The Lunch Break Problem

Recently read a post on a nursing Facebook group bitching about floor nurses not taking report because they were on a lunch break. In fact, one poster said it happened to her coworker and her coworker told the nurse “well, we don’t get breaks in the ER so your patient will be up shortly.”

Ok, if I were the floor nurse I’d tell that ER nurse to GET FUCKED and take whatever discipline came with that. In the group, I said something like “how about not being mad at the person who takes a lunch break on their TWELVE HOUR SHIFT, and advocate everyone gets a fucking lunch break?” I mean, fuck, how silly can you be to be MAD at someone taking their lunch break because you’re not getting one? Be mad at the administration not providing adequate staffing to get people lunches. Be mad at your charge nurse for not making it happen. Don’t be mad at someone who’s suffering just as much as you for fucks sake.

Probably part of the reason I got so mad about this—I USED TO BE THE SAME WAY. We don’t take breaks. We’re too busy. You wouldn’t understand. Martyr me this, martyr me that. But while I was busy, I was also too stupid to realize not one person is SO VITAL the world can’t function without them taking a thirty minute lunch break. Like one other nurse’s spouse said —“Goddamn, even in the military they let you eat, FUCK.”

So I’m a charge nurse. Every time I go somewhere new I’m like I’M NOT GETTING SUCKED INTO THAT MESS AGAIN. And then I do, because invariably I see things I want to change, or make better, and then the bosses ask me, and if I don’t do it someone will do it and probably not how I would do it.

So lunch breaks are a pet peeve of mine. 

By hell or high water, my nurses are getting thirty minutes away from this shitshow. They deserve more than that but it’s a start. I’ve been doing it two years now, so maybe about 400 shifts? Around there? And I can count on my fingers how many times people went without lunches—and those were on the worst days of our lives. Hell, even the days we had more admits in the halls than actual rooms in the department we got lunches. Especially because I know when I miss lunch I’m a mean motherfucker. It’s not just the food. It’s the mental break you need. 

It makes me annoyed to see how prevalent the “fuck anyone who takes lunch on a busy day” attitude still is. Because it’s the sort of attitude that keeps us stuck in this place where we have no real regard for how we as healthcare workers are treated. There is absolutely no reason it should be an everyday thing no one gets lunch. It’s a basic need. 

I mean, how the fuck are we ever going to get federal safe staffing ratios if we can’t even advocate for a thirty minute break on a twelve hour shift? Why do we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of? What if a patient came to us with dizziness and vertigo and said they never ate lunch because they were busy feeding their kids and taking care of the house? What would we tell them?

It’s important to take care of yourself. 

It’s IMPORTANT to take care of yourself. 

Read it again, healthcare workers.

I know it’s seems like such a small thing to get so wound up about. The problem isn’t just about lunch breaks. It’s about the attitude of upper management towards staff, and the continued acceptance of it. Why is there so much lateral workplace violence in healthcare? Because people are sick and tired and pissed off and working themselves to death—and it’s been accepted for decades that this “is just the way it is.” And they’re afraid speaking up will end with discipline. 

Well, I say this isn’t the way is.

And once we adopted the “come hell or high water we’re getting lunch breaks” attitude, guess what? We get lunch breaks most of the time. 

You know how to enforce safe staffing in the ER? Don’t give an overwhelmed nurse another patient. You are that overwhelmed nurse? Refuse the assignment. And of you get fired over it? 

I mean, do you really want to work somewhere that doesn’t prioritize your safety? And patient safety? 

Stand up for yourself. Stop being afraid of using your voice. Maybe you’ll lose a job or two, but it’s better than continuing a cycle of abuse. You’ll find a job where you’re able to build a better tomorrow for the future of healthcare workers. I promise. 

Also, know when I see a sentiment like I mentioned in the very beginning, I don’t look at that ER Nurse who “doesn’t take breaks” and think WOW WHAT A BADASS ROLE MODEL, I think, “wow way to not have respect for yourself or your coworkers, thanks for setting us back yet again.”

— The Midwestern One