Pocket Snacks for 12 Hour Shift?

Nurses General Nursing

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I just started a new job working three 12 hour shifts a week. I love the job, but sometimes it requires us to go several hours between having anything to eat, and, while I'm not diabetic or anything, I am someone who gets nauseous when I get really hungry, which I do between breaks on this job. I can deal with plain, old hunger, it's the nausea and it can be distracting if it is bad enough. If I eat even something tiny it works to hold me over and relieve the hunger/nausea until I can go on break.

Does anyone else have this problem, and if so, can you recommend some little something that I can carry with me to hold me over and alleviate the hunger/nausea between breaks? Healthy, small, portable...something I can basically carry with me and pop into my mouth if I step off the floor for a second and then come right back. Picture carrying individually wrapped hard candies in your pocket; something that neat, quick and portable, only not unhealthy like candy.

I know it's a tall order, but does anyone have any ideas? I love my job but I don't want to end up feeling sick when I'm there.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, Dialysis, Hospice.
Wait, am I the only one who had a visceral reaction to a nurse carrying "pocket snacks"? Ew, ew, ew! I don't trust anything in my pockets to be clean! Even if it's wrapped I wouldn't do it. Sure, you can kind of maneuver the granola bar out of the wrapper so it only touches your lips, but I wouldn't trust it. I haven't noticed anyone else doing this either. Take a minute, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, and grab the snack out of your bag. (When I started as a nurse I think I didn't believe I HAD a minute, but trust me, you do. There will always be work to fill that minute with, but if you ignore the work instead, at the end of the day you won't notice the missing minute--you would notice the missing snack.)

Otherwise I appreciate all the suggestions, as I am always looking for new quick, healthy work-snack ideas, too. I buy the individually-wrapped packages of almonds and trail mix at Trader Joe's, and I usually take a small container of yogurt and pop it in the refrigerator.

I can see how you could feel this way, and if I still worked an acute inpatient floor and had my bag nearby I would feel the same way. However, I work in an outpatient dialysis clinic where we wear water impermeable gowns that completely cover our clothing whenever there are patients in the clinic, plus, the room where we keep our personal items is a distance away from the dialysis floor. Therefore, I feel like something in my pocket in a sealed bag underneath my gown is going to be okay, and I would step off of the floor and obviously wash and sanitize my hands thoroughly before touching anything in my pockets. No food is allowed anywhere near the floor anyway, even if I was so inclined.

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Specializes in TBI and SCI.

How about those NAked type juices? You can sip that any chance you get.. No pocket appropriate, but NS appropriate maybe? I have the same issues.. it takes me about 5 hours to finish my morning coffee and banana bread lol...

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Specializes in currently, hospice.

I worked for a major health system with a policy that you could not have snacks of any kind on your person or at the nurses' station. You had to go to a break room to eat, but you often could not leave the floor to get to the break room. But the doctors, residents, NPs PAs, OTs, etc ate in front of us all the time without anyone even suggesting it violated policy. It only applied to nursing staff working 12 hour shifts.

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Specializes in Tele, Interventional Pain Management, OR.
Wait, am I the only one who had a visceral reaction to a nurse carrying "pocket snacks"? Ew, ew, ew! I don't trust anything in my pockets to be clean! Even if it's wrapped I wouldn't do it. Sure, you can kind of maneuver the granola bar out of the wrapper so it only touches your lips, but I wouldn't trust it. I haven't noticed anyone else doing this either. Take a minute, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, and grab the snack out of your bag. (When I started as a nurse I think I didn't believe I HAD a minute, but trust me, you do. There will always be work to fill that minute with, but if you ignore the work instead, at the end of the day you won't notice the missing minute--you would notice the missing snack.)

Otherwise I appreciate all the suggestions, as I am always looking for new quick, healthy work-snack ideas, too. I buy the individually-wrapped packages of almonds and trail mix at Trader Joe's, and I usually take a small container of yogurt and pop it in the refrigerator.

No, you're not the only one! Once I've been in patients' rooms--yuck! I wouldn't eat anything from my scrub pocket, even if it's in a wrapper.

My grab-and-go snacks stay in my bag. Snacks include Kind bars, Epic bars/turkey jerky, baggies of grapes or Wheat Thins/Triscuits, string cheese, a hard-boiled egg, or a yogurt. I bring a lunch box with ice packs for anything perishable.

My floor is busy, but I can always squeeze in the snack time I need to keep energetic and alert on night shift (we won't even discuss the amount of coffee I drink q shift)!

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Specializes in Psych, case-management, geriatrics, peds.

Posts like this never cease to surprise me. The person who posted this and the others who responded seem completely unaware that the question should not be what snacks to carry around for 12 hours in order to prevent getting sick. The underlying issue here is that the system is set up so there is no time to eat/take care of one's health; therefore, the work environments for many - if not most- nurses (usually bedside nurses) are ABUSIVE. The fact that the poster and her responders don't even see this, is astonishing.

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Specializes in geriatrics.

Rachel are you a nurse? The reality for most nurses is that they don't have time to eat because the floors are under staffed and nurses are overworked.

Not ideal at all, and that's why many nurses choose to leave bedside nursing.

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Posts like this never cease to surprise me. The person who posted this and the others who responded seem completely unaware that the question should not be what snacks to carry around for 12 hours in order to prevent getting sick. The underlying issue here is that the system is set up so there is no time to eat/take care of one's health; therefore, the work environments for many - if not most- nurses (usually bedside nurses) are ABUSIVE. The fact that the poster and her responders don't even see this, is astonishing.

Huh? So do you suggest nurses starve until the underlying issue is resolved?? I don't think anyone would disagree that there's definitely a bigger issue that requires many nurses to rely on snacking rather than being blessed with full-hour meal breaks as seen in other professions. DUE TO this underlying issue that you're referring to, the original poster asked for snacking suggestions UNTIL this underlying issue can be fixed. I don't understand why these two subjects can't happen at the same time; there IS an underlying issue AND nurses need snacks!

Also, even when I did have full meal breaks (in my other career), I still appreciated having a few snacks on hand. So again, the poster's question is still appropriate, whether better policies are established or not.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, Dialysis, Hospice.
Posts like this never cease to surprise me. The person who posted this and the others who responded seem completely unaware that the question should not be what snacks to carry around for 12 hours in order to prevent getting sick. The underlying issue here is that the system is set up so there is no time to eat/take care of one's health; therefore, the work environments for many - if not most- nurses (usually bedside nurses) are ABUSIVE. The fact that the poster and her responders don't even see this, is astonishing.

I don't feel abused at my job at all. I get enough breaks, it's just that I don't work in a typical setting, I work in an outpatient dialysis clinic. The work flow in a dialysis unit ebbs and flows. During turn, when the first shift of patients are leaving and the next shift are arriving, there is absolutely no possibility of getting off of the floor to take a break in the break room but if I get hungry during turn I start to feel really nauseous. It is possible to step off of the floor into a connecting hallway, however, and get a bite of something to eat to stop the nausea. I wear a fluid impermeable gown over my scrubs the entire time I am anywhere near any patients and I keep my snack in a sealed ziploc bag in my scrub pocket. I thoroughly wash and sanitize my hands before I step away and get a quick bite to eat, and I head right back to the floor as soon as I swallow it. Not ideal maybe, but it's this or feel sick every time I work. It works for me.

My company actually treats me very well. As I said, breaks are adequate, and when we're not doing turn, the pace is very tolerable, even laid back at times, and I can enjoy talking with my patients. If I didn't have the issue with nausea hitting me suddenly during times when I cannot take a break, I wouldn't have bothered starting this thread.

I realize that a lot of nurses feel abused and undervalued, I have felt that way many times in the past, but right now I'm in a good place...except for the hunger and subsequent nausea which is now resolved due to the great suggestions I've received in this thread. :)

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Specializes in Flight Nursing, Emergency, Forensics, SANE, Trauma.
Posts like this never cease to surprise me. The person who posted this and the others who responded seem completely unaware that the question should not be what snacks to carry around for 12 hours in order to prevent getting sick. The underlying issue here is that the system is set up so there is no time to eat/take care of one's health; therefore, the work environments for many - if not most- nurses (usually bedside nurses) are ABUSIVE. The fact that the poster and her responders don't even see this, is astonishing.

Gross over generalization. As a nurse myself, I get a ton of abuse from patients and other staff members who aren't nurses.

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Most of the time we don't get to eat in my ER. While I don't carry anything in my pockets, we sometimes cheat at the desk. We aren't supposed to either. As a friend told me, it's a bar in the elevator on the way back from ICU.

i do protein bars or granola bars. If you can have fluids, you can have a protein shake if it is water based. Otherwise I also like cheese and triscuit

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Specializes in currently, hospice.
Most of the time we don't get to eat in my ER. While I don't carry anything in my pockets, we sometimes cheat at the desk. We aren't supposed to either. As a friend told me, it's a bar in the elevator on the way back from ICU.

i do protein bars or granola bars. If you can have fluids, you can have a protein shake if it is water based. Otherwise I also like cheese and triscuit

Or wolfed nearly whole in the supply room, or any empty room you can find. A choking hazard...

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Emerald makes smores almond packs that are delicious and a little over 100 calories I believe. Perfect portions and easy to put in your pocket!

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