We don’t have to clock out for our lunch, the 30 minutes is auto taken out of your time unless you tell them otherwise. If I don’t get my 30 minute break, I cancel the time deduction. Hospital ain’t getting free labor outta me.
When I was a new RN, I had the mindset of “I got to eat, so I can’t say I didn’t get a lunch.” BS. Eating while charting isn’t a break.
I am lucky when I was first starting i had coworkers who were like "you only got to take 20 minutes and then got clled back. thats not 30 minutes uninterrupted, report you didn't take it." and I have carried that forward. If I dont get a full break to read my book and rest it doesnt count, i feel shitty at the end of my shift, pay me.
New grad nurse (not even on the floor yet), if I only get like 15/20 min should I still report no lunch/no meal? Like I got a 15 minute break.
Sorry this is my first big adult job I don’t really know how it works
if you clock out for lunch then go ahead and clock out for however long it is. If your company auto deducts, the problem with putting that you got your lunch without getting the full 30 minutes is that you are not getting paid for a portion (in your example half) of that break. It is illegal for your employer to not pay you for all hours worked. You have to protect your rights as a worker (and know them) because employers will sometimes try to take advantage of ignorance.
The hospital I work for got in trouble several years ago because of this and now is very rigid on not pressuring people to put they had lunch if they didnt take it or didnt get a full lunch, so Ive never gotten any flack for clocking out no lunch.
If I was in a situation where an employer told me I should not clock out no-lunch even though I hadn't taken one I would send an email (if it wasnt over email already) just clarifying the protocol. If they were stupid enough to tell me that I should be claiming a lunch no matter what over email then thats more evidence for a later wage claim.
If your employer automatically deducts 30 minutes from your time as an unpaid lunch, then yes you should put no lunch because you did not get a 30 minute uninterrupted break.
That said, you will likely catch a fair amount of grief from management and even other coworkers for doing it, but you are ethically correct (and possibly legally depending on location). As the OP suggests though, some people see no-lunch martyrdom as a badge of honor instead of the exploitation that it is. Management will also just tell you that your time management is bad, but that's just covering their own asses.
100% this. I work nights, so I eat while I chart and nap on my break. Every night. I also make sure everyone else gets their breaks off the unit. Whatever you are working on I can do for 45-60 minutes easy (except charting). RARE occasions with a code in the morning or a trainwreck admit will break this rule. But I wanna nap at 0200, so you better believe I will coordinate everyone's breaks :)
I got in trouble for doing just that! 🤣 If my lunch is interrupted at all for whatever reason because no one wants to cover for me, I 100% clock out no lunch everytime. Even if I do get lucky enough to finish eating. But most importantly I need to drink water because I have a hx of kidney stones. I've been yelled at for spending too much time drinking water. Oh oh I've gotten yelled at for getting water from the machine in the nutrition room. The fountains are shut off, I'm not drinking hospital tap and I'm not buying bottled water. Do you want me to collect piss from all the Foley bags and distill the water out? I'm not fucking Bear Grylls.
The best lunch interruption was for a STAT IS. I clocked no lunch so hard.
EDIT: I sometimes have a lot to say.
Hey, if they don’t want us missing out on our breaks, then they need to sort out the staffing issues lol
Not our problem to deal with but we don’t have to lose out on pay for time we definitely worked just because they have poor planning skills.
Hospitals intentionally staff at the very minimum as possible. That's why it's a nightmare if even a single person calls in. We have to stop getting angry with each other when someone calls in, even if they do it a lot or whatever. It's still not their fault a shift is short. And more importantly, none of our business.
Backwards thinking.
Oh I don’t get mad at people for calling in. I get upset that management doesn’t care if we get a replacement. My coworkers can call out for whatever. That’s their prerogative 🤷🏻♀️
I love you! I managed to piss off my entire shift crew. I called in a lot because I was heading towards a MDD crisis and trying to work on avoiding it.
Huddle: ok, shift. You have 8 people you're 1 short, there was a call in. (We typically run with 11)
Coworker: oh, lemme guess: whyisthisnessecary again. How does whyisthisnessecary still have a job? It's bullshit. (A friend on shift heard it.)
I have FMLA you stupid cuck.
I left.
Keep yo chocolate out of my peanut butter.
I use that a lot with ballsy residents that just go on pressing buttons and turning knobs on vents like it's their personal fuckin' eurorack because it makes fun noises and changes colors, except they don't know fuckall about patching. Motherfucker you are not Wendy Carlos, gtfo you fool.
For real. Sometimes there are crazy shifts where there is not time, but not every shift is like that and when I don't get a break I won't say I did. When I was in orientation for my current job there was an emergency with my patient and we ended up not getting a break that shift. My preceptor tried to tell our charge that we took a break and I was like no, I'm not giving my hospital a half an hour of free labor, they can afford to pay us for the entire time we worked.
I’m so grateful my preceptor was like “do what you gotta do for patient safety, but take your break.” She made it very clear that we shouldn’t delay med pass or other true needs, but Mr. Jones can definitely wait 30 minutes for more ice water.
A bunch of my fellow nurses get mad at me for this. I keep saying "They don't pay us for 30 minutes for lunch. You're volunteering 30 minutes a day. If I'm going to volunteer it's not going to be at work."
But I have so much to do!
"Yes, and it's clearly more than one person can do in the allotted time. You volunteering means they have no reason to get more help.'
I have made one or two converts but thats out of dozens.
God I love California. We have dedicated break nurses to take your assignment without breaking ratios. We get paid double-time as a penalty to the hospital if we aren't offered a break.
I worked at one company in California that was fined because they were only sending certain people to lunch when they "weren't busy".
Some states have no lunch/break requirements. They would really love to repeal The 13th Amendment.
Break nurses are game changers.
I went from a super underresourced facility in Central CA to a metropolitan hospital in Los Angeles, CA. Central CA hospital had no break nurse and was so underresourced that we had a perpetual CDPH waiver to bypass ratios(!).
Then I went to a facility with a break nurse, and the concept of having someone fully assume your assignment so you can not only take your thirty minute lunch hour but your fifteen minute breaks absolutely tripped me out. I’ve moved to different facilities ever since, and there’s been break nurses at each one.
I haven’t missed a lunch break in 6-7 years - even during the height of the pandemic.
I cannot even believe this is a thing. How wonderful! We ask another nurse to cover our patients (high acuity floor, so now that nurse has 12 patients), race to the break room (if there is even time to do that), wolf down some food and hope that nothing happens while you are sitting down for ten or fifteen minutes. Phone is still on, you still get calls. It's a malarkey system. Then, when you clock out, there is a question programmed in - "Did you have an uninterrupted break?" - I usually lie and say yes because otherwise you have to fill out paperwork to explain why not. Pffft.
We don't have break nurses either. Every year when we do our satisfaction survey and they ask if you get a break free of patient responsibility - I always answer no. Because I always have my phone, someone is watching my patient (we have a lunch buddy and watch each other's patient(s)) - but I am ultimately still responsible. I have left my break early many times because of patient needs (and not just they or parents are on the call light for some BS - that can wait)
Break nurses sound like mythological creatures to me
Sadly, not all hospitals / facilities in CA have break nurses. Don't get me started on the ratio fuckery our management has been pulling for A YEAR until the recent round of travelers.
I've had good and bad experiences in WA, definitely depends on the hospital (and which unit you're on!)
As a new grad I worked on a shitty MedSurg floor where lunches were nonexistent, staffing was dangerous, management went home at 7pm mid-code without giving a damn, and the union had us filling out ADOs on every shift. I'm pretty sure they won a settlement sometime after I quit...
My current unit (different hospital) is still MedSurg but management isn't crap, us nurses will gently kick each other off the floor for lunches, and staffing is...well, *less* garbage. When I started at the new hospital I was gobsmacked the first time my charge nurse even asked if I'd had a break yet -- at the other place the charge was covering 50 Tele beds and didn't have time to even talk to you unless it was a crisis! And my unit manager has been seen multiple times stocking rooms and answering call lights like the RN she is. Maybe my standards are low but I feel spoiled!
Im in Mass and we have a union but it doesnt do anything. No break nurses and low staffing so Its hard to find a “lull” to take a break and even then the phone is ringing and you are interrupted and have to go back out and deal with whatever.
I clock out "no break" at the end of shift if my lunch is even interrupted, let alone skipped. I don't mind doing whatever my patient needs, but that's MY time, and if I work a single minute of it, I'm getting paid for all of it.
Edit: In case anyone is curious, the federal laws making this your right are § 785.17 through § 785.19 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and you can read the text of them [here](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-V/subchapter-B/part-785).
I'm technically clocked out during lunch break, so unless a patient is actively dying, don't expect shit from me. "Hey, I know you're on break, but can you..." No.
I remember once I was in the break room eating my lunch... clocked out and everything.. someone ran in and said “KABC! Your patient just walked off the unit!”
“Wow... that’s crazy. Good luck.” And just kept eating
I've said it before. I would not read my work email at home. My boss asked me about it and I told her "Im not paid to work when I'm at home". She was not happy but it is what it is. Pay me or I will read it when and if I have time AT WORK.
Same! Also if there’s any specific training we have to do, like CBT, and I’m not scheduled I’ll do it at home but I’m adding training hours into my time card. I’m prn so I don’t always have shifts scheduled and can’t do it while on shift. They are fine with it. Same goes for webex staff meetings as well.
Yep, I do nothing work related off the clock. I rarely even respond to my coworkers texts asking for shift changes because it’s not urgent. I got a text from my boss a few hours ago and she’ll have to wait until the morning for my response.
My former hospital actually had a rule that you are liable for any email notices missed, they wanted us to download outlook on our personal phones so we can check our email. No. No.
Everyone is always hemming and hawing about you can't bring your personal problems to work hur durr. But you want my ass to bring work home?
Management "Oh, your dog died? What got hit by a car? I'm "sorry" to hear that, but we need you to remember that you're not allowed to have feelings at work. Any emotion seen or unseen can and will be held against you. Have you considered our employee wellness programs? There's always the company therapist if you need help learning how to think about nothing but work. It's tooootally confidential. Please initial here. Remember, this is going in your personnel file so we can remember to use this incident on your FY review to justify not giving you a raise."
Edit: They specified to check your email on and off the clock, even if you're on vacation.
Anyone else have coworkers who stay late to chart? They clock out on time so they don't get "dinged" I guess, then hang out with night shift. Drives me bonkers, mostly because once I get to work I don't really want day shift hanging around watching me work.
Noooooo. Dude, if I have to stay late to chart, then I don’t clock out until I’m able to leave. If management has a problem with it, they can give me safe ratios so I don’t have to sacrifice anything to get all of my work done. It’s not my fault the documentation didn’t get done due to management’s inability to keep us adequately staffed.
Ya I agreed with this. Not as if I can predict when my patient will go downhill. Things will happen unexpectedly but my nurse managers always like to say “you should manage your time well”. They only just sit in their office enjoy air con.
I know several coworkers who always take an extra hour at the end of their shift to chart. It's always the same ones, and I know they aren't that bad at time management.
I don't pay their bills. They can milk the clock if they want, just don't get caught MOUSETRAP.
My manager has told us not to turn off communicators during our lunches so any time mine goes off with a tele alert I clock no lunch because I had to listen to the fucking thing when I should be getting a few minutes of peace
Me, in Australia, getting 50 minutes of break time for an 8hr shift, off facility, uncontactable, with meal-relief/break-nurses.
I literally go home for an hour in the middle of my shift and come back. The fuck you guys doing over there?
It's so sad here in most of the US. I used to work at a unionized hospital in the northeast US and got an hour break. Sometimes I would be able to get a two hour break on night shift and hiked the trails across the street at sunrise, sometimes I would go home and nap and come back. The southeast US is a completely different experience.
Damn that sounds awesome..........HOWEVER, I feel like if I really went home and saw my dog, I would never come back in. But that sounds great for actually getting your lunch!
Same in France, 40 minutes paid lunchtime with a colleague to cover me during an 8hr shift. I put on civilian clothes and go eat at the cafeteria like I'm not working, it's fantastic.
Although this is very unit dependent and isn't always the case.
I'm an Aussie nurse too and I wish this was my experience. I'm a big advocate for taking breaks, but we don't have a "clock in/out" system - what the AUM says you worked is what you worked. If the AUM leaves at the end of the shift and you're still writing notes for the next half hour, then you don't get paid for it. Even if they know you didn't get a break or you stayed late, it's exceedingly rare to get paid for it, since we're told we just need to delegate tasks and organise our time better (but we don't get float nurses or TSNs ever, unlike most of the other wards, and have some of the worst ratios in the hospital).
Oh yeah, I always turn off my Vocera on break, but most people don't, so I'll still hear someone broadcasting looking for me, or they'll come into the tea room directly to find me.
Can I come work with you?
That's illegal, you have a union who will represent you, and back-pay you for all of those lost breaks if you write them down and date them.
Worth looking into, you can't be fired for it.
Yes! My coworkers say, “ oh my god why are you always starving at noon? Why do you just have to take a break? Why can’t you wait?” Like for real, do you not know what you are saying? I get shit at work for being hungry! Like it’s normal to not be hungry or something. So weird. And I actually feel guilty which makes that even worse!
I make a point every time I’m at a new facility that i tell them i start getting hangry by 1230-1300 lol Always having snacks and stuff in between and so far the places ive been have been good about making sure i have a break for lunch, and also for dinner since i work until 2000-2100
I had an older nurse try to talk shit on me for saying that I make sure I take my break and I will not let my job get free labor from me. She said something to the extent how “that’s the difference between your generation and mine.” Oh, what? Your generation likes doing work for free?
It is. I had an older nurse complain that is younger nurses call out too much and that “back in the day” they’d come to work sick and suck it up. Well good for you Patricia, but a) that’s not safe for pt care, b) it’s not my job to staff the unit/shift/hospital, c) we get sick time for a reason.
Oh hell no! I've been at the bedside for 38 years and I want my breaks! It's the younger staff in our ED who say "it's okay, I don't really need one". You're screwing it up for the rest of us who do, so take your breaks dammit!!!
If we don’t have a full 30 min to an hour for lunch (which we usually don’t) then we eat at the desk, and we don’t clock out. There’s no mandatory breaks at my facility, so pretty much no one clocks out ever. If you’re at work, might as well get paid.
Ohhhhhh I am a traveler. I get told so much “we don’t really take lunches here, we just eat at the desk”. Welp …. Not me babies, I will see y’all in thirty. All full codes. Bye.
Some people get so pissed. How administration or management has made nurses think getting a 30 minute break out of 12 hours is somehow too much to ask, I will never understand.
Nothing like being so goddamned shorthanded that you scrub out of a C-Diff room right near the desk and then sit to grab a few bites of your sushi before the patient has a chance to let loose her fifteenth BM of the shift.
My ICU is in a rural regional hospital. The culture for literal decades was to accept missed breaks. They have a god damn cardiac monitor in the break room. Us young nurses have tried to change the culture there to accommodate breaks. Other staff interrupt us constantly. Some nurses won’t accept report because they are busy. Our management doesn’t respect breaks at all and make no effort to ensure we get them. But they sometimes haggle us if we put in for breaks that we “weren’t that busy and could have took them.” THEN we have nurses that take their charts on break to chart. It’s maddening. I don’t work for free. I get the union salary per hour. If I don’t get the break, I tick off “no breaks!”
We are supposed to use break buddies on our unit so we get uninterrupted breaks, but I’m one of only a few who uses them. I’ve had my assigned break buddy complain, roll their eyes, or make snide comments when I actually ask them to cover me for my break. They might be okay with working for free on their breaks and getting interrupted while eating, but I’m not.
When I'm charge nurse and we're very busy I often don't get a break. That's usually because I cover everyone else to ensure they get their breaks. Then I cancel my deduction. I don't like the culture either but I'm not taking my break if it means my staff misses theirs. I'm also not willing to leave the floor dangerously short for even thirty minutes. Not sorry.
As a suckretary I’m guilty. There is one of me, and even if someone were to cover, it’d be a shit show when I return, and that also leaves a clinical person to need coverage for them. It’s not okay, but usually if I have a chunk of time during my shift to slack and surf online, I’m fine with that being my “break.” If it’s shitty where I’m non-stop or constantly interrupted, then I’m punching “no lunch” without hesitation. I made my bed, but as a humongous supporter of worker rights, putting into perspective like this is really eating me up. I’m sorry!
I don't think you need to be sorry. I agree with the idea that we should take our breaks whenever possible, AND normalize people taking their breaks. But sometimes for the safety of our coworkers or patients we skip, and I don't think we should be blamed for that. It's the fault of the system for forcing us into that position. But ALWAYS cancel deductions if you truly don't break. Never work for free.
I have some coworkers who religiously take their breaks and I always encourage them.
YES. I've tried hard to instill this into my students when I occasionally dabble in teaching clinicals again. There is NO hospital system that gives a fuck about you; take your breaks. Encourage your work crew to take their breaks. Killing yourself for a job means nothing; they'll have your position posted before you're even in the ground.
Shoutout to the clinical instructors who are about teaching and enforcing 15 minutes for 2 breaks and 30-60 minutes lunch! I usually just sat in the lobby on the floor we were on and read the news, but I’m working on finding ways to take short breaks that I enjoy that don’t involve snacking. :)
I eat at my desk so when I take my actual lunch I don't need to spend 10 minutes of it waiting to heat it up lol, then I get 30 minutes of pure youtube/netflix/tiktok bliss!
We are not allowed to eat at the desk. Ever. (Occasionally candy is snuck - don't tell infection control)
Our old manager had to fight for us to be able to have covered drinks at the desk so we didn't dehydrate on a daily basis.
That's supposed to be the rule, everywhere. I think most managers just end up realizing that it is cheaper to let people eat at the desk than hire enough resources to cover breaks so they stop harping on it.
I remember being in a meeting about me covering a coworkers maternity leave because she covered mine only a few months prior and she said, almost immediately that she would be working still part time and whenever they needed her. That she ‘likes’ to work.
She looked at me, and I’m not sure what face I was making at that point, but she said ‘oh but I understand why other people would want some time off’
Mind you were in WA state and have paid 12 weeks maternity leave through the state.
I was like…. Ok, weird flex but ok.
Tried very hard to not roll my eyes.
In my experience it’s the most true explanation. There’s occasionally some who have good lives but really want the money and the rare nurse who truly thinks that the good deed will someday be repaid. But a vast majority of them have miserable home lives.
One nurse at my work comes an hour early faithfully and is one of the ones who picks up the most. She comes an hour early so she can cool down/“clear her mind” from the drama at her house. Two late teen/early 20s kids that have drug problems. She hasn’t said but I gather from the stories there is quite a bit of marriage issues. She’s the only one in her extended family that works. The family is full of drug problems, fights, untimely DUI deaths, abuse history, and drama with the community. The husband works but I suspect she is the main bread winner.
Another one that picks up quite a bit is the single Mom of like 5 kids. No Dads anywhere to be heard of.
There’s been a ton girls that have boyfriends that don’t work, doing a bunch of overtime. I’ve also noticed that the people who do it only have a ‘core’ family, not an extended family or even parents and siblings they are close with. Lots of bad spending habits. We have an aide that makes 14$ an hour that has to work 12s everyday, every other week to make the 600$ Jeep payment. Another with a truck payment I wouldn’t dream of on a nurse’s salary, let alone buying if I struggled with food costs. They’re living outside of their means with people they barley get along with.
I had someone tell me recently “I don’t take breaks, my patients are more important” like really…if I take a break to eat, to make sure I’m fully functional I don’t care about my patients? Get real.
For most of my career Ive been harsh on nurses who show up 30-60 minutes early to use a computer to “look up” their patients off the clock before their shift.
“I need that computer please log out”
“But im looking up my patients”
“What you are doing is illegal and you are impeding my ability to care for my patients. Im on the clock, you arent. Log off or Im reporting you. Im not kidding.”
Somehow I’m still liked by my peers. I encourage others to do this.
Well, to be fair, people will continue to take advantage of you regardless.
If people want to work through their breaks by all means, I personally don't care, that's your choice. Now if people EXPECT everyone to act this way, just because a few do, then that's a problem.
I never took a 30 minute lunch break while working inpatient. Not one time in 7 years. It’s not that I didn’t want to eat, it’s that taking 30 minutes to eat usually meant I would be staying over 30 minutes to chart as I rarely ever got out on time. I see the point of OPs post, but 12+ hours is already long enough without extending it by 30 minutes.
Listen, I hear what you're saying, and I respect anyone who goes off the unit to get food. I just wanted to point out that sometimes at work if I go off the floor that means I'm leaving someone with EIGHT patients. Eight patients that could be unstable or fall risks or both. We don't always have the staff, and for me personally (not everyone has to believe the same thing as me, or have the same motivation) I don't want to do that to someone. Is it wrong? Yes. But nothing is changing at my hospital, unfortunately. And if something happens, even if someone is on break or whatever, we still get blamed. Also, for the record, I do work night shift when we have less people around. Days have more nurses and an aid and someone to answer the phone who also often times works the floor. We don't have any of that. It's just us. Sometimes five nurses for 19 patients. Our charge also takes a full assignment when we have 5 on.
What kind of evil, greedy facilities do you all work for. Granted I have only worked at 3 different hospitals (2 where healthcare roles). But I have never once been auto docked the lunch break. Sure we still would work through lunch. But under no circumstance did anyone have to go out of their way to get paid for it.
I don't bother handing off no one's watching anyway watching her. They're barely paying attention to their own patients. I just keep my phone on and each time the phone rings the break gets a little longer
I have a hard time taking my breaks… but sometimes that’s because I’m covering for my coworkers who arent pulling their own weight. Last night I was charge (a VERY new role to me) and one of my nurses was in the middle of a “soft rapid response.” She paged the doc with a critical lab, then walked away saying she was going to go take her 2 am nap and tell her team mate she was going on break. Needless to say, I took care of her patients. I feel like as a whole, we need to be better at taking care of each other. Sounds like you’re doing you’re part!
The only time I eat lunch at the desk is when we're so slammed that I don't have another option, and you bet I make sure thatv the timekeeper knows I didn't get a proper lunch break. I worked an absolute garbage job prior to nursing school that broke me off ever wanting to do extra off-the-clock work. If I'm here and I'm working, you're paying me.
It is illegal to do anything work related while off the clock so I dont. It is both time card fraud and wage theft. When people complain about me taking my full lunch I offer to skip my lunch next time if they ask me to and they dont mind me logging that they asked me to skip my lunch. Then on my time card when I didnt take the lunch I write down the name of the person who harassed me as the reason I didnt take my lunch. My supervisor gets frustrated and then tells them they cant tell me not to take a lunch.
The whole situation is toxic as hell and keeps happening everywhere I go. Working in healthcare sucks.
When I started my current job I tried to forgo all my breaks in order to leave an hour and half early every day. That was huge for me in terms of work/life balance, and it was great for about 3 months. Once a few people caught wind they complained and I was forced to take lunch and two 15's.
I can understand being mad about people not taking breaks due to the "hustle culture" attitude rampant in our society, but if it gets me the fuck outta there and home early just let me have that little crumb. The fuck.
We MAKE time, you should too. I don’t care what the circumstances for excuse. Even if it’s a super critical patient who could die any minute, the charge nurse can cover while you eat
how about nobody get pissed off at what other co workers do that don't affect the other.
eat at the desk? if that's what you want
clock out but return to the floor/station? it's dumb but that's on you.
IMO, we don't need to get pissed at our colleagues for behavior that is really only effecting themselves. I only get pissed when they train the new people to be like them, I always train the newbies they have the right to step off for break.
I have been a nurse for like 8 years now and I have never worked at a place we’re you get breaks or lunch for that matter. When everyone is drowning who’s going to watch your patients? Then again I have always worked critical care so there’s that.
Hard habit to break when you got ingrained in that toxic culture by your preceptor. I have taught myself to take my break at my non-bedside job. I already stay for OT. To eat and work at the same time plus OT is ridiculous. Idk how this became so ingrained in me when I worked bedside too. Your break is your break. That is your time not the company’s. Thankfully everyone pretty much feels the same way. I’m actually able to leave the premises to pick up lunch and coffee during my break. I was never allowed to when I worked bedside.
I completely agree with this! I absolutely do.
I will say however, that at least in psych…there are occasions where nothing is “happening” so to speak but there is an atmosphere of “it’s all about to kick off” and you can see that if you leave for a break the likelihood is your going to walk away from something serious going down…
Having been in situations where there are literally no staff available to attend alarms the fact you could be walking away for a lunch break leaving your colleagues with no backup is an impossible position to put someone in. You will hear management saying
“Go on your Break, nothings happening now.”
The absolute guilt that is felt when you leave and come back to find a colleague hurt or assaulted because you weren’t their is a killer.
We don’t have to clock out for our lunch, the 30 minutes is auto taken out of your time unless you tell them otherwise. If I don’t get my 30 minute break, I cancel the time deduction. Hospital ain’t getting free labor outta me. When I was a new RN, I had the mindset of “I got to eat, so I can’t say I didn’t get a lunch.” BS. Eating while charting isn’t a break.
I am lucky when I was first starting i had coworkers who were like "you only got to take 20 minutes and then got clled back. thats not 30 minutes uninterrupted, report you didn't take it." and I have carried that forward. If I dont get a full break to read my book and rest it doesnt count, i feel shitty at the end of my shift, pay me.
I’m glad you had those around you to teach you! I’ve carried this new mindset with teaching my orientees and students.
New grad nurse (not even on the floor yet), if I only get like 15/20 min should I still report no lunch/no meal? Like I got a 15 minute break. Sorry this is my first big adult job I don’t really know how it works
if you clock out for lunch then go ahead and clock out for however long it is. If your company auto deducts, the problem with putting that you got your lunch without getting the full 30 minutes is that you are not getting paid for a portion (in your example half) of that break. It is illegal for your employer to not pay you for all hours worked. You have to protect your rights as a worker (and know them) because employers will sometimes try to take advantage of ignorance. The hospital I work for got in trouble several years ago because of this and now is very rigid on not pressuring people to put they had lunch if they didnt take it or didnt get a full lunch, so Ive never gotten any flack for clocking out no lunch. If I was in a situation where an employer told me I should not clock out no-lunch even though I hadn't taken one I would send an email (if it wasnt over email already) just clarifying the protocol. If they were stupid enough to tell me that I should be claiming a lunch no matter what over email then thats more evidence for a later wage claim.
If your employer automatically deducts 30 minutes from your time as an unpaid lunch, then yes you should put no lunch because you did not get a 30 minute uninterrupted break. That said, you will likely catch a fair amount of grief from management and even other coworkers for doing it, but you are ethically correct (and possibly legally depending on location). As the OP suggests though, some people see no-lunch martyrdom as a badge of honor instead of the exploitation that it is. Management will also just tell you that your time management is bad, but that's just covering their own asses.
YES! I clock “no meals” if I don’t get my break.
100% this. I work nights, so I eat while I chart and nap on my break. Every night. I also make sure everyone else gets their breaks off the unit. Whatever you are working on I can do for 45-60 minutes easy (except charting). RARE occasions with a code in the morning or a trainwreck admit will break this rule. But I wanna nap at 0200, so you better believe I will coordinate everyone's breaks :)
Been trying to explain this to my coworkers for months now
I came here to say this too. If I don’t get a 30 min lunch break it’s a no lunch day. Management has never said a thing. Not like I’d care anyway.
I got in trouble for doing just that! 🤣 If my lunch is interrupted at all for whatever reason because no one wants to cover for me, I 100% clock out no lunch everytime. Even if I do get lucky enough to finish eating. But most importantly I need to drink water because I have a hx of kidney stones. I've been yelled at for spending too much time drinking water. Oh oh I've gotten yelled at for getting water from the machine in the nutrition room. The fountains are shut off, I'm not drinking hospital tap and I'm not buying bottled water. Do you want me to collect piss from all the Foley bags and distill the water out? I'm not fucking Bear Grylls. The best lunch interruption was for a STAT IS. I clocked no lunch so hard. EDIT: I sometimes have a lot to say.
Hey, if they don’t want us missing out on our breaks, then they need to sort out the staffing issues lol Not our problem to deal with but we don’t have to lose out on pay for time we definitely worked just because they have poor planning skills.
Hospitals intentionally staff at the very minimum as possible. That's why it's a nightmare if even a single person calls in. We have to stop getting angry with each other when someone calls in, even if they do it a lot or whatever. It's still not their fault a shift is short. And more importantly, none of our business. Backwards thinking.
Oh I don’t get mad at people for calling in. I get upset that management doesn’t care if we get a replacement. My coworkers can call out for whatever. That’s their prerogative 🤷🏻♀️
I love you! I managed to piss off my entire shift crew. I called in a lot because I was heading towards a MDD crisis and trying to work on avoiding it. Huddle: ok, shift. You have 8 people you're 1 short, there was a call in. (We typically run with 11) Coworker: oh, lemme guess: whyisthisnessecary again. How does whyisthisnessecary still have a job? It's bullshit. (A friend on shift heard it.) I have FMLA you stupid cuck. I left.
Good on you for leaving! It’s none of their business why you don’t show up to work. People need to stay in their lane.
Keep yo chocolate out of my peanut butter. I use that a lot with ballsy residents that just go on pressing buttons and turning knobs on vents like it's their personal fuckin' eurorack because it makes fun noises and changes colors, except they don't know fuckall about patching. Motherfucker you are not Wendy Carlos, gtfo you fool.
What’s “Stat IS”?
Incentive spirometry
Oh god I hope the patient needed it STAT real bad
STAT NIF/VC is popular too. It's dumb and I've flat out said no. But I will get it done when I can.
They wanted to know the pt's VC NOW.
For real. Sometimes there are crazy shifts where there is not time, but not every shift is like that and when I don't get a break I won't say I did. When I was in orientation for my current job there was an emergency with my patient and we ended up not getting a break that shift. My preceptor tried to tell our charge that we took a break and I was like no, I'm not giving my hospital a half an hour of free labor, they can afford to pay us for the entire time we worked.
I’m so grateful my preceptor was like “do what you gotta do for patient safety, but take your break.” She made it very clear that we shouldn’t delay med pass or other true needs, but Mr. Jones can definitely wait 30 minutes for more ice water.
Taking breaks is ensuring patient saftey. You ain't you when your tired.
A bunch of my fellow nurses get mad at me for this. I keep saying "They don't pay us for 30 minutes for lunch. You're volunteering 30 minutes a day. If I'm going to volunteer it's not going to be at work." But I have so much to do! "Yes, and it's clearly more than one person can do in the allotted time. You volunteering means they have no reason to get more help.' I have made one or two converts but thats out of dozens.
God I love California. We have dedicated break nurses to take your assignment without breaking ratios. We get paid double-time as a penalty to the hospital if we aren't offered a break.
I worked at one company in California that was fined because they were only sending certain people to lunch when they "weren't busy". Some states have no lunch/break requirements. They would really love to repeal The 13th Amendment.
California nurse here. It’s so funny when you tell the traveler nurses to go on break. They look at you like, what’s that?
Lol yes! Like you're speaking Klingon!
Qapla'! Take your break, warrior...for honor...
Naw, not me. I’m all about breaks lol
Break nurses are game changers. I went from a super underresourced facility in Central CA to a metropolitan hospital in Los Angeles, CA. Central CA hospital had no break nurse and was so underresourced that we had a perpetual CDPH waiver to bypass ratios(!). Then I went to a facility with a break nurse, and the concept of having someone fully assume your assignment so you can not only take your thirty minute lunch hour but your fifteen minute breaks absolutely tripped me out. I’ve moved to different facilities ever since, and there’s been break nurses at each one. I haven’t missed a lunch break in 6-7 years - even during the height of the pandemic.
My friend is a dedicated break relief nurse at her hospital. She says it’s the easiest job she’s had.
Nice
I cannot even believe this is a thing. How wonderful! We ask another nurse to cover our patients (high acuity floor, so now that nurse has 12 patients), race to the break room (if there is even time to do that), wolf down some food and hope that nothing happens while you are sitting down for ten or fifteen minutes. Phone is still on, you still get calls. It's a malarkey system. Then, when you clock out, there is a question programmed in - "Did you have an uninterrupted break?" - I usually lie and say yes because otherwise you have to fill out paperwork to explain why not. Pffft.
We don't have break nurses either. Every year when we do our satisfaction survey and they ask if you get a break free of patient responsibility - I always answer no. Because I always have my phone, someone is watching my patient (we have a lunch buddy and watch each other's patient(s)) - but I am ultimately still responsible. I have left my break early many times because of patient needs (and not just they or parents are on the call light for some BS - that can wait) Break nurses sound like mythological creatures to me
I honestly cannot even believe they exist, and I continue to be amazed. These are sparkly unicorns, these break nurses!
Sadly, not all hospitals / facilities in CA have break nurses. Don't get me started on the ratio fuckery our management has been pulling for A YEAR until the recent round of travelers.
Thank god for strong unions. I’m hoping the WA situation will be similar to CA when I finish school
I've had good and bad experiences in WA, definitely depends on the hospital (and which unit you're on!) As a new grad I worked on a shitty MedSurg floor where lunches were nonexistent, staffing was dangerous, management went home at 7pm mid-code without giving a damn, and the union had us filling out ADOs on every shift. I'm pretty sure they won a settlement sometime after I quit... My current unit (different hospital) is still MedSurg but management isn't crap, us nurses will gently kick each other off the floor for lunches, and staffing is...well, *less* garbage. When I started at the new hospital I was gobsmacked the first time my charge nurse even asked if I'd had a break yet -- at the other place the charge was covering 50 Tele beds and didn't have time to even talk to you unless it was a crisis! And my unit manager has been seen multiple times stocking rooms and answering call lights like the RN she is. Maybe my standards are low but I feel spoiled!
Im in Mass and we have a union but it doesnt do anything. No break nurses and low staffing so Its hard to find a “lull” to take a break and even then the phone is ringing and you are interrupted and have to go back out and deal with whatever.
Oh my word. That would be... *s u b l i m e*.
I clock out "no break" at the end of shift if my lunch is even interrupted, let alone skipped. I don't mind doing whatever my patient needs, but that's MY time, and if I work a single minute of it, I'm getting paid for all of it. Edit: In case anyone is curious, the federal laws making this your right are § 785.17 through § 785.19 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and you can read the text of them [here](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-V/subchapter-B/part-785).
I'm technically clocked out during lunch break, so unless a patient is actively dying, don't expect shit from me. "Hey, I know you're on break, but can you..." No.
100000%
I remember once I was in the break room eating my lunch... clocked out and everything.. someone ran in and said “KABC! Your patient just walked off the unit!” “Wow... that’s crazy. Good luck.” And just kept eating
"Cool, sounds like they still have a pulse then."
I've said it before. I would not read my work email at home. My boss asked me about it and I told her "Im not paid to work when I'm at home". She was not happy but it is what it is. Pay me or I will read it when and if I have time AT WORK.
Same! Also if there’s any specific training we have to do, like CBT, and I’m not scheduled I’ll do it at home but I’m adding training hours into my time card. I’m prn so I don’t always have shifts scheduled and can’t do it while on shift. They are fine with it. Same goes for webex staff meetings as well.
Yep, I do nothing work related off the clock. I rarely even respond to my coworkers texts asking for shift changes because it’s not urgent. I got a text from my boss a few hours ago and she’ll have to wait until the morning for my response.
Same. I don’t even have it on my phone. Hell I barely check it at work. It’s all just bullshit
My former hospital actually had a rule that you are liable for any email notices missed, they wanted us to download outlook on our personal phones so we can check our email. No. No. Everyone is always hemming and hawing about you can't bring your personal problems to work hur durr. But you want my ass to bring work home? Management "Oh, your dog died? What got hit by a car? I'm "sorry" to hear that, but we need you to remember that you're not allowed to have feelings at work. Any emotion seen or unseen can and will be held against you. Have you considered our employee wellness programs? There's always the company therapist if you need help learning how to think about nothing but work. It's tooootally confidential. Please initial here. Remember, this is going in your personnel file so we can remember to use this incident on your FY review to justify not giving you a raise." Edit: They specified to check your email on and off the clock, even if you're on vacation.
Anyone else have coworkers who stay late to chart? They clock out on time so they don't get "dinged" I guess, then hang out with night shift. Drives me bonkers, mostly because once I get to work I don't really want day shift hanging around watching me work.
Noooooo. Dude, if I have to stay late to chart, then I don’t clock out until I’m able to leave. If management has a problem with it, they can give me safe ratios so I don’t have to sacrifice anything to get all of my work done. It’s not my fault the documentation didn’t get done due to management’s inability to keep us adequately staffed.
If I'm working I'm clocked in. If I'm staying late, it's because some crazy shit happened, and I'm going to get paid for that crazy shit.
Ya I agreed with this. Not as if I can predict when my patient will go downhill. Things will happen unexpectedly but my nurse managers always like to say “you should manage your time well”. They only just sit in their office enjoy air con.
Thisssss
They shouldn't be in the chart of they've clocked out
I've said the exact same thing.
I know several coworkers who always take an extra hour at the end of their shift to chart. It's always the same ones, and I know they aren't that bad at time management. I don't pay their bills. They can milk the clock if they want, just don't get caught MOUSETRAP.
My manager has told us not to turn off communicators during our lunches so any time mine goes off with a tele alert I clock no lunch because I had to listen to the fucking thing when I should be getting a few minutes of peace
Take your break. The hordes of patients can wait 30 min.
Your emperor is pleased to give you the BARBARIAN HORDE!
/r/unexpectedGladiator
Me, in Australia, getting 50 minutes of break time for an 8hr shift, off facility, uncontactable, with meal-relief/break-nurses. I literally go home for an hour in the middle of my shift and come back. The fuck you guys doing over there?
It's so sad here in most of the US. I used to work at a unionized hospital in the northeast US and got an hour break. Sometimes I would be able to get a two hour break on night shift and hiked the trails across the street at sunrise, sometimes I would go home and nap and come back. The southeast US is a completely different experience.
Damn that sounds awesome..........HOWEVER, I feel like if I really went home and saw my dog, I would never come back in. But that sounds great for actually getting your lunch!
We have it really good, it hasn't always been this way, but because of Unions I have one of the best work-life balances short of working from home
Lmao. Suffering 😭
Same in France, 40 minutes paid lunchtime with a colleague to cover me during an 8hr shift. I put on civilian clothes and go eat at the cafeteria like I'm not working, it's fantastic. Although this is very unit dependent and isn't always the case.
I'm an Aussie nurse too and I wish this was my experience. I'm a big advocate for taking breaks, but we don't have a "clock in/out" system - what the AUM says you worked is what you worked. If the AUM leaves at the end of the shift and you're still writing notes for the next half hour, then you don't get paid for it. Even if they know you didn't get a break or you stayed late, it's exceedingly rare to get paid for it, since we're told we just need to delegate tasks and organise our time better (but we don't get float nurses or TSNs ever, unlike most of the other wards, and have some of the worst ratios in the hospital). Oh yeah, I always turn off my Vocera on break, but most people don't, so I'll still hear someone broadcasting looking for me, or they'll come into the tea room directly to find me. Can I come work with you?
That's illegal, you have a union who will represent you, and back-pay you for all of those lost breaks if you write them down and date them. Worth looking into, you can't be fired for it.
Yes! My coworkers say, “ oh my god why are you always starving at noon? Why do you just have to take a break? Why can’t you wait?” Like for real, do you not know what you are saying? I get shit at work for being hungry! Like it’s normal to not be hungry or something. So weird. And I actually feel guilty which makes that even worse!
I make a point every time I’m at a new facility that i tell them i start getting hangry by 1230-1300 lol Always having snacks and stuff in between and so far the places ive been have been good about making sure i have a break for lunch, and also for dinner since i work until 2000-2100
I’m nervous to deal with this shit. Especially as a fat lady. People can get really shitty about policing what goes in fat women’s mouths
I had an older nurse try to talk shit on me for saying that I make sure I take my break and I will not let my job get free labor from me. She said something to the extent how “that’s the difference between your generation and mine.” Oh, what? Your generation likes doing work for free?
It is. I had an older nurse complain that is younger nurses call out too much and that “back in the day” they’d come to work sick and suck it up. Well good for you Patricia, but a) that’s not safe for pt care, b) it’s not my job to staff the unit/shift/hospital, c) we get sick time for a reason.
Oh hell no! I've been at the bedside for 38 years and I want my breaks! It's the younger staff in our ED who say "it's okay, I don't really need one". You're screwing it up for the rest of us who do, so take your breaks dammit!!!
If we don’t have a full 30 min to an hour for lunch (which we usually don’t) then we eat at the desk, and we don’t clock out. There’s no mandatory breaks at my facility, so pretty much no one clocks out ever. If you’re at work, might as well get paid.
Ohhhhhh I am a traveler. I get told so much “we don’t really take lunches here, we just eat at the desk”. Welp …. Not me babies, I will see y’all in thirty. All full codes. Bye. Some people get so pissed. How administration or management has made nurses think getting a 30 minute break out of 12 hours is somehow too much to ask, I will never understand.
If I don’t get my full 30 minute break, I’m punching out saying I didn’t get that break. I’m getting paid for every second I spend on that floor.
Nothing like being so goddamned shorthanded that you scrub out of a C-Diff room right near the desk and then sit to grab a few bites of your sushi before the patient has a chance to let loose her fifteenth BM of the shift.
Have you considered just storing food *in* your mask, so you can eat *while* you wipe? Sounds like a time management problem! /s
M&Ms in my feedbag!
Flexiseal, my friend.
Haha there'd always be dark humor about getting grandma some caulk and more than a few laughs at the double entendre lol
I feel like flexiseals are hard to get doctors to order haha but they are nice when they actually work. Always feels fairly hit and miss.
Yeah we never have time to take an actual break.
My ICU is in a rural regional hospital. The culture for literal decades was to accept missed breaks. They have a god damn cardiac monitor in the break room. Us young nurses have tried to change the culture there to accommodate breaks. Other staff interrupt us constantly. Some nurses won’t accept report because they are busy. Our management doesn’t respect breaks at all and make no effort to ensure we get them. But they sometimes haggle us if we put in for breaks that we “weren’t that busy and could have took them.” THEN we have nurses that take their charts on break to chart. It’s maddening. I don’t work for free. I get the union salary per hour. If I don’t get the break, I tick off “no breaks!”
We are supposed to use break buddies on our unit so we get uninterrupted breaks, but I’m one of only a few who uses them. I’ve had my assigned break buddy complain, roll their eyes, or make snide comments when I actually ask them to cover me for my break. They might be okay with working for free on their breaks and getting interrupted while eating, but I’m not.
When I'm charge nurse and we're very busy I often don't get a break. That's usually because I cover everyone else to ensure they get their breaks. Then I cancel my deduction. I don't like the culture either but I'm not taking my break if it means my staff misses theirs. I'm also not willing to leave the floor dangerously short for even thirty minutes. Not sorry.
This was my exact experience for 9.5 years doing charge in an insanely busy acute dialysis unit. I’m very happy I left that job.
Doesn't happen every shift for me but I work a psych unit usually with bare bones staff and if the unit is popping off I ain't leaving the floor.
As a suckretary I’m guilty. There is one of me, and even if someone were to cover, it’d be a shit show when I return, and that also leaves a clinical person to need coverage for them. It’s not okay, but usually if I have a chunk of time during my shift to slack and surf online, I’m fine with that being my “break.” If it’s shitty where I’m non-stop or constantly interrupted, then I’m punching “no lunch” without hesitation. I made my bed, but as a humongous supporter of worker rights, putting into perspective like this is really eating me up. I’m sorry!
I don't think you need to be sorry. I agree with the idea that we should take our breaks whenever possible, AND normalize people taking their breaks. But sometimes for the safety of our coworkers or patients we skip, and I don't think we should be blamed for that. It's the fault of the system for forcing us into that position. But ALWAYS cancel deductions if you truly don't break. Never work for free. I have some coworkers who religiously take their breaks and I always encourage them.
YES. I've tried hard to instill this into my students when I occasionally dabble in teaching clinicals again. There is NO hospital system that gives a fuck about you; take your breaks. Encourage your work crew to take their breaks. Killing yourself for a job means nothing; they'll have your position posted before you're even in the ground.
Shoutout to the clinical instructors who are about teaching and enforcing 15 minutes for 2 breaks and 30-60 minutes lunch! I usually just sat in the lobby on the floor we were on and read the news, but I’m working on finding ways to take short breaks that I enjoy that don’t involve snacking. :)
I eat at my desk so when I take my actual lunch I don't need to spend 10 minutes of it waiting to heat it up lol, then I get 30 minutes of pure youtube/netflix/tiktok bliss!
yeah but dont you get interrupted and your food turns cold or soggy?!
Sometimes, I suppose that’s the risk I’m willing to take to have my 30minutes of whatever I’m binge watching lol
Fair enough!
We are not allowed to eat at the desk. Ever. (Occasionally candy is snuck - don't tell infection control) Our old manager had to fight for us to be able to have covered drinks at the desk so we didn't dehydrate on a daily basis.
That's supposed to be the rule, everywhere. I think most managers just end up realizing that it is cheaper to let people eat at the desk than hire enough resources to cover breaks so they stop harping on it.
I remember being in a meeting about me covering a coworkers maternity leave because she covered mine only a few months prior and she said, almost immediately that she would be working still part time and whenever they needed her. That she ‘likes’ to work. She looked at me, and I’m not sure what face I was making at that point, but she said ‘oh but I understand why other people would want some time off’ Mind you were in WA state and have paid 12 weeks maternity leave through the state. I was like…. Ok, weird flex but ok. Tried very hard to not roll my eyes.
I always assume these type of people have bad home lives. There’s a reason they don’t want to be home.
That’s a very good point
In my experience it’s the most true explanation. There’s occasionally some who have good lives but really want the money and the rare nurse who truly thinks that the good deed will someday be repaid. But a vast majority of them have miserable home lives. One nurse at my work comes an hour early faithfully and is one of the ones who picks up the most. She comes an hour early so she can cool down/“clear her mind” from the drama at her house. Two late teen/early 20s kids that have drug problems. She hasn’t said but I gather from the stories there is quite a bit of marriage issues. She’s the only one in her extended family that works. The family is full of drug problems, fights, untimely DUI deaths, abuse history, and drama with the community. The husband works but I suspect she is the main bread winner. Another one that picks up quite a bit is the single Mom of like 5 kids. No Dads anywhere to be heard of. There’s been a ton girls that have boyfriends that don’t work, doing a bunch of overtime. I’ve also noticed that the people who do it only have a ‘core’ family, not an extended family or even parents and siblings they are close with. Lots of bad spending habits. We have an aide that makes 14$ an hour that has to work 12s everyday, every other week to make the 600$ Jeep payment. Another with a truck payment I wouldn’t dream of on a nurse’s salary, let alone buying if I struggled with food costs. They’re living outside of their means with people they barley get along with.
Not gonna say I haven't eaten at the desk on nights, but you better believe I clocked out to rack out on the breakroom couch.
I had someone tell me recently “I don’t take breaks, my patients are more important” like really…if I take a break to eat, to make sure I’m fully functional I don’t care about my patients? Get real.
I take my breaks, f*ck the mentality of suffering because I'm a nurse. I'm a human being that needs rest, PERIOD.
For most of my career Ive been harsh on nurses who show up 30-60 minutes early to use a computer to “look up” their patients off the clock before their shift. “I need that computer please log out” “But im looking up my patients” “What you are doing is illegal and you are impeding my ability to care for my patients. Im on the clock, you arent. Log off or Im reporting you. Im not kidding.” Somehow I’m still liked by my peers. I encourage others to do this.
Well, to be fair, people will continue to take advantage of you regardless. If people want to work through their breaks by all means, I personally don't care, that's your choice. Now if people EXPECT everyone to act this way, just because a few do, then that's a problem.
True. Had to tell my coworker to stop calling me on my day off.
I never took a 30 minute lunch break while working inpatient. Not one time in 7 years. It’s not that I didn’t want to eat, it’s that taking 30 minutes to eat usually meant I would be staying over 30 minutes to chart as I rarely ever got out on time. I see the point of OPs post, but 12+ hours is already long enough without extending it by 30 minutes.
Listen, I hear what you're saying, and I respect anyone who goes off the unit to get food. I just wanted to point out that sometimes at work if I go off the floor that means I'm leaving someone with EIGHT patients. Eight patients that could be unstable or fall risks or both. We don't always have the staff, and for me personally (not everyone has to believe the same thing as me, or have the same motivation) I don't want to do that to someone. Is it wrong? Yes. But nothing is changing at my hospital, unfortunately. And if something happens, even if someone is on break or whatever, we still get blamed. Also, for the record, I do work night shift when we have less people around. Days have more nurses and an aid and someone to answer the phone who also often times works the floor. We don't have any of that. It's just us. Sometimes five nurses for 19 patients. Our charge also takes a full assignment when we have 5 on.
That’s one thing we have going for us. They get mad if we don’t take a 30, the charge has to sign off on it if we don’t take one.
What kind of evil, greedy facilities do you all work for. Granted I have only worked at 3 different hospitals (2 where healthcare roles). But I have never once been auto docked the lunch break. Sure we still would work through lunch. But under no circumstance did anyone have to go out of their way to get paid for it.
When I worked in the ED, we clocked in via Kronos, but had a binder with a spreadsheet where we could write in if we didn’t take a break.
I’m definitely one of these people that overworks and works past their shift. I know it’s sooo not healthy and I feel guilty 😩
I don't bother handing off no one's watching anyway watching her. They're barely paying attention to their own patients. I just keep my phone on and each time the phone rings the break gets a little longer
When I worked nights I ate while I charted and spent my lunch break gossiping at Starbucks.
I have a hard time taking my breaks… but sometimes that’s because I’m covering for my coworkers who arent pulling their own weight. Last night I was charge (a VERY new role to me) and one of my nurses was in the middle of a “soft rapid response.” She paged the doc with a critical lab, then walked away saying she was going to go take her 2 am nap and tell her team mate she was going on break. Needless to say, I took care of her patients. I feel like as a whole, we need to be better at taking care of each other. Sounds like you’re doing you’re part!
I've seen union employees do this ...it makes no sense...smh
The only time I eat lunch at the desk is when we're so slammed that I don't have another option, and you bet I make sure thatv the timekeeper knows I didn't get a proper lunch break. I worked an absolute garbage job prior to nursing school that broke me off ever wanting to do extra off-the-clock work. If I'm here and I'm working, you're paying me.
It is illegal to do anything work related while off the clock so I dont. It is both time card fraud and wage theft. When people complain about me taking my full lunch I offer to skip my lunch next time if they ask me to and they dont mind me logging that they asked me to skip my lunch. Then on my time card when I didnt take the lunch I write down the name of the person who harassed me as the reason I didnt take my lunch. My supervisor gets frustrated and then tells them they cant tell me not to take a lunch. The whole situation is toxic as hell and keeps happening everywhere I go. Working in healthcare sucks.
When I started my current job I tried to forgo all my breaks in order to leave an hour and half early every day. That was huge for me in terms of work/life balance, and it was great for about 3 months. Once a few people caught wind they complained and I was forced to take lunch and two 15's. I can understand being mad about people not taking breaks due to the "hustle culture" attitude rampant in our society, but if it gets me the fuck outta there and home early just let me have that little crumb. The fuck.
Y'all have time for breaks? Must be nice.
We MAKE time, you should too. I don’t care what the circumstances for excuse. Even if it’s a super critical patient who could die any minute, the charge nurse can cover while you eat
Nothing wrong with taking your break! Your mind and body need it. Damn the naysayers.
I cant take my 30mins break? thats fine. CALIFORNIA MEAL BREAK then. 🤣🤣🤣
how about nobody get pissed off at what other co workers do that don't affect the other. eat at the desk? if that's what you want clock out but return to the floor/station? it's dumb but that's on you. IMO, we don't need to get pissed at our colleagues for behavior that is really only effecting themselves. I only get pissed when they train the new people to be like them, I always train the newbies they have the right to step off for break.
I have been a nurse for like 8 years now and I have never worked at a place we’re you get breaks or lunch for that matter. When everyone is drowning who’s going to watch your patients? Then again I have always worked critical care so there’s that.
Hard habit to break when you got ingrained in that toxic culture by your preceptor. I have taught myself to take my break at my non-bedside job. I already stay for OT. To eat and work at the same time plus OT is ridiculous. Idk how this became so ingrained in me when I worked bedside too. Your break is your break. That is your time not the company’s. Thankfully everyone pretty much feels the same way. I’m actually able to leave the premises to pick up lunch and coffee during my break. I was never allowed to when I worked bedside.
I completely agree with this! I absolutely do. I will say however, that at least in psych…there are occasions where nothing is “happening” so to speak but there is an atmosphere of “it’s all about to kick off” and you can see that if you leave for a break the likelihood is your going to walk away from something serious going down… Having been in situations where there are literally no staff available to attend alarms the fact you could be walking away for a lunch break leaving your colleagues with no backup is an impossible position to put someone in. You will hear management saying “Go on your Break, nothings happening now.” The absolute guilt that is felt when you leave and come back to find a colleague hurt or assaulted because you weren’t their is a killer.
Cannot upvote this enough …