Jesus Jordan and Manuel Cascos.
As he Framework Statute of Statutory Staff of Health Services As the status of workers point out that, whenever the duration of the continuous daily shift exceeds six hours, a period of break duration of not less than 15 minutes. However, according to the union forces to Medical Writinghealth professionals “they hardly enjoy this right” as a consequence of the existing healthcare pressure, which, they underline, has increased in recent times.
The controversy has intensified as a result of the criticism that some users have made on social networks against the restroom breaks: “It is 11 in the morning and the doctor has gone to breakfast with four people in the waiting room”, denounced one of them this week. It is not the first time that health professionals have received this type of reproach: “I have come to hear people accusing assistants of going out to eat when in reality they had to close to pass reports, make calls for appointments or cover other jobs due to lack of staff. But it is that even if it were so, they would be in his right ”, he highlights Jesus Jordanresponsible for Public Policies and Employment of the Federation of Health and Socio-Sanitary Sectors of the CCOO (FSS-CCOO).
As explained by the nursing union (Satse), currently, given the great overload of work they suffer daily, nurses work their shift, which can be up to 12 hours and even extend up to 24 hours, “without almost a minute of rest”.
In this same line, Workers Commissions (CCOO) defends that many health professionals “do not eat breakfast or take their break”. In addition, they continue, when they do it is usually “on the same floors in the work rooms”which means that “if they ring the bell or ask for something, they interrupt the break to attend to the patient or family member”.
The regulation, which establishes this period of disconnection of no less than 15 minutes, also affects that the moment of enjoying this time “It will be subject to the maintenance of the attention of the services”.
Consequences of the lack of rest between toilets
The ‘breach’ of this labor right causes, according to the union chaired by Manuel Cascos, more doses of stress and physical and emotional exhaustion “which accumulates over time”. An opinion that CCOO supports, ensuring that these workers “they don’t have time to disconnect” throughout the working day.
Faced with this situation, the nurses’ union demands that both public administrations and private health companies guarantee “a minimum break time of 30 minutes”. The goal, Satse clarifies, is that nurses can then resume their activity “in better physical and psychological conditions.” “This is something that all the scientific studies in this regard indicate as very necessary in order to avoid stress, burnout and other health problems in the short, medium and long term”, warns the Nursing union.
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