The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives
“I look at my watch: 1:45 p.m. I usually don’t feel this way until after 2:00, but I haven’t had a morning snack except for those few saltines and Dorothy’s candy. The dizziness will pass, but then simple things will start to make less sense. I’m not unsafe when I’m hungry, just slow, and I’ll get slower the longer I wait to eat.
I’ll have lunch. Dorothy’s discharge can wait a few more minutes and the pastor usually lets us know when she gets here so I won’t miss her if I’m off the floor.
... Lunch is touchy for a lot of nurses. We don’t get paid for the thirty minutes when we supposedly eat, but there’s rarely staff to cover our patients, so most of us work through lunch without being paid for that time. Class-action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of nurses not getting paid for a lunch break we never take, but the practice, at least from what I hear, is common.
Even when there’s an official way for nurses to note that we didn’t get a lunch break and should be paid for the time, the hospital may subtly dissuade nurses from putting in a claim for every non-lunch.MoreLess
I’ll have lunch. Dorothy’s discharge can wait a few more minutes and the pastor usually lets us know when she gets here so I won’t miss her if I’m off the floor.
... Lunch is touchy for a lot of nurses. We don’t get paid for the thirty minutes when we supposedly eat, but there’s rarely staff to cover our patients, so most of us work through lunch without being paid for that time. Class-action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of nurses not getting paid for a lunch break we never take, but the practice, at least from what I hear, is common.
Even when there’s an official way for nurses to note that we didn’t get a lunch break and should be paid for the time, the hospital may subtly dissuade nurses from putting in a claim for every non-lunch.MoreLess
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