does it say about breaks? Does it repeat what the state labor laws dictate? You should all be taking your breaks and if you're not, its your own fault. When you claim that the boss won't let you take a break, do you think they will stand behind your devotion? NO! But if you all start taking your break in accordance to your state law, state labor laws will stand up behind you. You have alot of power when you work together. This post has gone on long enough to signify that this is a serious matter.

AggieD04 · Feb 26, 2009

Honestly, when I started, I didn't ever get breaks, but then I realized that 30 minutes really isn't anything, unless something critical comes in. (Work in the ER) I often get a break late, but usually am too busy to realize I'm hungry until late so it works out. If I find myself really hungry/easily frustrated/or just generally lagging behind and know that taking a break will help I do. I usually go up to triage, or back to the back nurse station, somewhere my patient's aren't but I am still easily accesible to others. If I'm caught up at the time, getting 30 minutes behind is easy to fix. If I'm not, I'll prevail on one of my coworkers to page me overhead if orders come up that I need. I also let the charge nurse know where I'll be. My day is much better if I make the time for myself, and honestly I've never had a patient truly suffer because they had to wait on me for 30 minutes. I'm so much quicker/happier/more energized when I take care of myself. I think its worth it. I actually had a doctor come find me for a pelvic exam in the middle of lunch once when I was having a bad day, I told him I would be available in another 15 minutes, he was frustrated, but he dealt with it. Not like we haven't had to wait on doctor's before for 15 minutes. Luckily I work with an amazing group of people though. They have got my back and would help in an emergency.

corky1272RN · Feb 26, 2009

I work in a dialysis clinic, I may be the only nurse on duty. Only nurses are allowed to hook up the catheters. If I don't take a lunch d/t problems the pts are having that day (hypotension, vomiting, out of range assessments) in conjunction with catheters, the secretary will basically threaten that I need to call the RD ( a couple of position levels over my boss). :down: I really wish we had nursing unions in Texas!!!!

nicurn001 · Feb 26, 2009

No, I am not perpetuating any problems....I am not Norma Rae and that is what it would take...nobody at work wants to rock the boat...everyone is just wanting to keep their job and pay their mortgage...All of us are in the same boat....and nobody wants to rock it....
We have already had 5 lay-offs....the last 5 hired...so we are all on edge...

I am sorry ,but whilst I understand the reality of your present situation , in better times did you do anything to address this problem , when times improve will you do anything to address the lack of breaks . I don't think so , from the evidence of your present situation , you obviously didn't work to bring about proper breaks , in the past and will not in the future. So you have and will indeed perpetuate your problems .

At the facility I work at we faced this and other problems , coverage for breaks has been resolved , but in order for that to happen we risked loosing our jobs . It was worth it !, Now we can discuss problems with the DON upon an equal footing , not like serfs to the king .

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Feb 26, 2009

I work in a dialysis clinic, I may be the only nurse on duty. Only nurses are allowed to hook up the catheters. If I don't take a lunch d/t problems the pts are having that day (hypotension, vomiting, out of range assessments) in conjunction with catheters, the secretary will basically threaten that I need to call the RD ( a couple of position levels over my boss). I really wish we had nursing unions in Texas!!!!

I an a dialysis nurse, too. I did a couple of contracts in TX, and nurses are treated like crap there. I prefer other states where I an treated with a little more respect and not thought of as just another tech.

mscsrjhm · Feb 26, 2009

No, I am not perpetuating any problems....I am not Norma Rae and that is what it would take...nobody at work wants to rock the boat...everyone is just wanting to keep their job and pay their mortgage...All of us are in the same boat....and nobody wants to rock it....
We have already had 5 lay-offs....the last 5 hired...so we are all on edge...

Please Aloevera, stop the perpetuating!!! I'm hungry.

I am now suspicious that you may have perpetuated other problems-you are protesting too much!!

Did you ever know Jimmy Hoffa? Have you ever traveled to Mt. St. Helens? Were you on the grassy knoll??

Seriously Aloevera- I got your back. My job is how I feed my family- and I take that very serious. There are some issues that I would not tolerate at work, but getting paid if I don't get to sit down for 30 minutes isn't a problem to me.

BradleyRN · Feb 26, 2009

in better times did you do anything to address this problem , when times improve will you do anything to address the lack of breaks . I don't think so , from the evidence of your present situation , you obviously didn't work to bring about proper breaks , in the past and will not in the future. So you have and will indeed perpetuate your problems .

Your posts are becoming quite pretentious and condescending. Telling someone what they "will not do in the future" simply is not constructive. Nor is saying how you dont think we would do anything whether the economy is bad or not. You are in California, protected by a union and ratio laws. It is easy to stand over there and point your finger at the rest of the country like we dont know what we are doing, but i doubt the CNA would support your manners. I respect the CNA, and the nurses who fought to keep their ratio laws. Were you out there marching in the streets with them, or are you just enjoying the conditions they fought for and won? Anybody that marched and fought would know it was a hard fight, and would not be so judgemental of nurses in other states, who arent afforded such protections. You have read posters that said if they even mention the word "union", they could be fired on the spot. I personally remember supervisor classes where they made us watch videos about how "bad" unions are. The rest of this country is not California. Try working in another state and see if you still talk so loud. :nono:

whipping girl in 07, RN · Feb 27, 2009

I have had four different nursing jobs during my career. At the first, working nights, we all took turns watching each others patients so everyone could eat/take breaks. Some nights there was a lot of downtime, some nights barely enough time to wolf down a sandwich. But we worked as a team and everyone was taken care of.

At my second job, both on nights and then on days, we ate at the desk. If someone was in the middle of eating and a call bell or alarm went off, someone who wasn't eating would usually go take care of it. That was when we were in our old "small" unit. When we moved to our new "big" unit where everyone was spread out, the teamwork disappeared. Most of the time I'd try to hustle to get food and get back because I knew no one was watching my patients. The unit was set up so poorly you couldn't even see two rooms at the same time, let alone three or four. Occasionally we'd be overstaffed slightly at lunchtime (on days) with nurses waiting for patients that were in surgery, so they'd come around and give lunch breaks and I'd actually get 30 minutes away. Or if I was working next to someone who was a team player, we'd watch each other's patients for 30 minutes so the other could go to lunch. If I had to watch monitors or chart or if I got interrupted while eating at the desk, I turned in "no lunch" on my timecard. I never had anyone say anything to me about it.

At the third job, I was a float, and it was different in each unit, but generally, you got your lunch break.

At my job now, no longer direct patient care, I get lunch every day. If I don't take lunch it's my choice, usually because it's the weekend and I'm the only person there and if I work through lunch I don't get off quite as late (although I almost always have to work over).

I always looked at what I had to do and planned the time I thought I could go to lunch. Sometimes it did not work out but I always ate. The work was still there when I got back, and no one suffered because I took care of myself. If my co-workers chose to be martyrs, that was their problem. There was always those one or two people who were always behind, never caught up, always had the worst assignment, never could go to lunch, etc, etc, etc. But you'd offer to help them, and they could never think of something you could do for them. "Want me to do that dressing change?" No. "Want me to pass some of your meds?" No, that's OK. "Want me and Maggie to give your bath so you can get caught up?" No, I'll be fine. "OK then well I'm going to read a magazine, let me know if you need anything." But always complaining...

amy0123, BSN, RN · Feb 27, 2009

Where I work it is mandatory that we document we had a break even if we did not or we would get reported. We could get written up for eating or drinking at the nurses station.