Nurse Breaks in ER

We generally have a designated “breaker”. Sometimes that’s not possible and we end up having to cover each other. Sometimes the charge will watch a persons people while they go eat. It all depends how busy we are and how much staff we have. Having a dedicated breaker works best but I get that’s not always possible. What’s a “power break”?

We have several flow nurses who help out on the unit, breaking nurses on time is one of their tasks. We get a fifteen minute break and a 45 minute lunch.

LOL a break in the ER, what is that?  I work midshift and I am the break relief, but I often never get one myself. I sign my book no lunch more often than not.

Sometimes we had a float nurse that covered breaks and other times charge covered one block at a time. Honestly on the busy days or short staffed days, we just ate snacks at the nurses station if we were lucky.....

Y'all get breaks?? 

What passes for a "break" in my ED is food stuffed in our faces at the nursing desk and maybe a 2-minute potty break, if we're lucky. We never have a nurse to cover, and most of us have 6+ patients so covering each other is challenging. 

Whenever management at my former ED made noises about staff not taking lunches, I'd point out A) properly staffing the unit is their responsibility and B) that I'd never gotten a 15-minute break, let alone two of them, in addition to my lunch break while working there.  They'd go quiet for a while after that.

In the Level I trauma center ED I work at, we have "Pod" Leaders RN/Paramedics. Their role is to assist in flow of patients and also give breaks. I have had one shift in the last 3 years where I didn't get my 30 minute lunch break. Fortunate I suppose. We are able to do that now, but not so sure that we will if we continue to lose RN's to travel opportunities or vax mandate. Fingers crossed.

We often struggle with the staffing to properly provide breaks. Ideally, we would have a relief nurse who is responsible for providing lunch relief. Typically, we have to cover each other and hand off one patient to each of the other nurses and hope for the best. We are only allowed one 30-minute break (lunch). There are plenty of times we don't get that and end up eating a cold hot pocket at the desk… *she says from experience*. I sincerely hope there is a better solution out there because taking one 30-minute break for a 12.5-13 hour shift is awful!

On 9/19/2021 at 12:56 AM, NewNurse_20 said:

There are plenty of times we don't get that and end up eating a cold hot pocket at the desk…

I hope you are at least getting paid for that time.

I generally don't get them, and make sure to get paid.  Some of my peers work for free.

Any place that thinks breaks aren't possible is simply wrong.  Think about truck drivers.  If they don't take a break, they are penalized.  Their ability to stay focused on their job is critical to the lives of others.  We have a lot in common.

If the facility was required to provide breaks, and was fined $1,000 for each missed break, clearly, there would be breaks.  It would be like magic.