I was always on the verge of being caught up yesterday, but never quite got to where I could take a lunch, heh. So irritating! Then, a nightshift friend asked if I would stay over until 10pm for her since she had school. It's not unusual on Mondays for me to do this for her. But, man, it makes a long day. My whole body was aching. Fortunately, I'm off today to recover, lol. Of course, I say this as an 18 month old is climbing me like a tree. Still, he's more fun than work, lol.

The "no lunch" issue bothers me. Is it common for nurses not to take lunch (and breaks)? If so, why? After a rather extended investigation at my place of employment I have discovered a couple-three reasons why nurses are not taking the lunches/breaks that are so necessary to good health (not to mention patient safety). I'll post them if anyone is interested.

Would anyone like to express why they occasionally/routinely miss their breaks/lunches?

Thanks!

Joy

I don't routinely miss lunches per say. I do on occasion. I've learned to take lunch right at 11am or as soom as possible. A lot of nurses I know won't take an early lunch and will wait until later in the day when we are too busy and that's why they miss them. I just literally had too much going on at the time. I could have maybe taken a lunch but it would have delayed patient care too long or my patient was too sick and it would have been detrimental to their care. For instance, I had a couple intubated patients come in throughout the day and it was touch and go with their blood pressure or in one case her ET tube wasn't working right and the doctor had to re-intubate from the one the paramedic had placed. It wasn't lack of desire to take a lunch, but just lack of a chance. We did have a float that came in at 1p, but he was slammed helping everyone. He did finally cover me for about 15 minutes so I had a chance to eat some popcorn (someone had taken my lunch out of the fridge for some reason and my sandwich was bad... so annoying). But, 15 minutes to slam down some food I don't count as a lunch really. However, it was better than nothing. Also, at 7pm shift change I took another 15 minutes. So, it wasn't that I didn't get anything, but I didn't get enough to count as lunch either.

Oh, MelJayne, I was not asking for you to 'justify' your lack of break/lunch. I hope I have not offended you in any way!

The way I see it, there are quite a few reasons why working without rest occurs. Certainly an unexpected increase in acuity, as well as too high census, being a novice or disorganised nurse, and wanting overtime can lead to missed breaks/lunch. Do I sound like the middle-management, paper pusher that I am? Yes, I do. Furthermore, I think that it is incumbent upon middle/senior management to provide breaks/lunches. We have an obligation to ensure that staff have the time and the tools to provide excellent patient care. Adequate rest/hydration/nourishment, along with appropriate staffing and education most definitely facilitates that care.

OK. Stepping down from my soap box,

Joy

Oh no, I wasn't offended in any way. I was just explaining in my case why I missed lunch. I agree, with what you are saying though. The reason why I normally do take an early lunch is because I've learned over the years that a lot of the time I don't get one if I don't go as soon as I possibly can go. And I do think that a lot of the novice nurses tend to miss lunch a lot until they get the idea of priority and organization down which ,of course, is just imperative at my work.

I used to miss lunches here and there before we had break nurses. I would feel too bad making another nurse with two patients of their own also watch MY two patients, many of which had things that needed to be done that could not wait 1/2 hour.

Now that we have dedicated break nurses, the nurse who watches my patients ONLY watches my patients. So anything needing to be done can reliably be done by that person.

Break nurses have been a godsend.

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