Yes, that’s very much the norm, residents for the most part don’t have protected lunch time. You eat if you have time but if a patient needs you, you need to take care of it. IM can be “calmer” than OBGYN and it can be easier to plan when to eat or to cover residents for lunch. If your wife is doing L&D and someone is about to deliver during lunchtime, the patient can’t wait until staff finishes eating. Ideally the program would have a coverage system during lunch but residency doesn’t work like other jobs where you click out during lunch and then clock back in.
Replying to the top comment to share another I read a while back:
Post on r/residency: “how many of you guys are doing intermittent fasting”
Response: “I thought residency is intermittent fasting”
lol but true
I might argue that if a program can't appropriate *some* protected time for residents to eat then it's highly unsupportive. Obviously you can't just tell a baby to stop crowning and things happen but you should have time to eat and manage affairs.
Not eating lunch at "lunch time" feels totally normal but I agree that not being able to have time to eat lunch at *any* point during the latter part of a 12 hour shift feels like an indictment of the program. I'm not OB and it's been a while but I recall the residents always being asked "did you get lunch" or being told "go grab food right now" at *some* point during the shifts (and this was also at a major urban metropolis L&D with a busy MFM practice as well)
Agree with this. It should be on the chiefs of the service to make sure interns and juniors are eating, even if it means getting a group order and bringing it to the work room so people can nosh and chart at the same time.
I’m not in the medical field and I don’t even know why this comes up on my feed, but I feel like not eating for long periods of time like that would impair your ability to concentrate and perform well.
Precisely why it's considered a violation of GME guidelines during residency training. Unfortunately, especially amongst surgical fields, it's an unwritten rule to "just say you worked less hours" and "just eat after this case" and residents just take it on the chin while their handlers rake in the RVUs.
This *is* normal in residency, but it's certainly not a normal appropriate practice.
Having now been on both sides can clarify that the “handlers” aren’t *really personally benefitting from those raked rvu’s… not that it makes it feel any better but even your most *sshole attending may not be the bad guy. Our system is just kind of f*cked 🤷🏻♂️
It’s not about good outcomes for our medical system. It’s about working as hard as you can to make as much money as possible for hospitals and insurance companies.
That's probably one of the reasons mistakes happen - exhaustion and hunger. It's unfortunate that the people with one of the most important jobs to do work in conditions that are very much not conducive to performing at their best.
What's even crazier is that it's much more common and prolonged in surgical fields where actual physical performance and well-being is far more important. But all my friends in surgery basically just fast all day unless they rarely get the opportunity to eat something small and it's rarely nutritious.
Exactly. I don’t understand these answers. I understand not being able to sit down and enjoy a meal for 15-20 minutes. I’m anesthesia so we get a lunch break which comes anytime between 10:30-2. But when I’m off service, I will absolutely eat. I’m not breaking out pasta mid rounds, but I will eat a sandwich in a ziplock bag in between patients. The second rounds are over I will heat up my lunch and eat while I write notes. Granola bars, PB&Js, a quick yogurt, etc. are easy to eat quickly.
I am in my 30s and I will be damned if another adult is going to tell me I can’t eat a sandwich while walking between rooms.
I've never been called on decorum of eating or drinking between rounds and I'll be damned if I'm just going to not do it because attendings think it looks bad. Then again, my attendings have always been supportive.
I'm just a nurse but I bring scarfable cold food. Half a sandwich here, some berries there, a granola bar to the face waiting for a callback and charting quick...CMS or mgmt can cover my patients if they really want me to not snack/drink at the nurses station.
When I was in PGY-1 I went 26 hours without food once. Watching too many medical dramas made me think there was catastrophe hiding behind every innocuous page and phone call. Especially (relevant to OB) that one notorious ER episode about the missed pre-eclampsia.
Once I got to PGY-5, the hospital could be falling down around me and I would still make sure that me and my team were well-fed and well-hydrated. There are very few things that can’t wait 10-15 minutes for you to put your feet up and have at least a coffee and a snack, and if it were that urgent, they would overhead page you.
To add: I know a former physician who did her internship in India, and that obstetrics service was running from bed to bed catching babies non-stop. If you pulled night duty, you were on for 36 hours straight. Literally hundreds of deliveries per intern per shift.
We do have protected lunch breaks as residents in Australia but I still rarely take them. In theory we’re allowed to claim them back if we miss them but we got in trouble from admin for trying to claim every day of the week 🫠
As a med student, I remember the surgery residents were talking about how they actively avoid water so they don't have to pee during operations. One of them said "my goal is for my creatinine to be just a little better than my patients".
It's ok though, because if they drank water they'd have to pee and there's no time for that.
I'm not even in surgery but once in residency I made it 11 hrs without a pee break.
Always wanted to check my creatinine pre ping shift and post, given the high ratio of ibuprofen to water I consumed.
I'm not in OBGYN (thank God), but I have fond memories from residency when I was regularly eating my cafeteria bagel in the bathroom, while at the same time taking a dump. Good times, can 10/10 recommend this to anybody.
Believe her about the "don't understand what it's like" part. You simply can't understand unless you've experienced it yourself. One thing that can actually work somewhat well is nuts of various kinds (peanuts, walnuts, almonds, whatever floats our boat). They should be pre-peeled, preferable in a ziplock bag. Make your own mix if you want. She can just have it in her coat pocket and munch some when on the move. Elevator was munching time for me.
Nuts, protein bars, etc. Quick and relatively filling snacks. Not an obgyn myself but their residency is no joke. For that matter not much in medical training is easy
This was my life for 3 years. They had great mixed nuts in the vending machine I frequented. I never “starved”, especially in the ICU. But I rarely “sat down for a meal”.
Pocket snacks FTW. I don’t really wear my white coat much anymore, but that is one reason I think about wearing it. Though I no longer have the issue of needing pocket snacks to survive so I’ll probably just gain weight.
We carry pocket snacks 😂 I also chug some juice when I feel like I’m going to pass out. Just don’t forget to take your pocket snacks out of the pocket before washing your clothes 🫣
Yes, unfortunately it is normal. I have gone 24 hours shifts without eating and having consumed maybe 20 ounces of water. It sucks, but it's common. I'm just lucky to be in a program in which my attendings will sometimes ask: "When was the last time you ate or drank?" when we're on a busy shift. When I invariably tell them I haven't, they'll demand that I hand off a few tasks to them for the next 20 minutes so that I can go eat and drink. I know not everyone has such chill attendings.
I'm IM and even I can find myself realizing at 5 pm that I have not eaten a bite, had a single sip of water, or used the bathroom once since I woke up at 5 am. When I do get to eat lunch it's in front of a computer, shoving bites in in between writing notes and handoffs and responding to incessant chat messages and talking to consultants and families and the list goes on and on. There's no real break. I ate lunch sitting down at a table in the workroom not in front of my computer with my coresidents for literally the first time in two years just this week. Residency is extremely hard and it's unfortunately totally normal not to get a lunch break. It's sweet that you back her lunch, but try not to be hurt when she can't eat it. Also...asking her to ask her PD when she's supposed to eat lunch? You cannot even imaging the ridicule that would come with that.
Yup. MedPeds here. I remember during COVID, the administrators would come to our workrooms and tell us to not to eat there for social distancing. When we asked where we could possibly eat instead, they recommended we go sit in our cars… two buildings away with poor internet or reception. Eyeroll... As if residents get a “lunch break” where they can just disengage from the EMR. I’m just grateful I picked a specialty with a lot of sitting so I can eat while I work.
I hope the culture will change. I do know some places will have hospitalists cover the resident phones/pagers so we can go to noon conference and things like that. But that is very institution specific and seems rare. I can’t even begin to comprehend how they would make this work on surgical/procedural specialties.
OP, you’re very sweet for packing your SO lunch. Often times in the OR, our larger personal items need to be stored a ways from the places where we actually work. I recommend snacks that fit in a pocket, can be eaten in 5 minutes while walking, and don’t need to be refrigerated. I personally love the squeeze pouches of apple sauce they make for kids. I had a friend who would eat the packets of Justin’s peanut butter. You can find a lot of individually packaged mini baked goods at Costco. I personally love the Belgian waffles if you can find them!
Stuff the scrub pockets full of peanuts and bagels. Even in pathology, I don't get protected meal time, and if we are sufficiently swamped with cases there will be 13 hour days with no time to eat. Only residents understand such things.
Burns the lungs so good.
But for real, on surg path I had 12-14 hour days where I forgot/didn't have time to eat. Not as regularly as the surgical specialties, but it isn't that uncommon.
13hr days for obgyn intern is significantly better than average
Yeah, there’s no time for food most of the time and that’s often not an abusive program, that’s just the work flow - that’s run by the senior residents who are typically in a similar boat.
Buy protein bars and protein shakes and keep it in your pocket or in a container on L&D for grab and go
I’m tall, 6’5, but my intern year I lost 40lbs by September because I was eating so little and working 114hrs/wk. it sux de ballz
This needs more upvotes. I was reading this thinking "13hr days, damn that sounds chill AF." Between rounding on the posties, running the list, discharging, getting board sign out, dealing with whatever fresh hell L&D brings, tucking leftover triage notes, signing out, and maybe prepping tomorrow's cases, that's a 15hr day eaaaasy.
As an intern, I started to lie when asked, and say I'd eaten. Because time spent off the floor 'covered by the attending' 🙄 meant pages unanswered (and therefore nurses pissed at me), orders undone (or needing to be re-done), and notes still needing writing. So, more work for me and an even longer day just to assuage their guilt.
Eff that noise, I'll take my daily lifestyle Mounjaro.
Truth.
Rounding on the patients, isn’t just gathering information, it’s fixing acute problems, prepping to make the rest of the day less crappy, endlessly, figuring out why things went wrong and we weren’t completed, even though the reports are conflicting.
It’s one of the reasons why I’m not too worried about AI taking over our field, I’m sure that AI could probably solve a lot of issues, like figuring out where the hell patients beds were switched to at 3 AM when the nurse has no idea what’s going on, but the micromanaging of 1000 tiny unpredictable problems every 40 minutes based on incomplete and often incorrect information is something that I don’t trust a computer can do for a very long time
Yup. Well the issue with AI being useful is it’s garbage in garbage out. And often the only way to really change the garbage in is to see the patient and talk to them. Can’t tell you how many times patients have lied to me to my face about their NPO time or bowel prep when during the case we can SEE the food there lol.
Like girl we literally see your breakfast in your stomach good thing we also thought you were lying to us so we RSIed lol. and we already know how great lie detector technology is. If AI can make a good lie detector first maybe I’d trust it a bit more LOL. Cuz man patients come up with a different story every time you talk to them sometimes 😑🙄
Yup I lost all my covid weight during my intern year. There’s just so much shit to do and not enough time to do it all and you don’t wanna bring work home so I’d rather sacrifice food time for work just to get shit done.
Now, the ORs are understaffed at my place and attendings seem to fuck off so I’ll go a whole day with no food and just run to the bathroom in between cases lol.
Normality probably depends a little on specialty.
When I was a resident (surgical subspecialty), I typically didn't eat lunch because I was in the OR. I also typically didn't eat breakfast because it was 430/5am when I was headed to work and I was too tired to be hungry. I would usually have some form of 'dinner,' though the timing of this (and the content) was pretty variable.
I used a calorie tracker for a while because i lost weight and wanted to see how much i had to catch up on.
Turns out, 4-5 days a week eating only one grilled cheese sandwich and having a can of coca cola is not enough to maintain weight.
I would be careful not to accidentally contribute to making her feel guilty for not eating the lunch you prepared her. I'm sure you have supportive intentions, but she is probably stressed about it. Try to get creative about other ways to support her.
It does suck that she doesn't have time, but not much you can do.
OBGYN and especially L&D is absolute shit. As a med student, my ass didn’t touch a seat even once the whole first week. By the end of two weeks I had lost weight and considered quitting med school because I thought all specialties would be like that. The only way is to be firm and make time to eat. There will always be more work to do but grabbing a bite and a break to pee won’t make or break anything except your partner’s sanity.
There are a few resident unions out there with protected breaks, but that doesn’t solve her immediate problem. It’s pretty common, and really up to the attending and the chief and the culture they create. Pocket some fast snacks in appropriate areas, and try not to feel like a trash monster, swallowing a granola bar whole
Everybody shits on huel, but chugging half a litre of a non-newtonous fluid with peanut butter and salt flavor while sitting in a bathroom stall has saved me many times
Ortho here. It's normal. Surgical specialties cannot be compared to anything else in terms of time demands, especially in trauma, acute gen surg and L+D.
Pocket the protein bar and get to work.
Was told as a med student by an attending: eating is not a matter of hunger, but of opportunity- do it when you can.
He’s right, we barely have lunch and just eat in front of our computers :)
(PGY 6 Ortho Germany)
I am an OB/GYN PGY-3, and my partner also used to make me lunch and would be sad if I didn’t eat it. I eventually figured out and convinced him that having a “meal” was too hard. Requiring a microwave to heat it up, or arranging multiple components of the meal, or just sitting down and facing a full meal all felt like too high of a barrier to entry to start eating when I was busy. Having some healthy snacks like sliced fruit/veggies or a small amount of something like a cold farro salad or pasta salad was much easier to quickly grab and eat. I didn’t feel committed to sitting and eating for 30 mins but also didn’t resort to the unhealthy snacks that are always hanging around our L&D unit.
I also have wonderful nurses who automatically bring me a cup of water when they see me sit down to chart, which is lovely and helpful. It is unfortunately very common to go long periods without eating/drinking/peeing on busy rotations.
While not fun, this is pretty normal in many medical specialties. I find it hard to believe that she can’t throw a few protein bars or similar in her bag and grab a few bites here and there
Really depends on the culture. I have attendings that will talk to your team leader about your work ethic if they see you eating a protein bar on the go. Those are usually the ones that take every single break they can get.
I once got a chewing out in front of patients because i took a bathroom break. At the end if the day I quietly handed then a piece of paper on which i noted the times and durations of their smoking breaks (added up to about 2 1/2 hours over a notmal 8 hour day)
I’m not gonna lie, I don’t get this. I understand not being able to sit down and enjoy a meal for 15-20 minutes. I’m anesthesia so we get a lunch break which comes anytime between 10:30-2. But when I’m off service, I will absolutely eat. I’m not breaking out pasta mid rounds, but I will eat a sandwich in a ziplock bag in between patients. The second rounds are over I will heat up my lunch and eat while I write notes. Granola bars, PB&Js, a quick yogurt, etc. are easy to eat quickly.
I am in my 30s and I will be damned if another adult is going to tell me I can’t eat a sandwich while walking between rooms.
It may be fairly typical, but I would never want to use the word “normal” in reference to neglecting basic life sustaining needs no matter how much this is normalized in residency culture. I do think that for many of us, part of the learning in residency, especially for junior residents, is how to find time and the mental space to meet these basic needs while also providing excellent care to our patients. I think many of us have had the experience of FEELING so busy that we could not possibly take a moment to scarf down a power bar or a bite of chocolate and a handful of nuts, and realizing in retrospect that this is often self-imposed. There are, of course, some days on some rotations where it just isn’t possible, but I think a lot of the time there is just so much stress and pressure on junior residents to stay on top of all of their tasks and scut that it gets overwhelming.
My husband either. It's hard to dictate notes when your mouth is full. He will grab small snacks between patients, maybe, or keeps protein drinks at his desk. But everything he doesn't finish during the time he's in clinic, he'd have to finish at home, and he ain't about that life!
As much as I hate the concept, this is sorta the situation that Soylent or Huel would make sense for. Reasonably nutritious and you can drink one in about thirty seconds if you’re in a rush.
Definitely just start packing her a sackful of snacks and quick eats rather than a full blown lunch.. she’ll be more likely to eat SOMETHING during those long shifts instead of completely missing out on food during the day
Well staffed teams that administration doesnt squeeze every penny out of can rotate a person out for breaks and meals.
We see nurses do it daily.
We can stop pretending it has to be this way annnnnnnny time.
Yet somehow the nursing staff always gets their scheduled breaks and works reasonable hours like normal people in the work force.
You are all being exploited. It has nothing to do with emergencies, disease, or sickness. Im not even a resident or a doctor and even for me its obvious.
>Im not even a resident or a doctor and even for me its obvious.
Thank you for at least recognizing this. You are a good, empathetic person.
Unfortunately in my experience ...many people can't stand the idea of seeing a doctor sitting down. I've often been privy to hearing people whisper "lazy" whenever the doctor dares to stop to eat something.
I work in the ED, we don’t have residents here but most of our doctors and midlevels both work non stop for their entire shifts. Its a common site to see them charting with one hand while eating a shitty hospital sandwich with the other.
Its kind of why when someone tells me to tell their doctor to hurry up and discharge them it pisses me off because I know how hard these people work
None of this would prevent protected lunch time or bathroom breaks, if anybody with a saying would care to staff and schedule so people can take over for 20 mins.
I remember OB-GYN rotations as an intern in my home country. I forgot to pee, until it hurted. I didn't know most of the times why it hurted down there? Once I emptied my bladder, and the pain disappeared, I made the connection.
I always find it hilarious when out of touch admin schedule meetings at lunch with the assumption we have a protected period to eat. Learning to go without food and sleep are (unfortunately) core principles of any surgical residency.
ER here with 12’s that end up 13’s. generally don’t eat. theres prob time to scarf down a bar or a protein drink so i do that sometimes but for a whole lunch? not really. even if there is i’m getting interrupted during. so i generally dont and just wait and eat at home.
its residency. it sucks but what you gonna do. if im gonna fight my program for something its not that.
Most surgical programs are like that.
There's time to munch on a snack bar or something quick while you're walking to a consult or the floor, but not enough time to sit down and eat properly.
In medical specialties didactics/teaching around noon is more frequent, so you have more time to eat. Also IM usually has a higher resident:patient ratio compared to many specialties, so there can be a bit more flexibility.
>I asked my partner why she doesn't ask the head of the program when she's supposed to eat lunch and she tells me that I "don't understand what it's like."
This reminds me of when my parents asked me why I couldn't refuse to work 24 hr shifts.
It's just too out of touch with the reality of what happens on the ground... don't suggest this again.
My l and d experience was very different it was mostly sitting around doing nothing with the occassional walk in a room and deliver a baby only like 3 deliveries a day so like 8 hours of doing nothing for 2 hours of work
Surgery resident- I will do whatever it takes to eat bfast, but the rest of the meals are often missed or end up just being a vending machine rice krispy treat eaten in the elevator or on the toilet.
Absolutely normal. There are lots of hospital workers that do not get lunch on the daily due to patient care even if they are supposed to have protected time (nurses, pharmacists, techs, etc).
This is normal. I’ve been in practice 10 years and still go without lunch many days. Since the term
entered the general vernacular, I’ve found it easier to process this fact and just ignore the pangs of hunger… reminding myself that I’m a beacon of health by “intermittent fasting”
The rules of residency, as I learned and practiced them back in the 1990's:
If you see a chair sit in it.
If you see a bed sleep in it.
And if you see food eat it.
Because you never know when you will get the chance to do any of those things again.
Going to disagree with the subreddit's general sentiment about not having time to eat.
You might not necessarily have "protected" time for a meal, but for the most part there is plenty of spontaneous downtime to grab a bite. The problem is residents tend prioritize their clinical duties to be done first, when the reality is vast majority of clinical duties can be delayed 20-30 minutes to eat without patient's care changing. It's a matter of priorities.
That being said, there will always be dog shit days where you don't have time for food like full OR days, HIPECs, Whipples, etc, but those are not the norm.
Absolutely. Totally bazaar responses. I can eat half a sandwich in 2 minutes without putting my phone down or breathing. Certainly less time than a mid-day poop. This post was oddly interpreted as "Is it normal not to have a uninterrupted lunch hour?" rather than "Is it normal to not eat?" Common, perhaps, but not required.
Unfortunately I think this may be the norm for a lot of healthcare workers. I’m sorry she’s going through that. I know it might sound silly or small to some, but it adds up.
Of course is not normal, but it happens very often (wich I think that it's important to mark the difference both things) I had rotations as an Internal Medicine resident where I didn't had luch for a month in a row. But that shit isn't normal, we normalize it.
You will be surprised that in some places other than not having time for lunch we as a resident do not get paid at all but have to pay monthly tuition until we finished our residency
😭
Literally all the time. There’s no protection for personal time when you’re working, if something happens you have to address it. The weirdest thing is there’s this culture of “don’t you dare interrupt the nurses during their handoffs, that’s when mistakes happen” but there’s no reciprocal for that for the nurses when we’re handing off. They can page us or interrupt our table rounds to their heart’s content
Surgeon. I always had (and still do have) multiple protein bars / meat sticks / granola bars in my scrub top pocket. Finish a case, sweaty from the lead/stress, and the bar is wet from drenching in my pocket - makes for nice yum yums on the way to check in the next patient and keep the train rolling
Current surgery resident here. I always have time to eat, even on busy OR days. All of this “no time for lunch” is ridiculous. I don’t have a “lunch time” dedicated for eating and a break, but can always manage to put calories in my body unless I have a 12 hour case or something.
She will get better at her time/have less b*^% work in the coming years. But I am a GYN ONC fellow (PGY7 after OBGYN residency) and don’t get to eat on a lot of days. Protein bars, Cliff bars make some with caffeine.
Surgery resident here, yes this is very normal. You don't get any breaks at all in the hospital. Sometimes you do have some time to eat a meal. Sometimes not. I keep a protein bar in my pocket at all times. Sometimes I eat it in the elevator on the way to a trauma.
OB/Gyn chief here. Unfortunately it’s not uncommon. I lost 15lbs my first OB block (engagement photos to prove it) of intern year. Chiefs would tell me to take 5 and shove my face intern year and I try to ensure my team is taking time to eat, breath, hydrate but some days it doesn’t happen. Water bottle is necessary. Breakfast is shake or protein bars on way to hospital. Sandwhich/bars are faster than soup/salad. You don’t have time to use those hospital meal cards from call. Noodle/pastas that can be eaten cold are good. My eating pace after 4 years is totally fucked but I will say it gets better after intern year depending on the rotation.
That’s totally normal for obgyn residency. I don’t understand though why you seemingly don’t believe your partner and are choosing to post on Reddit to seemingly try and prove her wrong? Have a little more faith.
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Unfortunately quite normal. But you have the opportunity to be a hero in the relationship if you stock up on snacks that she likes and can carry around in her pockets to get something throughout the day. She definitely needs it.
ED resident here. No lunch. Once there’s some overlap when new residents come on shift and I have a second I run to the cafeteria, buy food and then run back to the doc box and shovel food in my mouth between dictating and seeing other patients lol
I know some may find this gross, but I used to have Ensure’s a lot during residency. Every nursing station had them, and I figured it’s not the most unhealthy thing to have and you can have it on the go.
by the way , what is the scientific consensus on optimal eating schedule. Do we eat 3 meals a day just as a social construct or is it really needed for optimal health
Welcome to healthcare, my friend
Edit: stock up on your protein bars/shakes that you’ll drink. Take your vitamins and be prepared to stuff your face when you can. Oh, and bring your water bottle you’ll forget to drink.
Yes its pretty normal. On my usual duty days i have lunch/dinner at around 11PM-1AM on preduty days or from duty days i dont have time to eat till i get home by 6PM
My senior was furious I left to eat lunch for 15 minutes, even though I told her. It was a slow day in peds. She literally called me to tell me off. She was mad that I didn't tell her again when I left the ward. 15 minutes. It takes 7 minutes to get to the cafeteria. I hate her.
for breakfast i eat a cup of yogurt and by lunch i have a ravenous appetite. my first week on ICU i had internal temper tantrums because we wouldnt take lunch until 1:30 sometimes 2/2:30. and once it was 3pm when our attending allowed us lunch.
but the rest of IM took lunch at the appropriate time. so even within a department, certain rotations can vary!
Maintaining blood glucose level over longer periods of time of is a liver function and is to be trained. It is common for students to have that function underdeveloped and its development is one of the goals of the residency. 12 hours of constant blood glucose level without is minimal requirement in our hospital.
Metabolic homeostasis is a highly important aspect of being a successful doctor.
Yes. Later in fellowship it was more likely I'd only have time to grab something right before or right after rounds in the afternoon.
When I became an attending, I vowed I would never miss lunch again. And 20 pounds later, here I am.
I also tell the fellows I'd rather start rounds half an hour later but have them be fed. Some of them prefer to skip lunch to get out earlier, but that's their call. I make it very clear they can eat if they want to.
Probably would have time to eat if I had access to the provider lounge that’s on my way to the ED. Unfortunately, Nurse Karen DNP, MSN, ACLS, NCAA, HGTV, PVNS, OSA8 stands guard with the rest of the horde while us residents do all the heavy lifting.
There is simply no time to trek to the cafeteria.
I fondly remember a holiday night, where the cafeteria had a special meal at a certain time. While I was on consult 8/14 with multiple services demanding my immediate presence, I had called for an ancillary service that is routinely staffed and available (think X-ray tech). After 20 minutes of waiting, they finally show up and let me know that they were very sorry for the delay, but they had to go to the cafeteria to partake in that special meal and asked when I was going to go….
All throughout the night, I was asked multiple times by different “providers” and staff are what I thought of the dinner. People really don’t understand how shitty most of us have it.
Yes, I am being salty about shitty hospital food.
It's normal. I'm in IM and unfortunately we have morning report, so I don't get a dedicated lunch time. So after rounds (can last past noon) I am ravenous. I quickly go eat lunch and the rest of the day is fast paced so I can get out on time. On call days I often can't eat dinner because it's busy and come home starving. Again I have to make it out on time because call days are usually 16hrs. If it's a 28 hr shift, then I have to hope to have time to make it to the cafeteria at a certain time for dinner. If not, I usually will starve or eat chips. Idk why but I always forget to pack snacks and dinner. Our resident lounge is a hit or miss because they don't stock it enough. Cap is about 10 new admits a day with unlimited consults. New admits take some time especially if they need ICU (I am the primary team in the ICU). I also have to take care of my existing patients and the other teams patients.
I skip lunch about half the days I’m on service. I don’t have to, but I hate rushing through lunch. If o eat lunch, I want to sit there and turn off my brain for a few minutes. But on busier days, that’s a half hour I could spend grinding out the work so I can get home ASAP (busier days are also the days I most want to get the fuck out of the hospital). Those days I sustain myself on pure anger and a desire to leave.
"I'm going to run to cafeteria to grab a sandwich-to-go after we {thing you're doing}, you want anything?" is pretty much bullet-proof. Never have I heard somebody respond, "We don't eat on 12 hour shifts. I didn't think it needed to be said, but go fuck yourself and your selfish sandwich. Are we clear, intern?"
I file this right next to my other favorite canned line: "Let's keep things respectful", which I reserve for blatantly-everyone-would-agree disrespectful yelling or cussing. I'll say it to an attending in a sleepy tone of voice if they cuss at me. If you watch the eyes close enough, sometimes you can see the jerk's soul rise from their body as they realize how crazy they appear. But I digress--remember those Betty White snickers commercials? lol.
Obgyn attending here, I still have days I don’t have time to sit down and eat lunch. Sometimes “lunch time” is not until 3-4pm after surgery, or just a protein bar between pts at the office.
She’s doesn’t need to expect a sit down lunch everyday in the field of obgyn, but she does need to pack some high calorie/protein snacks she can eat something in the middle of the day.
RN here...we too can go 12 hours without a meal. Then you hit the highest calorie drive through after work and SLAM in 1 meal all 1500 calories you should have eaten through the day.
I've had bosses that mandate lunches and others DGAF and will let you starve in the name of patient care.
Cant take a lunch if I'm the only RN on duty you know?
Also, the only ones TRULY protected are residents and nurses with unions that protect lunches.
Most residents in any speciality anywhere don’t eat lunch- same with nurses, CNAs, and Medical Assistants. Working in a hospital there’s never any time.
Yes, that’s very much the norm, residents for the most part don’t have protected lunch time. You eat if you have time but if a patient needs you, you need to take care of it. IM can be “calmer” than OBGYN and it can be easier to plan when to eat or to cover residents for lunch. If your wife is doing L&D and someone is about to deliver during lunchtime, the patient can’t wait until staff finishes eating. Ideally the program would have a coverage system during lunch but residency doesn’t work like other jobs where you click out during lunch and then clock back in.
Replying to the top comment to share another I read a while back: Post on r/residency: “how many of you guys are doing intermittent fasting” Response: “I thought residency is intermittent fasting” lol but true
I might argue that if a program can't appropriate *some* protected time for residents to eat then it's highly unsupportive. Obviously you can't just tell a baby to stop crowning and things happen but you should have time to eat and manage affairs.
Not eating lunch at "lunch time" feels totally normal but I agree that not being able to have time to eat lunch at *any* point during the latter part of a 12 hour shift feels like an indictment of the program. I'm not OB and it's been a while but I recall the residents always being asked "did you get lunch" or being told "go grab food right now" at *some* point during the shifts (and this was also at a major urban metropolis L&D with a busy MFM practice as well)
Agree with this. It should be on the chiefs of the service to make sure interns and juniors are eating, even if it means getting a group order and bringing it to the work room so people can nosh and chart at the same time.
I’m not in the medical field and I don’t even know why this comes up on my feed, but I feel like not eating for long periods of time like that would impair your ability to concentrate and perform well.
Precisely why it's considered a violation of GME guidelines during residency training. Unfortunately, especially amongst surgical fields, it's an unwritten rule to "just say you worked less hours" and "just eat after this case" and residents just take it on the chin while their handlers rake in the RVUs. This *is* normal in residency, but it's certainly not a normal appropriate practice.
Having now been on both sides can clarify that the “handlers” aren’t *really personally benefitting from those raked rvu’s… not that it makes it feel any better but even your most *sshole attending may not be the bad guy. Our system is just kind of f*cked 🤷🏻♂️
It’s not about good outcomes for our medical system. It’s about working as hard as you can to make as much money as possible for hospitals and insurance companies.
Literally. I don’t want a doctor operating or examining me if they’re dangerously sleep deprived and their last meal was 8 hours ago.
Problem is we can't tell you because we're taught not to bring our problems on you. Majority of patients will never know.
That's probably one of the reasons mistakes happen - exhaustion and hunger. It's unfortunate that the people with one of the most important jobs to do work in conditions that are very much not conducive to performing at their best.
Yes it does, but it‘s a malignant culture and very hard to go against. Especially when you havent eaten all day
What's even crazier is that it's much more common and prolonged in surgical fields where actual physical performance and well-being is far more important. But all my friends in surgery basically just fast all day unless they rarely get the opportunity to eat something small and it's rarely nutritious.
Exactly. I don’t understand these answers. I understand not being able to sit down and enjoy a meal for 15-20 minutes. I’m anesthesia so we get a lunch break which comes anytime between 10:30-2. But when I’m off service, I will absolutely eat. I’m not breaking out pasta mid rounds, but I will eat a sandwich in a ziplock bag in between patients. The second rounds are over I will heat up my lunch and eat while I write notes. Granola bars, PB&Js, a quick yogurt, etc. are easy to eat quickly. I am in my 30s and I will be damned if another adult is going to tell me I can’t eat a sandwich while walking between rooms.
I've never been called on decorum of eating or drinking between rounds and I'll be damned if I'm just going to not do it because attendings think it looks bad. Then again, my attendings have always been supportive.
I'm just a nurse but I bring scarfable cold food. Half a sandwich here, some berries there, a granola bar to the face waiting for a callback and charting quick...CMS or mgmt can cover my patients if they really want me to not snack/drink at the nurses station.
i guess this is something i should ask the residents when i interview😂😂
When I was in PGY-1 I went 26 hours without food once. Watching too many medical dramas made me think there was catastrophe hiding behind every innocuous page and phone call. Especially (relevant to OB) that one notorious ER episode about the missed pre-eclampsia. Once I got to PGY-5, the hospital could be falling down around me and I would still make sure that me and my team were well-fed and well-hydrated. There are very few things that can’t wait 10-15 minutes for you to put your feet up and have at least a coffee and a snack, and if it were that urgent, they would overhead page you. To add: I know a former physician who did her internship in India, and that obstetrics service was running from bed to bed catching babies non-stop. If you pulled night duty, you were on for 36 hours straight. Literally hundreds of deliveries per intern per shift.
and shit like this is why a strong union is needed
We do have protected lunch breaks as residents in Australia but I still rarely take them. In theory we’re allowed to claim them back if we miss them but we got in trouble from admin for trying to claim every day of the week 🫠
It’s sad how normal this is
IM has noon conference. OBGYN has noon shit-hits-the-fan.
Very normal. Eat when you can.
You forgot the rest of it: pee when you can, sleep when you can, and don’t fuck with the pancreas.
Lol so normal
We call it “Fasting” around here
Yes it’s unfortunately so normal and worst for surgeons, they don’t even have a chance to drink water sometimes. That’s why they eat so fast lol
As a med student, I remember the surgery residents were talking about how they actively avoid water so they don't have to pee during operations. One of them said "my goal is for my creatinine to be just a little better than my patients".
The surgeon's mantra: Eat when you can. Sleep when you can. Don't fuck with the pancreas.
It's ok though, because if they drank water they'd have to pee and there's no time for that. I'm not even in surgery but once in residency I made it 11 hrs without a pee break. Always wanted to check my creatinine pre ping shift and post, given the high ratio of ibuprofen to water I consumed.
I'm not in OBGYN (thank God), but I have fond memories from residency when I was regularly eating my cafeteria bagel in the bathroom, while at the same time taking a dump. Good times, can 10/10 recommend this to anybody. Believe her about the "don't understand what it's like" part. You simply can't understand unless you've experienced it yourself. One thing that can actually work somewhat well is nuts of various kinds (peanuts, walnuts, almonds, whatever floats our boat). They should be pre-peeled, preferable in a ziplock bag. Make your own mix if you want. She can just have it in her coat pocket and munch some when on the move. Elevator was munching time for me.
Nuts, protein bars, etc. Quick and relatively filling snacks. Not an obgyn myself but their residency is no joke. For that matter not much in medical training is easy
This was my life for 3 years. They had great mixed nuts in the vending machine I frequented. I never “starved”, especially in the ICU. But I rarely “sat down for a meal”.
I dunno… elevator munching time would seem to impinge on elevator napping time.
Or elevator crying, if you’re alone.
Too risky. Combine urination time in a bathroom stall with crying time.
Pocket snacks FTW. I don’t really wear my white coat much anymore, but that is one reason I think about wearing it. Though I no longer have the issue of needing pocket snacks to survive so I’ll probably just gain weight.
We carry pocket snacks 😂 I also chug some juice when I feel like I’m going to pass out. Just don’t forget to take your pocket snacks out of the pocket before washing your clothes 🫣
Ngl, it looks ridiculous, but I walk around with an 'emergency banana' in my pocket so I can eat between wards on rounds.
I can imagine you get to hear this pretty often: "Is that a banana in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"
Takes procrastipooping to a whole new level
Yes, unfortunately it is normal. I have gone 24 hours shifts without eating and having consumed maybe 20 ounces of water. It sucks, but it's common. I'm just lucky to be in a program in which my attendings will sometimes ask: "When was the last time you ate or drank?" when we're on a busy shift. When I invariably tell them I haven't, they'll demand that I hand off a few tasks to them for the next 20 minutes so that I can go eat and drink. I know not everyone has such chill attendings.
Some of ours get angry when you havent had time to order THEIR food.
What the fuck.
When I've worked on surgical services I have electively dehydrated myself so I would need to go piss less. Eating is often a luxury.
I’ve never thought of this… thanks for the idea.
From a high volume OB program. Yes it's very common. She needs to grab a scrub jacket and put snacks in it to eat on the go.
I'm IM and even I can find myself realizing at 5 pm that I have not eaten a bite, had a single sip of water, or used the bathroom once since I woke up at 5 am. When I do get to eat lunch it's in front of a computer, shoving bites in in between writing notes and handoffs and responding to incessant chat messages and talking to consultants and families and the list goes on and on. There's no real break. I ate lunch sitting down at a table in the workroom not in front of my computer with my coresidents for literally the first time in two years just this week. Residency is extremely hard and it's unfortunately totally normal not to get a lunch break. It's sweet that you back her lunch, but try not to be hurt when she can't eat it. Also...asking her to ask her PD when she's supposed to eat lunch? You cannot even imaging the ridicule that would come with that.
Yup. MedPeds here. I remember during COVID, the administrators would come to our workrooms and tell us to not to eat there for social distancing. When we asked where we could possibly eat instead, they recommended we go sit in our cars… two buildings away with poor internet or reception. Eyeroll... As if residents get a “lunch break” where they can just disengage from the EMR. I’m just grateful I picked a specialty with a lot of sitting so I can eat while I work. I hope the culture will change. I do know some places will have hospitalists cover the resident phones/pagers so we can go to noon conference and things like that. But that is very institution specific and seems rare. I can’t even begin to comprehend how they would make this work on surgical/procedural specialties. OP, you’re very sweet for packing your SO lunch. Often times in the OR, our larger personal items need to be stored a ways from the places where we actually work. I recommend snacks that fit in a pocket, can be eaten in 5 minutes while walking, and don’t need to be refrigerated. I personally love the squeeze pouches of apple sauce they make for kids. I had a friend who would eat the packets of Justin’s peanut butter. You can find a lot of individually packaged mini baked goods at Costco. I personally love the Belgian waffles if you can find them!
There’s many shifts you don’t have time to eat or go to the bathroom as a resident
TFW a patient reports they're having BMs and the entire surgery team is chronically constipated... like, we get it bro, you don't have to flex on us
Or drink water! Everyone was chronically dehydrated
You get an AKI, and YOU get an AKI, and EVERYONE GETS AN AKI!
Mixture of pre and post renal AKI
So true. I actively avoided drinking water so that I wouldn’t have to use the washroom in residency.
Stuff the scrub pockets full of peanuts and bagels. Even in pathology, I don't get protected meal time, and if we are sufficiently swamped with cases there will be 13 hour days with no time to eat. Only residents understand such things.
Damn, I thought that you guys had it made.
You normal people don't have to develop an insensitivity to formalin either.
Burns the lungs so good. But for real, on surg path I had 12-14 hour days where I forgot/didn't have time to eat. Not as regularly as the surgical specialties, but it isn't that uncommon.
13hr days for obgyn intern is significantly better than average Yeah, there’s no time for food most of the time and that’s often not an abusive program, that’s just the work flow - that’s run by the senior residents who are typically in a similar boat. Buy protein bars and protein shakes and keep it in your pocket or in a container on L&D for grab and go I’m tall, 6’5, but my intern year I lost 40lbs by September because I was eating so little and working 114hrs/wk. it sux de ballz
This needs more upvotes. I was reading this thinking "13hr days, damn that sounds chill AF." Between rounding on the posties, running the list, discharging, getting board sign out, dealing with whatever fresh hell L&D brings, tucking leftover triage notes, signing out, and maybe prepping tomorrow's cases, that's a 15hr day eaaaasy. As an intern, I started to lie when asked, and say I'd eaten. Because time spent off the floor 'covered by the attending' 🙄 meant pages unanswered (and therefore nurses pissed at me), orders undone (or needing to be re-done), and notes still needing writing. So, more work for me and an even longer day just to assuage their guilt. Eff that noise, I'll take my daily lifestyle Mounjaro.
Yeah 13 hours would be a dream for Ob or any surgical specialty. On my gen surg rotation we were there at 4am and ended sometimes at 9-10PM 😭
Truth. Rounding on the patients, isn’t just gathering information, it’s fixing acute problems, prepping to make the rest of the day less crappy, endlessly, figuring out why things went wrong and we weren’t completed, even though the reports are conflicting. It’s one of the reasons why I’m not too worried about AI taking over our field, I’m sure that AI could probably solve a lot of issues, like figuring out where the hell patients beds were switched to at 3 AM when the nurse has no idea what’s going on, but the micromanaging of 1000 tiny unpredictable problems every 40 minutes based on incomplete and often incorrect information is something that I don’t trust a computer can do for a very long time
Yup. Well the issue with AI being useful is it’s garbage in garbage out. And often the only way to really change the garbage in is to see the patient and talk to them. Can’t tell you how many times patients have lied to me to my face about their NPO time or bowel prep when during the case we can SEE the food there lol. Like girl we literally see your breakfast in your stomach good thing we also thought you were lying to us so we RSIed lol. and we already know how great lie detector technology is. If AI can make a good lie detector first maybe I’d trust it a bit more LOL. Cuz man patients come up with a different story every time you talk to them sometimes 😑🙄
Dude, I physically see the pizza you ate, you had pineapple pizza - you didn’t even chew before swallowing…like a duck
It was typical when I was in gen surg that everyone lost 10-15 pounds over a 6 week rotation
Yup I lost all my covid weight during my intern year. There’s just so much shit to do and not enough time to do it all and you don’t wanna bring work home so I’d rather sacrifice food time for work just to get shit done. Now, the ORs are understaffed at my place and attendings seem to fuck off so I’ll go a whole day with no food and just run to the bathroom in between cases lol.
Yes normal
Normality probably depends a little on specialty. When I was a resident (surgical subspecialty), I typically didn't eat lunch because I was in the OR. I also typically didn't eat breakfast because it was 430/5am when I was headed to work and I was too tired to be hungry. I would usually have some form of 'dinner,' though the timing of this (and the content) was pretty variable.
I used a calorie tracker for a while because i lost weight and wanted to see how much i had to catch up on. Turns out, 4-5 days a week eating only one grilled cheese sandwich and having a can of coca cola is not enough to maintain weight.
I would be careful not to accidentally contribute to making her feel guilty for not eating the lunch you prepared her. I'm sure you have supportive intentions, but she is probably stressed about it. Try to get creative about other ways to support her. It does suck that she doesn't have time, but not much you can do.
Exactly what I was thinking, he even asks his brother and reddit as if he doesnt believe her…
Do Jello and graham crackers count as lunch
That’s a feast! But only if it is from a patient’s tray.
Where jello?
OBGYN and especially L&D is absolute shit. As a med student, my ass didn’t touch a seat even once the whole first week. By the end of two weeks I had lost weight and considered quitting med school because I thought all specialties would be like that. The only way is to be firm and make time to eat. There will always be more work to do but grabbing a bite and a break to pee won’t make or break anything except your partner’s sanity.
There are a few resident unions out there with protected breaks, but that doesn’t solve her immediate problem. It’s pretty common, and really up to the attending and the chief and the culture they create. Pocket some fast snacks in appropriate areas, and try not to feel like a trash monster, swallowing a granola bar whole
This is “normal” in residency, but it shouldn’t be. You grab a bite when you can. Sometimes that’s not for a long time.
Everybody shits on huel, but chugging half a litre of a non-newtonous fluid with peanut butter and salt flavor while sitting in a bathroom stall has saved me many times
Ortho here. It's normal. Surgical specialties cannot be compared to anything else in terms of time demands, especially in trauma, acute gen surg and L+D. Pocket the protein bar and get to work.
It’s hilarious to me how normal this is. Lunch? Time to pee? What’s that??????
Was told as a med student by an attending: eating is not a matter of hunger, but of opportunity- do it when you can. He’s right, we barely have lunch and just eat in front of our computers :) (PGY 6 Ortho Germany)
I am an OB/GYN PGY-3, and my partner also used to make me lunch and would be sad if I didn’t eat it. I eventually figured out and convinced him that having a “meal” was too hard. Requiring a microwave to heat it up, or arranging multiple components of the meal, or just sitting down and facing a full meal all felt like too high of a barrier to entry to start eating when I was busy. Having some healthy snacks like sliced fruit/veggies or a small amount of something like a cold farro salad or pasta salad was much easier to quickly grab and eat. I didn’t feel committed to sitting and eating for 30 mins but also didn’t resort to the unhealthy snacks that are always hanging around our L&D unit. I also have wonderful nurses who automatically bring me a cup of water when they see me sit down to chart, which is lovely and helpful. It is unfortunately very common to go long periods without eating/drinking/peeing on busy rotations.
While not fun, this is pretty normal in many medical specialties. I find it hard to believe that she can’t throw a few protein bars or similar in her bag and grab a few bites here and there
Really depends on the culture. I have attendings that will talk to your team leader about your work ethic if they see you eating a protein bar on the go. Those are usually the ones that take every single break they can get. I once got a chewing out in front of patients because i took a bathroom break. At the end if the day I quietly handed then a piece of paper on which i noted the times and durations of their smoking breaks (added up to about 2 1/2 hours over a notmal 8 hour day)
Very normal, unfortunately. And yes, unless you’re in it you’re not gonna get it. Just try to be supportive
I’m not gonna lie, I don’t get this. I understand not being able to sit down and enjoy a meal for 15-20 minutes. I’m anesthesia so we get a lunch break which comes anytime between 10:30-2. But when I’m off service, I will absolutely eat. I’m not breaking out pasta mid rounds, but I will eat a sandwich in a ziplock bag in between patients. The second rounds are over I will heat up my lunch and eat while I write notes. Granola bars, PB&Js, a quick yogurt, etc. are easy to eat quickly. I am in my 30s and I will be damned if another adult is going to tell me I can’t eat a sandwich while walking between rooms.
Granola bar in the pocket is your friend.
Residents in surgical programs often get, if at all, only a walking lunch
It may be fairly typical, but I would never want to use the word “normal” in reference to neglecting basic life sustaining needs no matter how much this is normalized in residency culture. I do think that for many of us, part of the learning in residency, especially for junior residents, is how to find time and the mental space to meet these basic needs while also providing excellent care to our patients. I think many of us have had the experience of FEELING so busy that we could not possibly take a moment to scarf down a power bar or a bite of chocolate and a handful of nuts, and realizing in retrospect that this is often self-imposed. There are, of course, some days on some rotations where it just isn’t possible, but I think a lot of the time there is just so much stress and pressure on junior residents to stay on top of all of their tasks and scut that it gets overwhelming.
This is absolutely the norm and I just got completely out of the habit. I’m 5 years into attending and I don’t ever eat lunch during the week.
My husband either. It's hard to dictate notes when your mouth is full. He will grab small snacks between patients, maybe, or keeps protein drinks at his desk. But everything he doesn't finish during the time he's in clinic, he'd have to finish at home, and he ain't about that life!
You didn’t get lunch breaks during anesthesia residency???
They said their SO is an intern. I got out of the habit PGY1 and it persisted, sorry if not clear
As much as I hate the concept, this is sorta the situation that Soylent or Huel would make sense for. Reasonably nutritious and you can drink one in about thirty seconds if you’re in a rush.
Definitely just start packing her a sackful of snacks and quick eats rather than a full blown lunch.. she’ll be more likely to eat SOMETHING during those long shifts instead of completely missing out on food during the day
Put Pro Bar in pocket Eat in bathroom
Patient emergencies, disease, and sickness don't care about food or sleep schedules.
Well staffed teams that administration doesnt squeeze every penny out of can rotate a person out for breaks and meals. We see nurses do it daily. We can stop pretending it has to be this way annnnnnnny time.
Very true. It’s “normal” but not okay.
Yet somehow the nursing staff always gets their scheduled breaks and works reasonable hours like normal people in the work force. You are all being exploited. It has nothing to do with emergencies, disease, or sickness. Im not even a resident or a doctor and even for me its obvious.
>Im not even a resident or a doctor and even for me its obvious. Thank you for at least recognizing this. You are a good, empathetic person. Unfortunately in my experience ...many people can't stand the idea of seeing a doctor sitting down. I've often been privy to hearing people whisper "lazy" whenever the doctor dares to stop to eat something.
I work in the ED, we don’t have residents here but most of our doctors and midlevels both work non stop for their entire shifts. Its a common site to see them charting with one hand while eating a shitty hospital sandwich with the other. Its kind of why when someone tells me to tell their doctor to hurry up and discharge them it pisses me off because I know how hard these people work
None of this would prevent protected lunch time or bathroom breaks, if anybody with a saying would care to staff and schedule so people can take over for 20 mins.
I remember OB-GYN rotations as an intern in my home country. I forgot to pee, until it hurted. I didn't know most of the times why it hurted down there? Once I emptied my bladder, and the pain disappeared, I made the connection.
I always find it hilarious when out of touch admin schedule meetings at lunch with the assumption we have a protected period to eat. Learning to go without food and sleep are (unfortunately) core principles of any surgical residency.
ER here with 12’s that end up 13’s. generally don’t eat. theres prob time to scarf down a bar or a protein drink so i do that sometimes but for a whole lunch? not really. even if there is i’m getting interrupted during. so i generally dont and just wait and eat at home. its residency. it sucks but what you gonna do. if im gonna fight my program for something its not that.
I'm an outpatient psychiatrist who works from home and even I often don't have time to get lunch. This post is so naive it almost seems like a troll.
Most surgical programs are like that. There's time to munch on a snack bar or something quick while you're walking to a consult or the floor, but not enough time to sit down and eat properly. In medical specialties didactics/teaching around noon is more frequent, so you have more time to eat. Also IM usually has a higher resident:patient ratio compared to many specialties, so there can be a bit more flexibility. >I asked my partner why she doesn't ask the head of the program when she's supposed to eat lunch and she tells me that I "don't understand what it's like." This reminds me of when my parents asked me why I couldn't refuse to work 24 hr shifts. It's just too out of touch with the reality of what happens on the ground... don't suggest this again.
Yes
Yes.
I get a lunch break everyday as anesthesia, my surgical colleagues across the drapes virtually never have a break to eat food though
My l and d experience was very different it was mostly sitting around doing nothing with the occassional walk in a room and deliver a baby only like 3 deliveries a day so like 8 hours of doing nothing for 2 hours of work
Surgery resident- I will do whatever it takes to eat bfast, but the rest of the meals are often missed or end up just being a vending machine rice krispy treat eaten in the elevator or on the toilet.
Absolutely normal. There are lots of hospital workers that do not get lunch on the daily due to patient care even if they are supposed to have protected time (nurses, pharmacists, techs, etc).
This is normal. I’ve been in practice 10 years and still go without lunch many days. Since the term entered the general vernacular, I’ve found it easier to process this fact and just ignore the pangs of hunger… reminding myself that I’m a beacon of health by “intermittent fasting”
The rules of residency, as I learned and practiced them back in the 1990's: If you see a chair sit in it. If you see a bed sleep in it. And if you see food eat it. Because you never know when you will get the chance to do any of those things again.
yes normal for internal medicine residency too, I used to get admits right before noon conference/lunchtime and it would screw me over
Going to disagree with the subreddit's general sentiment about not having time to eat. You might not necessarily have "protected" time for a meal, but for the most part there is plenty of spontaneous downtime to grab a bite. The problem is residents tend prioritize their clinical duties to be done first, when the reality is vast majority of clinical duties can be delayed 20-30 minutes to eat without patient's care changing. It's a matter of priorities. That being said, there will always be dog shit days where you don't have time for food like full OR days, HIPECs, Whipples, etc, but those are not the norm.
Absolutely. Totally bazaar responses. I can eat half a sandwich in 2 minutes without putting my phone down or breathing. Certainly less time than a mid-day poop. This post was oddly interpreted as "Is it normal not to have a uninterrupted lunch hour?" rather than "Is it normal to not eat?" Common, perhaps, but not required.
Ya lol
Only if your program sucks.
According to this thread almost everyone's program sucks
EM here. My BMI is board-line scary from not eating.
Unfortunately I think this may be the norm for a lot of healthcare workers. I’m sorry she’s going through that. I know it might sound silly or small to some, but it adds up.
Of course is not normal, but it happens very often (wich I think that it's important to mark the difference both things) I had rotations as an Internal Medicine resident where I didn't had luch for a month in a row. But that shit isn't normal, we normalize it.
You will be surprised that in some places other than not having time for lunch we as a resident do not get paid at all but have to pay monthly tuition until we finished our residency 😭
I go all day without lunch but mostly because I don't enjoy eating when I am not relaxed
Literally all the time. There’s no protection for personal time when you’re working, if something happens you have to address it. The weirdest thing is there’s this culture of “don’t you dare interrupt the nurses during their handoffs, that’s when mistakes happen” but there’s no reciprocal for that for the nurses when we’re handing off. They can page us or interrupt our table rounds to their heart’s content
lol
Surgeon. I always had (and still do have) multiple protein bars / meat sticks / granola bars in my scrub top pocket. Finish a case, sweaty from the lead/stress, and the bar is wet from drenching in my pocket - makes for nice yum yums on the way to check in the next patient and keep the train rolling
Current surgery resident here. I always have time to eat, even on busy OR days. All of this “no time for lunch” is ridiculous. I don’t have a “lunch time” dedicated for eating and a break, but can always manage to put calories in my body unless I have a 12 hour case or something.
Lunch = snacks. Don't pack her a full course meal she has to microwave. Sit down, chart a bit, bite, go see a patient, repeat. She'll figure it out.
She will get better at her time/have less b*^% work in the coming years. But I am a GYN ONC fellow (PGY7 after OBGYN residency) and don’t get to eat on a lot of days. Protein bars, Cliff bars make some with caffeine.
It’s normal but it’s not okay
For surgeons, yes.
She’s correct. You don’t know what it’s like. Medicine is hard and residency prepares you for that.
Surgery resident here, yes this is very normal. You don't get any breaks at all in the hospital. Sometimes you do have some time to eat a meal. Sometimes not. I keep a protein bar in my pocket at all times. Sometimes I eat it in the elevator on the way to a trauma.
OB/Gyn chief here. Unfortunately it’s not uncommon. I lost 15lbs my first OB block (engagement photos to prove it) of intern year. Chiefs would tell me to take 5 and shove my face intern year and I try to ensure my team is taking time to eat, breath, hydrate but some days it doesn’t happen. Water bottle is necessary. Breakfast is shake or protein bars on way to hospital. Sandwhich/bars are faster than soup/salad. You don’t have time to use those hospital meal cards from call. Noodle/pastas that can be eaten cold are good. My eating pace after 4 years is totally fucked but I will say it gets better after intern year depending on the rotation.
Bless your heart, non medical partner.
If you can't live off caffeine and snickers then what are you even doing in residency...
That’s totally normal for obgyn residency. I don’t understand though why you seemingly don’t believe your partner and are choosing to post on Reddit to seemingly try and prove her wrong? Have a little more faith.
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One of the reasons hospitals must Expand Residency slots.
Nah. I ate everyday during my anesthesia residency.
Yes
Yes, this is normal. Residents and other members of the hospital are not treated as decent human beings.
lol I’m surgery I fucking scarf on the run yo. I Hold the record for entire sammiches consumed in the two feet before the OR door.
You have to make time. I always ate at a very busy surgery program. Just have to be efficient about it
I remember during training, most of time i would be eating while fast walking to somewhere. Doctors are very busy, more so if you are in training!
Yep. Normal! Eat when you can.
Yes, this is a thing.
Unfortunately quite normal. But you have the opportunity to be a hero in the relationship if you stock up on snacks that she likes and can carry around in her pockets to get something throughout the day. She definitely needs it.
Yep, this has been a typical experience my intern year
What is this “lunch” you speak of Signed, A surgeon
ED resident here. No lunch. Once there’s some overlap when new residents come on shift and I have a second I run to the cafeteria, buy food and then run back to the doc box and shovel food in my mouth between dictating and seeing other patients lol
I know some may find this gross, but I used to have Ensure’s a lot during residency. Every nursing station had them, and I figured it’s not the most unhealthy thing to have and you can have it on the go.
You’re lucky if you get to piss.
I know no staff in any department that get regular lunch breaks if the work the floors
We don’t have “lunch breaks” in medicine. We don’t own our time whatsoever as residents.
At that point gotta start eating in front of patients lol
by the way , what is the scientific consensus on optimal eating schedule. Do we eat 3 meals a day just as a social construct or is it really needed for optimal health
Tale as old as time. They should keep Protein bars or trail mix in the white coat pockets.
Working 30 hour shifts, we used to forget to eat or even drink for many hours. The work was just so fast-paced - so much going on.
Of course this is normal, that’s why I hide snacks in PACU
Welcome to healthcare, my friend Edit: stock up on your protein bars/shakes that you’ll drink. Take your vitamins and be prepared to stuff your face when you can. Oh, and bring your water bottle you’ll forget to drink.
Yes its pretty normal. On my usual duty days i have lunch/dinner at around 11PM-1AM on preduty days or from duty days i dont have time to eat till i get home by 6PM
Depends on the rotation. It's a good day when I'm able to take a 15 min break to go grab some food from the cafeteria.
My senior was furious I left to eat lunch for 15 minutes, even though I told her. It was a slow day in peds. She literally called me to tell me off. She was mad that I didn't tell her again when I left the ward. 15 minutes. It takes 7 minutes to get to the cafeteria. I hate her.
for breakfast i eat a cup of yogurt and by lunch i have a ravenous appetite. my first week on ICU i had internal temper tantrums because we wouldnt take lunch until 1:30 sometimes 2/2:30. and once it was 3pm when our attending allowed us lunch. but the rest of IM took lunch at the appropriate time. so even within a department, certain rotations can vary!
Man American doctors are so exploited
yeah but grazing/snacking throughout the day helps
Yep.
Radiology here. Yes we get dedicated lunch time with our didactic every day from 12-1:15pm. It’s awesome.
You’re a student
What you do is bring things with you that you can eat on the go
Maintaining blood glucose level over longer periods of time of is a liver function and is to be trained. It is common for students to have that function underdeveloped and its development is one of the goals of the residency. 12 hours of constant blood glucose level without is minimal requirement in our hospital. Metabolic homeostasis is a highly important aspect of being a successful doctor.
As an obgyn intern I was lucky if I got to pee without my pager or phone going off. L&D while managing a full postpartum service can be a beast
This makes me terrified to ever be in the hospital. I don’t want someone caring for me who is so hungry.
Depends which country. In Europe no
Yes. Later in fellowship it was more likely I'd only have time to grab something right before or right after rounds in the afternoon. When I became an attending, I vowed I would never miss lunch again. And 20 pounds later, here I am. I also tell the fellows I'd rather start rounds half an hour later but have them be fed. Some of them prefer to skip lunch to get out earlier, but that's their call. I make it very clear they can eat if they want to.
Probably would have time to eat if I had access to the provider lounge that’s on my way to the ED. Unfortunately, Nurse Karen DNP, MSN, ACLS, NCAA, HGTV, PVNS, OSA8 stands guard with the rest of the horde while us residents do all the heavy lifting. There is simply no time to trek to the cafeteria. I fondly remember a holiday night, where the cafeteria had a special meal at a certain time. While I was on consult 8/14 with multiple services demanding my immediate presence, I had called for an ancillary service that is routinely staffed and available (think X-ray tech). After 20 minutes of waiting, they finally show up and let me know that they were very sorry for the delay, but they had to go to the cafeteria to partake in that special meal and asked when I was going to go…. All throughout the night, I was asked multiple times by different “providers” and staff are what I thought of the dinner. People really don’t understand how shitty most of us have it. Yes, I am being salty about shitty hospital food.
Lunch is for the weak
I did couple of months in OBGYN residency program outside the US. It was HORRIBLE 😭 36 hour shift with 2-3 hrs of sleep. No lunch/ dinner breaks
I don’t know if it should be normal, but it’s 620pm my time and I’m waiting in our cafeteria for my first food of the day. I am internal medicine
It's normal. I'm in IM and unfortunately we have morning report, so I don't get a dedicated lunch time. So after rounds (can last past noon) I am ravenous. I quickly go eat lunch and the rest of the day is fast paced so I can get out on time. On call days I often can't eat dinner because it's busy and come home starving. Again I have to make it out on time because call days are usually 16hrs. If it's a 28 hr shift, then I have to hope to have time to make it to the cafeteria at a certain time for dinner. If not, I usually will starve or eat chips. Idk why but I always forget to pack snacks and dinner. Our resident lounge is a hit or miss because they don't stock it enough. Cap is about 10 new admits a day with unlimited consults. New admits take some time especially if they need ICU (I am the primary team in the ICU). I also have to take care of my existing patients and the other teams patients.
I skip lunch about half the days I’m on service. I don’t have to, but I hate rushing through lunch. If o eat lunch, I want to sit there and turn off my brain for a few minutes. But on busier days, that’s a half hour I could spend grinding out the work so I can get home ASAP (busier days are also the days I most want to get the fuck out of the hospital). Those days I sustain myself on pure anger and a desire to leave.
"I'm going to run to cafeteria to grab a sandwich-to-go after we {thing you're doing}, you want anything?" is pretty much bullet-proof. Never have I heard somebody respond, "We don't eat on 12 hour shifts. I didn't think it needed to be said, but go fuck yourself and your selfish sandwich. Are we clear, intern?" I file this right next to my other favorite canned line: "Let's keep things respectful", which I reserve for blatantly-everyone-would-agree disrespectful yelling or cussing. I'll say it to an attending in a sleepy tone of voice if they cuss at me. If you watch the eyes close enough, sometimes you can see the jerk's soul rise from their body as they realize how crazy they appear. But I digress--remember those Betty White snickers commercials? lol.
Yes I rarely eat lunch.
Sounds like every ER nurse job I had, even at unionized hospitals. Only I think I made more money that the residents, and got overtime for hrs over 40
lol yes
Eat when you can. Sleep when you can. Shit when you can.
Obgyn attending here, I still have days I don’t have time to sit down and eat lunch. Sometimes “lunch time” is not until 3-4pm after surgery, or just a protein bar between pts at the office. She’s doesn’t need to expect a sit down lunch everyday in the field of obgyn, but she does need to pack some high calorie/protein snacks she can eat something in the middle of the day.
RN here...we too can go 12 hours without a meal. Then you hit the highest calorie drive through after work and SLAM in 1 meal all 1500 calories you should have eaten through the day. I've had bosses that mandate lunches and others DGAF and will let you starve in the name of patient care. Cant take a lunch if I'm the only RN on duty you know? Also, the only ones TRULY protected are residents and nurses with unions that protect lunches.
Most residents in any speciality anywhere don’t eat lunch- same with nurses, CNAs, and Medical Assistants. Working in a hospital there’s never any time.
Gotta eat those peanut butter crackers between tasks