Nurses take your breaks! I know some of you are thinking "easier said than done". I am well aware of that. I work on a very busy PCU / Tele floor where 1 patient is going to CT, one has to go surgery, and one of the doctors wants to round with you all at the same time. When I first started I always missed my breakfast break. Now I make it a priority.I have had those days when I have taken my breakfast break at 11:30am and lunch at 4:00pm, that is super late. I very rarely miss my breakfast break, but I will always take my lunch. Once taken, I am a happier me!
If someone has not ate, you have a short-temper and low tolerance for problems. Even if not, your tummy is not happy and neither are you. This makes our job ten times harder, but this is a situation we have some control over. Once you take your break, take your full break. We will always have something to do and never have enough time to do everything. Prioritize patient care and yourself in the mix. Not taking a break will put you at higher risk for burnout syndrome.
TIPS:
Charting--> Don't wait till the end of the day to do all your charting. Chart as you go and as it happens.
Find your break buddy at the start of shift. Yes I live in California, but my facility does not have a special break nurse.
getting water for your patient ---> drink a glass of water also (that's something I have to remember also) :)
Before you think you might take your break --> check all your patient's and give all the PRN if needed --> that way you have a some piece of mind, then run and take your break
It is your responsibility to take your breaks and to take care of yourself. We give all day, so give back to yourself. You are also a priority.
"Don't take this the wrong way but ..... You are nasty and dirty for doing that......"
Firstly, i would trust my coworkers with my own life, sorry that i just don't feel comfortable with any nurse having to manage 4 ICU patients.
Secondly, I know it is technically not allowed but every single nurse on my unit eats their lunch on the floor and yes management is aware of this. I am not "consistently taking taking meal breaks on the floor without pay" In no way is shoving a bite of sandwich in my mouth while i run and answer my pumps and change drips taking a break.
and lastly, you're right next time a doc wants me to do a procedure on a patient and needs my assistance ill just say "Sorry Doc i gotta take my lunch, can't this wait???" Trust me it's not a problem about being assertive.
If you are consistently working through your lunch WITHOUT pay, then you're definitely having some issues going on.
If it's not a problem with being assertive, then it's a problem with your time management, efficiency, or having trust in the people you work with.
I've worked in a nationally recognized cardiothoracic ICU. Half the entire unit would leave for lunch at once while the other half covered their patients. Patient care didn't suffer as a result of the nurses having to keep an eye on 1 to 2 additional patients for thirty minutes. People just had the common sense to medicate for pain and so forth before stepping away from the unit, so that the covering RNs wouldn't be overburdened.
Also, if it is indeed true that your manager is aware that you are working through your meal period without pay, and not recording it, then she stands to be disciplined by HR if discovered. You could be disciplined as well. In all likelihood, HR just hasn't heard that this takes place. Otherwise it would stop, fast, because it it violates federal wage law.
Secondly, I know it is technically not allowed but every single nurse on my unit eats their lunch on the floor and yes management is aware of this.
No offense, but if you are working in a department where the expectation or culture is that you eat lunch on the unit, while working, then you are working in a real cesspool. That is not normal at all. If they are deducting thirty minutes of pay every day while you do this, well, that's just deplorable.
And if I were a patient there and knew that the nurses were sitting at the desks greasing up the computers and monitors, eating while working in the unit, after just having gotten up to clean up bowel movements or something, I'd say something. That's just gross as all hell.
Furthermore: to the the nurses making excuses for why they work through lunch, no one should condone what you are doing, which is enabling your employer to do something illegal, and I have no respect for you.
I've been working as a float nurse for a year now and I had to miss a few breaks because of how crazy the unit can get. I usually get one hour of unpaid break time. However, on the times when I'm unable to get to take a break, I'm working for free. My employer doesn't pay us for missed breaks. So basically, I'm working for free. And whenever I have to stay past 7:30pm, the managers hate having us clock out for some reason. Usually at my job, you only clock in and they assume that you leave exactly at 7:30.
Don't take this the wrong way, but there's something wrong with you if you don't feel comfortable leaving your patient for 30 minutes in the hands of your coworkers and consequently are taking meal periods on the floor without pay.
I'm assuming you work in a critical care area if you have "critical patients." I see problems here.
For one thing, you're eating lunch in the unit and caring for critically ill patients at the same time? You are nasty and dirty for doing that and I strongly doubt that it is allowed. Two, I've worked in critical care: both in a medical ICU and in a cardiothoracic ICU. Finding people to cover a critical patient for 30 minutes is not a big deal and there is no reason you shouldn't feel comfortable doing that.
Lastly, if you're at lunch at the doctor says he need to put in an art line and needs help (although I don't know why he would even need your help with an art line after the timeout...), then you just tell whoever is calling you that "I can't help right now; I'm at lunch. Tell him he has to find someone else." Problem solved. Learn to assert yourself.
If you are consistently working through your lunch WITHOUT pay, then you're definitely having some issues going on.
If it's not a problem with being assertive, then it's a problem with your time management, efficiency, or having trust in the people you work with.
I've worked in a nationally recognized cardiothoracic ICU. Half the entire unit would leave for lunch at once while the other half covered their patients. Patient care didn't suffer as a result of the nurses having to keep an eye on 1 to 2 additional patients for thirty minutes. People just had the common sense to medicate for pain and so forth before stepping away from the unit, so that the covering RNs wouldn't be overburdened.
Also, if it is indeed true that your manager is aware that you are working through your meal period without pay, and not recording it, then she stands to be disciplined by HR if discovered. You could be disciplined as well. In all likelihood, HR just hasn't heard that this takes place. Otherwise it would stop, fast, because it it violates federal wage law.
No offense, but if you are working in a department where the expectation or culture is that you eat lunch on the unit, while working, then you are working in a real cesspool. That is not normal at all. If they are deducting thirty minutes of pay every day while you do this, well, that's just deplorable.
And if I were a patient there and knew that the nurses were sitting at the desks greasing up the computers and monitors, eating while working in the unit, after just having gotten up to clean up bowel movements or something, I'd say something. That's just gross as all hell.
Furthermore: to the the nurses making excuses for why they work through lunch, no one should condone what you are doing, which is enabling your employer to do something illegal, and I have no respect for you.
Don't start your replies with "No offense" if you're trying to offend someone
It is one thing to disagree on a subject like taking breaks but telling someone you don't respect them as a nurse because of it is taking it waaaaaaaaay overboard lol
Edit: Deplorable, unrespectable and gross as hell are adjectives being used to describe a nurse who doesn't take her lunch breaks
Doesn't denying a lunch break violate US labor law? Or am I completely misinterpreting you and you're saying you just don't have an opportunity. (And if that's the case - yuck. I feel bad for you!)
Don't start your replies with "No offense" if you're trying to offend someone
It is one thing to disagree on a subject like taking breaks but telling someone you don't respect them as a nurse because of it is taking it waaaaaaaaay overboard lol
Edit: Deplorable, unrespectable and gross as hell are adjectives being used to describe a nurse who doesn't take her lunch breaks
"Gross as hell": referenced eating at a computer after doing patient care, not the RNs doing it. (And it is gross, actually, even though I have been guilty of it in the past myself!)
"Deplorable": referenced the practice of giving an employer thirty minutes of free time for what amounts to work time, not the RNs doing it. (And it is. It's also sad that there are people who work in that type of environment where their employer is essentially making money off them as they work for time without pay.)
"Unrespectable": not used in the post anywhere.
"No offense": I really don't believe the poster's intent was to deliberately offend someone as you stated.
That poster also never said they had no respect for RNs who find themselves trapped in situations like this. I think they were angry over the employers just not caring enough to take care of their folks - because that upsets me too.
"Gross as hell": referenced eating at a computer after doing patient care, not the RNs doing it. (And it is gross, actually, even though I have been guilty of it in the past myself!)
"Deplorable": referenced the practice of giving an employer thirty minutes of free time for what amounts to work time, not the RNs doing it. (And it is. It's also sad that there are people who work in that type of environment where their employer is essentially making money off them as they work for time without pay.)
"Unrespectable": not used in the post anywhere.
"No offense": I really don't believe the poster's intent was to deliberately offend someone as you stated.
That poster also never said they had no respect for RNs who find themselves trapped in situations like this. I think they were angry over the employers just not caring enough to take care of their folks - because that upsets me too.
In a previous post she said
Furthermore: to the the nurses making excuses for why they work through lunch, no one should condone what you are doing, which is enabling your employer to do something illegal, and I have no respect for you.
It's sad that we have such hypersensitive people who take personal offense to critiques of their employers' reprehensible behaviors or their own inactions that enable their employers to get away with wage theft. Do people think so little of their profession that they want to shut down those of us who want to put an end to that exploitation? Only in nursing...
It's sad that we have such hypersensitive people who take personal offense to critiques of their employers' reprehensible behaviors or their own inactions that enable their employers to get away with wage theft. Do people think so little of their profession that they want to shut down those of us who want to put an end to that exploitation? Only in nursing...
Do people think so little of their profession, they refer back to colleagues with:
-"there's something wrong with you if you don't feel comfortable leaving your patient "
-"You are nasty and dirty for doing that"
- "no one should condone what you are doing, which is enabling your employer to do something illegal, and I have no respect for you."
If you want to "put an end to it", that's not going to do it.
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GeneralistRN
52 Posts
If you are consistently working through your lunch WITHOUT pay, then you're definitely having some issues going on.
If it's not a problem with being assertive, then it's a problem with your time management, efficiency, or having trust in the people you work with.
I've worked in a nationally recognized cardiothoracic ICU. Half the entire unit would leave for lunch at once while the other half covered their patients. Patient care didn't suffer as a result of the nurses having to keep an eye on 1 to 2 additional patients for thirty minutes. People just had the common sense to medicate for pain and so forth before stepping away from the unit, so that the covering RNs wouldn't be overburdened.
Also, if it is indeed true that your manager is aware that you are working through your meal period without pay, and not recording it, then she stands to be disciplined by HR if discovered. You could be disciplined as well. In all likelihood, HR just hasn't heard that this takes place. Otherwise it would stop, fast, because it it violates federal wage law.
No offense, but if you are working in a department where the expectation or culture is that you eat lunch on the unit, while working, then you are working in a real cesspool. That is not normal at all. If they are deducting thirty minutes of pay every day while you do this, well, that's just deplorable.
And if I were a patient there and knew that the nurses were sitting at the desks greasing up the computers and monitors, eating while working in the unit, after just having gotten up to clean up bowel movements or something, I'd say something. That's just gross as all hell.
Furthermore: to the the nurses making excuses for why they work through lunch, no one should condone what you are doing, which is enabling your employer to do something illegal, and I have no respect for you.