This topic has been bothering me a lot lately. I would love to know your thoughts and experiences! I am a new RN working on a cardiac unit. Since I have been on this floor, I have observed and experienced first hand how many of the nurses do NOT get a break during their 8 and 12 hour shifts. If we do take a break, we have to find someone on the floor who can cover our typically 4-5 patients. Our charge nurses do NOT cover lunches and our parent shifters are not used for this, either. There have been many days when I went home after working 13 plus hours and not sitting down once or being able to use the bathroom.
Is this COMMON in the nursing profession? According to wage and hour federal laws, we are entitled to a break.
This frustrates me as I think we are all entitled to some time away and I do not feel it is our responsibility to find our own coverage.
What are you guys finding out in the nursing community? Do you swipe a "no lunch?" Is this even SAFE? Technically, this employer is violating wage and hour laws by not freeing the nurses up for a break.
Please share your thoughts and experiences with me. I think this practice is wrong and I would like to implement change...I just do not know how.
This thread=the reason charts have hot sause & ranch stains. There is no way in hell I would be able to work a job without a minimum 45min lunch break. And if I'm working over 12hrs I need an additional 45mins for a nap! Without I would surely die! What about nurses who are diabetic?
Yuck. That is so unsanitary. I eat at the desk or while handling charts, pens, phones, etc. With all of the stress that we have on hand washing, I am always surprised when I watch and hear about nurses eating at the Nurses station. I know a lot of Nurses will say that they do not have a choice, but in reality, they do. Start writing in the money owed to you for missed breaks and make sure you get that time and a half for it. Employers will see this and they will react. Keep a journal of what they say when you miss your breaks and they refuse to pay. It is illegal to force an employee to miss a break and not pay them. It is illegal to force an employee to clock out and continue to work.
The problem is, many Nurses are scared (I am not sure why) and they allow the employer to walk all over them. If Nurses were strong and banded together, employers would not get away with this abuse.
This is an old post but.... I posted before. When in charge I started to assign lunch breaks, people more or less said "yeah right" but lo and behold people are now setting aside at least a 30 min lunch break, it is more unusal than not for us to take a break. I walk for 35 min when I do a 12 hour shift. I deserve it and I take it. Get in the habit, cut yourself the slack and take a break.
I am a diabetic nurse. Janumet and 50 units of Lantus a day. I sign up for only 4 hour shifts because they always turn into 6 or more. Last time I worked (last week) it was 8 hours before I got out---running full filt with no breaks. I can't remember the last time I tried to eat a meal at work; I do have a vague recollection that my stomach was (as usual) so much in knots it just made me sick. I think the sheer adrenaline keeps me from getting hypoglycemic. We have no charge nurses. The "charge" has the same load as anyone else and, like all of us, has no idea whatsoever what is going on outside her own group of patients thanks to bedside SBAR. I do it only prn, once a week. Otherwise I believe it would literally kill me. I love my "real", 40 hour a week job, which doesn't involve this kind of nonsense. And yet the employee satisfaction scores are through the roof. Why? Because they ask for so many identifiers on them (how old are you? What shift do you work on what floor and how often etc.) that nobody would dare to tell the truth.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
we have lunch breaks--30 minutes each and we are officially covered and leave the area.
if we work 12 hours, we have 2- 30 minute breaks and 1 - 15 minute break.
all with coverage, and leaving the area.
we are non-union, btw.
we just do what is right for our staff.
at first i thought you were management -- "we just do what is right for our staff." and i thought that management really has no idea whether the staff actually gets their two 30-minute breaks and one 15 minute break. they might "mandate it", but probably have little real idea if it actually happens. and then i noticed your screen name. granted, i know very little about working in pacu -- except that all of my former icu colleagues who transferred to pacu wouldn't dream of leaving because "it's the easiest job i've ever had. i get breaks." so i'm guessing, perhaps, that your "busy" is someone different than "busy" in the icu, er or floors.
Just an observation; but if everyone and their cousin is working without breaks or with limited breaks... isnt' this a sign that maybe the nursing shortage is real?
I mean... if there was no nursing shortage, then shouldn't there be enough staff so that people can have normal breaks as mandated by law?
Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
Just an observation; but if everyone and their cousin is working without breaks or with limited breaks... isnt' this a sign that maybe the nursing shortage is real?
I mean... if there was no nursing shortage, then shouldn't there be enough staff so that people can have normal breaks as mandated by law?
I don't think the problem is that there is so much of a shortage of nurses to work.......I believe more on the lines that the companies who own these hospitals keeps us understaffed in order to save $$$...
I supervised over the weekend to fill in and watched many a nurses work through lunches, breaks, but yes, as one post mentioned, there is always time to pee !!! But to go sit for 20 min. and eat or re-charge your batteries is highly unusual.....on some days..........then you have the other days that are slower and one has time for lunch., etc..........I did fill in for a few to give them a break. ............but that doesn't usually happen........
Just an observation; but if everyone and their cousin is working without breaks or with limited breaks... isnt' this a sign that maybe the nursing shortage is real?
I mean... if there was no nursing shortage, then shouldn't there be enough staff so that people can have normal breaks as mandated by law?
As the person above mentioned, management purposely understaffs to save money. One piece of evidence is that many floors that are worked to the bone without breaks have no advertised job openings on that floor. Hospital management works for the bottom line above all else (including patient safety, since nurse to patient ratios have a direct effect on morbidity and mortality).
Specializes in Plastics. General Surgery. ITU. Oncology.
Some of these tales are sorry indeed. My sympathy to all who are unable to have decent breaks. I'm lucky as I work in the UK. On my particular unit the Sisters go nuts if you DON"T take your breaks and will actually send nurses off the ward to take breaks.
............but that doesn't usually happen.....
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I love my cat!
630 Posts
Another member posted it for me (THANK YOU Valerie Salva).
Take Care. :)