I was explaining my shift to one of the new attendings the other day. I work 11:30 AM to midnight. When I get on, I take other nurses' areas so they can go eat lunch. Then I go eat my lunch. Then I come back, and either give other nurses their 30-minute afternoon breaks, or I take an area from a nurse who is scheduled to leave at 4 pm. We've been very short-staffed lately, so often I'm in charge, doing ambulance triage, and, occasionally, manning the trauma room. Sometimes we have to close an area until 4 pm, because I can't staff it until I've given people their breaks. This attending said, "They should just open the area, and the nurses should go without their breaks. Us attendings don't get breaks when it's busy like this."
Them's fightin' words.
Nurses need breaks. Our attendings sit at a desk all shift long, occasionally getting up to see a patient (depending on what their shift is that day, teaching or nonteaching). Nurses are at the bedside. We clean butts, we move 300-pound patients with little or no help, we run around giving meds and assessing and even getting pillows and blankets in our CITY BLOCK LONG ED. We assist docs with procedures. We're the first line of defense when a patient's angry relative wants to know why they're waiting so long for care. Yes, sometimes patients and their relatives will ask at the doctors' desk when they're going to be seen--but that's a FRACTION of the complaints nurses field. A doc sees a patient for ten minutes and then writes orders that will take the nurse hours to complete: blood draws, blood cultures, IV access, Foley catheters, multiple meds, tests, monitors...and on a busy day when we're understaffed multiply that by EIGHT TO TWELVE patients. In addition to this, you need to factor in the admitted patients who need care: the doc's job is over with them, but they're still my responsibility to care for until they get upstairs, and I have to look them over and document and PHOTOGRAPH every dimple and freckle they might have, because god forbid it's a decubitus ulcer. They get to go pee once in a while. We don't. They get to eat and drink at their desk. We don't. They get to sit. We don't.
That's why we get breaks.
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13 comments:
Hulk SMASH! I want to kick that attending.
What an idiot! Gotta admit, I am jealous that you do get the breaks. On the floor, if we're busy or short staffed, it's tough luck. It's insane that many of us go a whole shift without even getting to the bathroom. Yeah -- you should have kicked him in the head.
Ugh, our ER is one long hallway a block long too with a storage room on each end. Everything you need is always in the other storage room a block away.
I can't remember the last time I had TWO breaks. What's that shit about?
Yeah, when I worked on the floor we only got breaks if the RN in the next area could cover us while we went out.
According to our contract, in one 12-hour shift we're entitled to 1 hour-long break (for which we don't get paid) and then another 30-minute break later on. It has to do with the labor laws in our state. However, with staffing the way it is, we rarely get the 1/2 hour break these days.
Nurses at my hospital get paid for the full time we're there. If we work 7-7:30, that's 12.5 hrs. "We figure you're never really on break anyways."
Aids, on the other hand, get a 30 min break taken out.
I am automatically un-paid for a break every night for 30 minutes.
The last time I took a 30 minute break was in 2003 when I worked day shift.
I would not work the 11-11 shift if you doubled my salary. You're nuts.
OK, maybe for double. But you're still nuts. ;-)
Yeah, lately night shift isn't getting ANY breaks. It sucks.
And MG, the only reason I work the mid-shift is becausebi hate getting up at 5:30 am, and I also like to sleep in m own bed at night when it's still dark out. Otherwise I'd probably work nights. Mid-shift is more like my own natural circadian rhythm. But yeah, it's the busiest shift. You come on, start running, and don't stop until you leave.
Your attendings should complain - we attendings here in Texas take breaks. We figutre we're entitled to them and so are our nurses.
Perhaps he should have said "maybe we shouldn't let this many nurses take a break at the same time?" - that's a much mroe reasonable complaint.
I have worked the 7pm-7:30 am shift since 1991. Have not had a real lunch break in I don't know how long. (we're a non-unionized hospital so there are no contractually-mandated breaks). And the 1/2-hour "lunch" is deducted unless the appropriate paperwork is filed, signed by the nursing supervisor, of course! (Back when I was the supervisor, before I chucked it and went back to being a staff nurse, I routinely signed the blank overtime slips midway through the shift and handed them out for the staff to fill out at their convenience, since a shift when there was actually time for lunch was such a rarity).
wow. hour lunch breaks. two breaks. unheard of at our ER. we often don't get breaks or "cover" each other, which really means, if your patient codes i'll get the crash cart, in my opinion. so what's the point. you'll just be more behind when you get back. we don't get paid for lunch break either.
i always bring food, because you just never know. 12.5 hours is a long time with no break. love my job, but it sure sucks the life out of me most days.
Hmm, EM docs may get to sit down from time to time but that does not mean that they're not doing work. As an EM attending at a busy urban ED, when I'm sitting down I'm hearing about patients from residents and PAs, following up on results, making 12 phone calls to get one patient admitted, and getting interrupted every 30 seconds. Maybe I'll try to document a bit so I don't have a pile of 30 charts at the end of my shift, but that usually does not happen.
I routinely go my 8-10 hours shifts without a pee, never mind eating or drinking, especially since we're not allowed to have food in patient care areas. Since I'm the one ultimately responsible for the patients in the ED (i.e. I'm the one who gets sued if something goes wrong) I find it difficult to leave the patient care area for any period of time. I don't even know where the staff break room is.
I would love to get a break during my shift, even if it were only 10 minutes, to pee, suck down a diet coke, and eat an energy bar. But somehow I don't see that happening--if I'm officially on break that means officially somebody else needs to be responsible, which means signout, which means at least 30 minutes of transfering care for the 15-20 patients I'm responsible for at any given time, which just won't happen.
I fully support staff having breaks, but do have to admit I'm a bit envious that I don't get one.
I couldn't go without a break. If I don't have a break, when am I supposed to get into the narcotics?
Oh my god...thank you! I'm GD lucky if I get to sit for 15 min. in a 13 hr shift. I have 3 docs ordering stuff for up to 7 pts at at a time. Then they start with the: Did you see the order? X-ray, labs, CT, call here and there, IV whatever, dress the wound, neb tx? Thank God I have tremendous self control--or I might kill anyone within 10 feet of me!
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