Who's #1 your patient or you?

[rscarlatti]

Who's #1, Your patients or you?

No matter how busy it is I always take my breaks. Some nurses miss lunch, skip breaks. I would like to here from nurses their opinions on this topic.

[rollingstone]

I talk a break off the unit in a room with a TV so I can watch the baseball highlights.

[melsch]

I work nights and we don't get a 30 minute break. I work straight through from the time I get there until the time I leave.

I just quit a straight night job in a LTC facility where I was paid through my breaks because I was always on call and could not leave the building as I was the only RN on and if I left is would constitute an abandonment of my patients. This does not mean I didn't take my breaks, although because I was on call usually they were interupted, I just would extend the time I was sitting down not doing work to my 1/2 hour lunch.

Please make sure that you take your breaks and remember that you provide 24 hour care, if it doesn't get done on your shift the next shift can do it. Unless it is something immediatly life threatening it can wait. I learned a long time ago that the next shift will make you feel bad etc, but they will find time to take their breaks. The work will get done and if it doesn't then management will have to look at staffing, or what unnessesary jobs they are expecting you to do, but if we continue to kill ourselves for the job they just keep piling the work on until we can't do it anymore.

Remember you are an employee not a slave.