Nurses eating on shift...

[PatsyAndEddy]

Just back from hospital visiting a friend who had her tonsils out today. She had to fast from 10 pm last night and didn't get taken for her op until 2pm, that's a long time without food for anyone!

She missed dinner on the ward but they got her a sandwich but she's really sore and hungry!

On the ward her bed is right next to the nurses station. She said they were sitting munching on a large bag of kettle chips in front of her between the three of them. She commented on how she thought that was a but mean, they snapped back saying 'well we have to eat' at which point my friend reminded them that's what they're breaks were for.

I don't think she's flavour of the month in the ward! She can be a bit of a grump at the best of times but starving, sore and groggy I think she reached her limit!

We're the nurses being unreasonable, eating on shift?

idiot55 I don't wish to be rude but what a load of rubbish you're talking. Perhaps you are Mr Hunt?

I would love to hear the union rep's response though if someone rang going waah I didn't get my break :)

And you're lucky if you see anyone above band 5 actually on a ward these days. What hospital are you familiar with? Does Hattie Jaques work there?

idiot55 - you could not be more wrong. Certainly on our ward if you saw us going off the ward it was for the theatre runs.
We often went without lunch, and we often worked after our shifts were supposed to finish. If you complain you are told you need to work faster, despite you not having stopped all day or even sat down in 12 hours. Unions do not care about breaks, as long as your contract says you get breaks they assume you get them.

Nurses do get their breaks, it would be illegal and unions would be going mad if the didn't, however sisters, charge nurses tend not to.

Sorry, but total bollocks.

I frequently don't get a break. So work 8 hours and only get paid for 7.5. Also some wards have 7.5 hr shifts with a "discretionary" break, ie you get ten mins if possible but if not you can't complain as you're not entitled to one as you're been paid for the whole shift.

Yes I get fucked off at working so much over my hours but I'm not going to walk out of theatre mid operation. I then have to recover the patient and by the time theatre is clean I have to go in with the next one.

And it's eight hours if I get off on time, often it's longer as no one can be found to take over at 4pm as no new staff come on at that time.

Have I complained to the unions? No, to be honest I haven't due to worries about my job, bullying, etc.

Your friend was hungry, sore, possibly feeling a bit sick, and uncomfortable.
You should have pampered her, humoured her and distracted her with ice lollies and snacks. Like you do with a grumpy and unreasonable person.
If she's normally grumpy, then being ill will make her even more foul-tempered.
You shouldn't be attempting to validate her foolishness with this daft thread.
Nurses often don't get a break, or work over their time if necessary.
They were eating crisps, not mainlining.

*idiot55 Yes you are.

Unions??!! WTF Do you honestly thing there are any nurses that feel the unions have any real weight to improve their working conditions. That is absolutely laughable!

Breaks? Of course they get breaks No they don't. A nurse i know collapsed the other day after 9 hours non stop on a baking ward. D'you know what, they sat her down with a glass of water and an emergeny mars bar, 20 minutes later she was back on the ward.

Get with the real world.

They were not BU. I'm a nurse (although now in private sector with breaks!) but in my A+E days if I got a break it was 5 minutes in the store room or behind a curtain with a sandwich.

They were probably eating whilst doing their write ups.

I can't see that snacking at desk is issue,so long as they alert/responsive when needed
To idiot who reckons staff get all allocated due breaks, no.simply not case
I imagine unions are overwhelmed with big substantive cases other than lack of breaks

I could tell you a million stories to prove how U you are, but I can't be arsed to name change and I'm drinking wine and telling these stories would raise my blood pressure far to high.

I'm waiting to get deleted as accusing someone of being Jeremy Hunt is surely a 'personal attack'.

I don't eat on shift - ie out on the ward its unprofessional but then again I don't stand around chatting for 45 minutes about my boyfriend I don't have one and neither does the male nurse I was teamed with

You really hate nurses don't you married strange they are always female

Well at least you can't smell crisps, last time I was hungry and in hospital they were all eating toast! Do you have any idea how good toast smells when you're hungry!

YABU btw!

I had my tonsils out - I struggled to get ice lollies down for the week after ,let alone eat crisps on the day of surgery !!

Oh yes the toast!

I still maintain the tea and toast after giving birth was the best thing I've ever eaten, ever!

Very sorry your friend couldn't eat but its no the nurses fault. They work damn hard and rarely get a break when they should but you want to begrudge them some crisps? My god they could eat what they want if im in there i know how hard their job is

Merely noting what I have experienced. Apologies if anyone doesn't like the truth. Recalls DH insisting a doctor was called and ds arriving half dead!! At least bright bluezn needing resuscitation, after the arrival of about 12 people. So glad DH realised there was a problem when the midwife wasn't too bothered.

Obviously coming across one poor MW gives you carte blanche to generalise that to every other HCP working in the NHS.

Nurses Doctors and Police are very overworked, understaffed and hardly ever manage to take proper breaks, if at all. So grabbing food when they can so they can carry on and do the best they can for their patients is ok, surely.

Your friend sounds really rude

Agreed one bad nurse doesn't make them all bad. Sounds like u had a scary time but they aren't all bad. Plhs was the mw only looking after you or did she have other people to look after

More than one midwif2. Credit me with reading my posts - dd's admission, ds's, mine and dh's. Didn't see a lot of hard work I'm afraid let alone overwork. They even complained when Dh insisted on being discharged before his drugs were ready because they were busy and it meant they would have to admit someone else. Someone from a and e, who had been waiting on a trolley and could stayy there - yep lovely, v. Professional. Big london teaching hospital really excelled itself that dayz.

Also when u stay late there's
Never any time to get
Time owing back for not having breaks! I wish people
Who didn't work within the
Nhs see what it's like! When a high risk post natal ward has
28 mummies and 28 babies all needing care! Only 3midwives
Caring for them 56
People! Where is the time to get
Breaks! Get in the real world people! My colleague has ended up on hospital wit kidney stones due to dehydration because of lack of drinks! Many take their notes on lunch hour the only break they get to catch up!

highly likely they didn't get a break in a 12 hour shift - i used to work on the wards.

Don't have time for lunch most days - it doesn'y mean I pull out my sandwiches or a packet of crisps in front of my clients during meetings. That would be ill mannered.

married you had a dreadful experience and that midwife sounds awful, but surely you can grasp that she is not representative of the way all nurses and mws behave all the time?

To put it another way - Kyle, Hunt, Vine, all gits, but I bet most Jeremys are lovely.

What's that thing about the plural of anecdote not being data...?