Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional study aimed to explore the characteristics, content, and context of rest breaks taken by hospital nurses.
BACKGROUND: Nurses often miss, skip, or take interrupted breaks. To improve the quality of breaks and promote within-shift recovery, it is important to understand current rest break practices including break activities and contextual challenges around them.
METHODS: Survey data from 806 nurses were collected between October and November 2021.
RESULTS: Most nurses did not take regular breaks. Rest breaks were often interrupted, spent being worried about work, and rarely resulted in a relaxed state. Common break activities were having a meal or a snack, and browsing the Internet. Regardless of workload, nurses considered patient acuity, staffing, and unfinished nursing tasks when deciding to take breaks.
CONCLUSION: Rest break practices are of poor quality. Nurses mainly consider workload-related factors when taking breaks, which warrants the attention of nursing administration.