Uninterrupted breaks

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I am chair of our clinical transformation council and was told by my manager that I need to organize a system for the nurses to take uninterrupted 30 minute lunch breaks. The problem? No one is willing!!!!! The entire floor is refusing to hand off their phone for 30 minutes to another nurse and go eat. The receiving nurse wouldn't be responsible for anything except basically answering a call for pain meds or emergencies. I just don't understand why people aren't being advocates for themselves. I personally want a break, and have no problem handing off my phone AND taking someone elses phone for 30 min so that we can all regroup and relax. Why do we always have to play the martyr?? :confused:

Do any of yall get uninterrupted lunches? What are your thoughts on this? I'm just blown away that people are refusing a break!

Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele/Onc.
I'm not sure what your floor/unit is like, but on mine the work never stops. You made my point... the nurse covering is not going to do the 30 min of work that I would do if I were there. And instead of a pain of 3/10 it is now 9/10 and the family and the admission,,, and the orders... etc are all backing up and take longer than if I was just there to do it at the time.

I understand that in your mind it is simple. Your original e-mail sounded like you wanted to understand, now it sounds like you are really just wanting to criticize.

Really?? Every shift that happens? What type of floor are you on? I admit there are days like that, but not every shift. We have some patients who only have one MD and they come in once a day. So no tons of new orders. Now sometimes there are patients with several consults and they can get hairy, but even then, half the new orders are AM labs or procedures done by other departments. All I do is inform the patient and maybe get consent.

As I said, there are days when my team is busy..dressing changes, blood, platelets, turning, suctioning, incontenence, etc. But I almost always get a lunch. Not always but almost always.

I am really curious what type of floor your on and what your average patient load is.

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Going from the bottom up is precisely what I am doing. That is how I found out my coworkers feelings regarding the issue....I've held 2 unit meetings and issued a survey that has been filled out regarding a manageable way to take your break. Our manager hasn't mandated anything....she asked me to feel out the floor and come up with something....not "do this or else!" And she is looking out for our well being and our patients well being. I agree going from the bottom up is the best way!

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Specializes in CVIC, ortho surgery.

I would really like to take a thirty minute break away but would like to be able to chart while I eat. I wish there was a computer or two in the break room.:nurse:

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Really?? Every shift that happens? What type of floor are you on? I admit there are days like that, but not every shift. We have some patients who only have one MD and they come in once a day. So no tons of new orders. Now sometimes there are patients with several consults and they can get hairy, but even then, half the new orders are AM labs or procedures done by other departments. All I do is inform the patient and maybe get consent.

As I said, there are days when my team is busy..dressing changes, blood, platelets, turning, suctioning, incontenence, etc. But I almost always get a lunch. Not always but almost always.

I am really curious what type of floor your on and what your average patient load is.

A medical stepdown unit. Ratio is generally 4:1. Sure there are some days that let up a bit, but for the most part it is non-stop.

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Specializes in Med-Surg; Telemetry; School Nurse pk-8.
Really?? Every shift that happens? What type of floor are you on? I admit there are days like that, but not every shift. We have some patients who only have one MD and they come in once a day. So no tons of new orders. Now sometimes there are patients with several consults and they can get hairy, but even then, half the new orders are AM labs or procedures done by other departments. All I do is inform the patient and maybe get consent.

As I said, there are days when my team is busy..dressing changes, blood, platelets, turning, suctioning, incontenence, etc. But I almost always get a lunch. Not always but almost always.

I am really curious what type of floor your on and what your average patient load is.

I understand what Turtle in Scrubs is saying, because it is like that on my floor as well. Occasionally you and get off the floor to quickly eat your dinner, but you give report and take your phone with you. I can't think of anyone who gets/takes the full 30 minutes -- even the clinical leader, who seems to always be asking "did you get a chance to take a break??" often misses her break. My unit is non-stop. We always have 5 patients on evenings, and usually discharge 1-2 early in the shift, and then replace those with transfers or ER admits (revolving door -- paperwork computer AND handwritten -- rant for another day). As for the acuity, we get a mix. Med-surg and tele. Basically, if they do not meet the acuity of the ICU - they come to us. That means you might have 2 cardiac issue/tele's, 1 post-op, 1 nursing home dementia/UTI/wound care patient, and lastly 1 ETOH detoxer on protocol. That's a pretty standard mix. Additionally, we have gone EMAR and must document meds within a half hour of scheduled time -- no more combining the 8's and 10's together at 9. Some evenings I feel like a human PEZ dispenser for meds (in between hourly rounding, that is). On the bright side, the time sure flies! I do try to get off the floor -- even for 15 minutes, because I can think clearer after a deep breath. However, I do admit that sometimes I'll skip it, just because I really want all my documentation done by 11:30pm and I want outta there! :lol2:

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Trusting another coworker to take care of your patients is not something some nurses are willing to risk. Half the time, if they said they will take care of it, it means that they will only go to that room if called. What if one of the patients is a high fall risk and they fall because that nurse is not looking out for "your patients" Unfortunately, in nursing, we have established a culture of "that is not my patient" , that is not my assigment , therefore I am not going to answer the call light, I wont help that patient. That is up to the nurse assigned to that patient. Until we dont foster a different culture , Im afraid most nurses will take on this attitude. Sometimes I dont feel comfortable taking a break because Im afraid I'll miss something because the other nurse ultimately does not care that much about my assignment, and only "her patients"

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.

I think part of our problem is that we are often control freaks and we don't want to bother our co workers because they already have their own load of patients. Most days I actually don't mind being interrupted.

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Specializes in Med surg,.
I am chair of our clinical transformation council and was told by my manager that I need to organize a system for the nurses to take uninterrupted 30 minute lunch breaks. The problem? No one is willing!!!!! The entire floor is refusing to hand off their phone for 30 minutes to another nurse and go eat. The receiving nurse wouldn't be responsible for anything except basically answering a call for pain meds or emergencies. I just don't understand why people aren't being advocates for themselves. I personally want a break, and have no problem handing off my phone AND taking someone elses phone for 30 min so that we can all regroup and relax. Why do we always have to play the martyr?? :confused:

Do any of yall get uninterrupted lunches? What are your thoughts on this? I'm just blown away that people are refusing a break!

Are you my clinical manager. :lol2::jester: Our clinical manager just had to do the same thing and is getting the same results. I didnt realize how nursing wide this is. Personally I dont like giving up my phone because of calls I may have out to physicians. Its a security thing with me, its not that I dont trust my fellow coworkers. I take as long as I have to eat but if I have a busy shift I eat and run. I dont like to overburden someone else that is having just as tough a day as I am.

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Exactly as it has been said earlier - in most cases, taking a break means burdening another nurse with your patients meaning she has 12 or more to care for at one time, and that's just not humanly possible to give the kind of care you can when you are at half that ratio. The few times I got to take a break with a fresh nurse that only had my patients covering me, I felt secure since she was rounding on my patients alone and helping out with my work that I talked to her about.

That's about the only time I didn't feel bad about taking my break. The other times I knew that by taking a break I was delaying my patients' care and getting even further behind. If you are in any way able to do something like add extra staff during break times, that would probably make taking breaks a whole lot more accepted.

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

As the charge nurse on my floor I never get a break without someone coming to me for something.

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