Do Lucozade and Mars bars count towards my five a day?

14 February, 2010 | By Victoria Thompson

Beyond the Bedpan wonders why all shift nurses aren’t managing to prepare and eat three healthy meals a day. It’s not like they’ve got anything better to worry about, right?

Oh hi, didn’t see you there. Too busy roasting these pine nuts and growing our own organic rocket to notice you come in.

What’s that? You don’t make your own nutritionally-balanced quinoa salads before your shift while you wait for your home made muffins to bake? No, thought not.

So the latest ‘research’ suggesting that working shifts is linked to abnormal eating habits shouldn’t really come as a shock to any of us.

Researchers found a strong link between working shifts and failing to find the time to fit in your 5 a day. Unsurprisingly, as most of the nurses we know are a little bit busy running around taking care of patients. Nurses have to be angels, but where can they find the time to be domestic goddesses too?

The study looked at 378 nurses at a hospital in Hong Kong. They did hope to speak to many more, but most were on lunch.

One of Beyond the Bedpan’s loyal readers remembers a time when it wasn’t all so bad.

“Many years ago we were looked after. The breaks were an hour for lunch or dinner plus a breakfast, an afternoon tea and coffee break and there was a sisters’ and a separate doctors’ dining area with waitress service. Minions had to queue.”

That certainly sounds like the sort of place Beyond the Bedpan would like to eat, never mind work. Are they still hiring?

Another reader pointed out that “our wards had signs up saying that it was the individual nurse’s responsibility to take their break within the allotted time - or lose it.”

Frankly we’d like to see the patient’s face if we tried that one. No, I’m sorry Mr Miller, I know you’re in desperate need of a trip to the loo, but I’m off for my lunch. I’ve just put a Ginsters pasty in the microwave in the staff room and I’d hate to waste my £1.50.

We were surprised by just how many people actually claimed to have lost weight since working shifts. Mind you, what better way to combat obesity than by throwing yourself into a career that could be nature’s answer to the gastric band. Maybe Lucozade and a mid-afternoon Mars bar are just the thing for that size zero body.

Beyond the Bedpan could really get its teeth into this one, but there’s a queue forming at the vending machine and we’re just dying for a Kit Kat.

Readers' comments (21)

Anonymous | 14-Feb-2010 9:10 am
What's up with you BB? Get some porridge or muesli before you go to work. Have some ready made sushi from M&S or some walnuts from Lidl for lunch. Have some ready peeled and cut mixed fruit in a container from the supermarket. When you get home do a turkey stir fry (about 7 minutes) or steam some river cobbler with broccoli and spinach (about 12 minutes). If you can't afford this, you'll just have to cut down on your fags, booze and mars bars!
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Anonymous | 14-Feb-2010 10:36 am
Ohhh anonymous ... I can hear the rattling of feathers from here. There's hardling time to dress in the morning with getting the kids sorted and making sure the washing is in the machine let alone sit down to a bowl of porridge!Talk about health promotion it would be nice if there was more than crips, chocolate and fizzy drinks in the vending machine too!
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Kay Hawes | 14-Feb-2010 11:09 am
I really don't fancy eating porridge or muesli at 5.30 in the morning! I've put on lots of weight over 3 years since working 12.5 hour shifts both day & night despite the amount of running around I do. I take a healthy packed lunch every day and fruit snacks with bottled water. We are entitled to 30 minutes paid break on our ward (not enough on a long day shift!!!!) and a further 30 minutes discretionary if the ward is quiet (rarely) or we can pop into the office for a quick swig of water and a banana or a cup of tea and a biscuit when possible - I try to avoid stuffing my face with the chocolates the patients have kindly given to us but it has been known! I'm dehydrated, constipated and fat along with the exhaustion and everything that goes with it and I know there are a lot of us out there. However, I love my job, the patients, my colleagues and wouldn't dream of leaving. Can anyone help offer sensible tips, no I cannot face breakfast at 5.30 in the morning & believe me I've tried!! and just fall into bed after my shift finishes in the evening too tired for supper.
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Anonymous | 14-Feb-2010 11:33 am
I would get a healthy meal if our canteen actually opened after 6 and on a weekend anymore.

Entitled to a 30 minute brak on a long day too - not long enough!!

Fat and unable to get healthy food down me quick enough to digest and get back to work!!!

A very tired and slogged A&E Nurse
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Anonymous | 14-Feb-2010 11:51 am
Well thanks for this incendiary piece of journalism! It certainly has caused a bit of a stir.... I would love to comment but i'm now too busy seething about my lack of representation in the nursing times, with the assumption that I wish to be a domestic goddess. I know there aren't many of us but our beards dont go well with baking muffins!
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Anonymous | 14-Feb-2010 12:24 pm
I think it really depends upon how important health and nutrition is to you. If it's important (as it should be) then a little forward planning before the shift begins is necessary. At the end of a long shift something light but nutritious such as steamed fish and veg is easy and quick - only takes 15 mins - same as a microwave meal. Buy frozen veg and fish for convenience. Cook extra and take the leftovers in a lunchbox for lunch the next day. Also take plenty of fruit and wholegrains (bananas, avocado, apples, satsumas, wholemeal bread, brown rice) for energy. Always have a container of nuts for lasting energy and to help balance blood sugar. Almonds and brazils are particularly nutritious. Mini pots of natural bio yoghurt, add berries for taste, are also good and help digestion when on the move. Most importantly, always have a large bottle of tap water on you. NEVER skip breakfast, even if you don't feel hungry. During the shift, eat whenever you get the chance and drink LOTS of water. I work long shifts and I have had no problem with this as long as I know I have the right foods on me. If you're sensible about what you eat, blood glucose will stay balanced and it becomes less important to eat at certain times. If anything it can make you more in tune with your body and its hunger patterns. I know it sounds like an effort but it's more about getting into a good routine, then it becomes second nature. Plus there are countless benefits to be gained from looking after yourself in this way, not least the care delivered to patients. Yes there will always be marketing ploys, vending machines and junk 'convenience' food at our fingertips, that is how these brands make their money. But we are intelligent professionals who should be setting an example in health and wellbeing, and we must put in that little extra effort to demonstrate that, as ever, prevention is better than cure. In a world where chronic disease is increasingly a product of affluence and consumer choice, surely the example we set is just as important as the care we give.
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Anonymous | 14-Feb-2010 3:40 pm
It really is soooo difficult to prepare for the long days, food wise, especially if you have two in a row! It probably can be done, however, someone here mentioned the canteen, and I have to agree that when I don't have my lunch with me then I have to ensure that I go at the right times to the canteen in order to get a hot meal which isn't always easy what with being so busy! Also, the time of breaks, half an hour, really isn't enough to sit down and eat a meal slowly and allowing it to digest before doing another marathon on the wards!
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Jacqueline de Laporte | 14-Feb-2010 5:15 pm
Dear Anon 12.24. When you are tired of working shifts in a hospital you sound like just the sort of Nurse we need in Primary Care. Practical, sensible and above all a good role model. Instead of finding only problems and obstacles to eating healthily you have come up with good solutions. Spread the word!
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Beth Young | 14-Feb-2010 5:53 pm
If this wasn't soo true I would LMAO
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John Adamson | 14-Feb-2010 7:50 pm
You guys that can eat during a shift are very lucky indeed. In the large district general hospital just outside Edinburgh where I work (no names given!) we are not allowed to eat on shift for infection control reasons - yes you may laugh - but it's true. On a 10.5 hr shift we get 30the customary 30 mins paid and 15 min discretionary if it's quiet which we rarely miss I must admit. All food must be eaten either in the canteen or the staff room. Water during working hours is NOT allowed - infection control. I too remember the waitress servie for Sisters/ charge nurses and can recommend it - however that's a distant memory now.
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Anonymous | 14-Feb-2010 9:13 pm
Dear Anon 12:24 and John, I agree fully with what you are both saying. I've had the benefit of working in the general hospitals prior to the "infection control" restrictions. It has been well known for some time that shift work makes an impact to your physical and mental health, let alone your eating habbits. Personally I now feel that the infection control has gone abit OTT. Now that you're not even allowed a bottled drink by the nurses station I increasingly find myself suffering from dehydration throughout the shift, and quite often advise the patients as I have to go get a drink before I end up ill myself.

In a time that we are meant to be encouraging our patients to comsume diet and fluids, why are we being restricted? Food I understand, however a drink I would argue. Patients have jugs of water on their tables, so what is the difference between that and a bottle of water for a member of staff?

However, rant over! I agree that things can be done to get around unhealthy eating during shifts. In mental health wards, particularly private though have seen it in some NHS settings, staff are invited to eat same meals as the patients, however in general settings that can be seen as disciplinary. Why the two tier treatment?

I think this is something that only the "powers that be" can alter to make things easier for the nursing team, after all if we are given respect, encouraged to look after ourselves, then people feel valued and can be seen to be more efficient and effective and happy within their nursing role
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Anonymous | 15-Feb-2010 0:15 am
I never seem to manage to eat the lunch I take to work. Usually my break consists of a biscuit eaten on the run.

http://shadesofgreynursing.blogspot.com/
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Anonymous | 15-Feb-2010 6:04 pm
I left the acute care sector because i never got my lunch! I now work in primary care. I get a 15 min tea break twice a day and an hour at lunch to consume my banquet of saturated fat goodies.....

I now have CHD, Gout, Kidney stones and diverticulitis so stop your whining!

You should be grateful you are starved as you work. :)
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Anonymous | 16-Feb-2010 4:21 pm
I work in acute mental health care which comes under the division of Primary Care. I work an 8hour shift and am entitled to a half hour unpaid break and a 15minute tea break. However, I have yet to take this tea break. The reason for this being that there simply isn't enough time. The half hour dinner breaks are often interrupted as there are only 3 members of staff on duty and so a quick sandwich and the only drink of the shift is quickly consumed. Patients meal times on the wards are protected yet, as nurses providing their care, ours are not. At the hospital where I work staff are not allowed to eat or drink on the ward for reasons relating to Health and Safety. Yet another example of hypocracy. I have a large bowl of porridge before shifts, including backshift followed by a cup of tea to set me up for the day. For those who get paid meal breaks, enjoy it while you can.
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Phil Dup | 16-Feb-2010 7:51 pm
We need a 24 hour MacDonalds at every Hospital in the country with delivery to the wards -mmmmmmm 2 bacon 'n' egg McMuffins + hash browns at the end of every nightshift yum yum !
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Laura Ellison | 19-Feb-2010 7:47 pm
No way do I want to eat at 5am in the morning - or drink for that matter. I manage til about 11am (my first break) without eating anything. Then, I have the hospital canteen produce - which although is not great, is appealing after a busy morning. Toast, tea, the occasional fried egg and a handful of buttered mushrooms. Then, I don't often eat again til 3pm or later. The half hour break we get for lunch is pathetic. Staff (including us lowly students!) have to queue behind visitors and patients who are NOT on a strict time limited break. By the time I've prepared my salad from the salad bar, (my usual choice), queued and paid, found a seat - half my break is long gone! If Trust's want us to eat healthily, they should also take into consideration the environment in which we eat. Having to stuff myself with salad in fifteen minutes isn't fun - how am I supposed to digest it properly?! What happened to the dieticians recommendation of chewing 20 times before swallowing? Like thats going to happen! And all to often on a night shift am I forced to resort to a Bounty and a can of Diet Coke for my "lunch" as our canteen is only open for a few hours a day.
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Anonymous | 20-Feb-2010 11:32 am
I am amazed at how many people get paid lunchbreaks. I work 12.5 hour shifts, but my 30 min (hah!) lunch period is unpaid. So, everytime I rush a 15 minute grab at something in the office (I can then hear if the alarms are not getting in answered!)and then go back to work early because I feel sorry for my similarly overworked colleagues, the NHS is getting free work from me! The 15 min paid break (am) and discretionary (pm) break are very, and i mean very, rarely taken. So....i suppose my question is, why is the NHS in such debt when they get all this free nursing time from us??????
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Hwei Min Kee | 23-Feb-2010 2:33 pm
my 24hr of a working day spent: 8hrs of sleep, 13hrs of nursing work, 2hrs of travel time, what is left is 1hr of personal time which is to do housework, family issues, hobbies, etc... What is life?
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Anonymous | 25-Feb-2010 1:01 pm
hi i to am amazed at how many of you get a paid break and do not begrudge you it at all. at our trust breaks are not paid we get 30 mins of the ward for a 7 and a half hour shift those that do a long dat 7 till 939 have two half hours and an hour all unpaid. we are forbidden to eat or drink on the ward infection control risk. we have a water cooler in sisters office fine as long as her door is open, and there is not a meeting going on ect. i struggle to eat if i get the full 30 mins our canteen too far away to visit we have large coffee room to eat in complete with microwave. normally have fruit and coffee. but wouldn'y change my job for any other.
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Anonymous | 15-May-2010 2:29 pm
Tut tut tut to all my fellow nurses...dont your realise that we dont have it that bad i mean we could be our managers think of those poor luvies i mean they poor souls work an eight hour day get a full hour lunch break or even more if its a 'working lunch' and have a nice cosy office where they can drink their tea and water till they full so come on..'angels' think of those less fortunate than us!!!
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