At the hospital where I work, there is a "kitchen" on each unit. The kitchen has a microwave, toaster oven, and refrigerator, as well as being stocked with various foods, condiments, plastic utensils, an ice machine, whatever.
We have a break room where I store my lunch, but I do use the kitchen a good amount. Like in the morning, I use it to microwave my muffin or toast my toast. And I get condiments, utensils, and water from the kitchen, rather than go all the way down the to cafeteria for the exact same stuff.
And OK, I confess, I do occasionally take food from the kitchen.
Like sometimes I'll take one of those little packages of graham crackers. And in the morning, sometimes I'll take one of those little tiny juice cups. And during the winter, when I got sick and my throat was killing me, I'd make a hot cocoa packet. And a few times, I took a ice cream dixie cup. I mean, we're not talking about grand theft here. I would have happily gotten food from the cafeteria instead if it wasn't so far away. I don't think anything I've ever taken has been worth more than like a quarter.
Nobody ever said anything to me about it. In fact, once I was looking for some condiment in the kitchen cabinet and one of the guys stocking the kitchen said to me, "Tell me what you want, doc, and I'll have it stocked for you." I was pretty sure I'd seen other people taking stuff, although I guess it could have been for a patient. When I wasn't feeling well one day, another doctor who'd been working there for years got me a bunch of dietary supplements from the fridge that were clearly meant for patients. (Mighty Shakes? Yuck!) So I really never thought it was a big deal.
But this week, someone put up a sign on the kitchen refrigerator that says: "FOOD IN THE KITCHEN IS FOR PATIENTS ONLY!!!" Actually it originally said "food and water," but someone crossed out the water part.
Naturally, I'm incredibly paranoid and feel this is directed at least partially at me. Yet I can't seem to stop myself from taking my apple juice or graham crackers. Considering how hard I work for them and the salary they give me, why would they honestly care that I'm taking about five cents worth of food each day? Isn't my job satisfaction more important than maybe $10 worth of crappy snacks the whole year?
They count the number of plastic spoons our host/hostesses bring up, and woe betide them if they bring up "too many" so the staff can use them (instead of running down the 8 floors and block and a half to the cafeteria, grabbing a giant fistful, and bringing them back to stick in the lounge).
ReplyDeleteYep. Plastic spoons and graham cracker packets, this is why we only made 27 million in profit last year, instead of 45. (Not closing 2 nursing units, a decrease in elective surgeries, and the economy sucking harder than a Dyson.) Sorry. Rant off.
Um, does "food" include Diet Coke cans?
ReplyDeleteSpecial Sauce: There's a huge quantity of plastic utensils and I would be seriously pissed if I felt I couldn't use those and instead had to waste my time running down to the cafeteria to basically get the exact same thing.
ReplyDeleteGrumpy: I guess I took food to mean "food and drink." The kitchen has half-sized cans of "alternative" colas. I'm not much of a soda drinker so I rarely take those, except for one or two rare occasions when I had a craving.
I guess it depends on how well stocked it is. As a parent of a kid who has been inpatient a lot, it is so frustrating when I only get to leave the room to run to the kitchen and grab whatever I can find to keep myself from passing out...only to find all the food has been snatched already. Sometimes those little Graham crackers packets are all that keeps me going. ;) If it is well-stocked, though, it doesn't really seem like a big deal to me.
ReplyDeleteor...there is always the ability to order full trays on a pt and then make them NPO once the trays are up - instameal!
ReplyDeleteI remember on Medicine taking boost/ensure meal supplements from the fridge. considering that the cafeteria closed at 7 and i hadnt eaten all day because of the insanity of the wards. i felt this was a smidge justified. just a smidge.
Usually workplaces with highly paid employees just give that kind of stuff away. At Oracle we had a stocked mini kitchen on every floor. Not sure why hospitals don't do that.
ReplyDeleteKyla: The graham crackers are in a huge tub and I've never seen it less than half full. But actually, since the sign says "for patients only", that technically excludes family members too.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I would have to say that it's probably equally hard for, say, a nurse or doctor who's stuck on a ward for a long shift and can't escape to the cafeteria, and the graham crackers are sometimes all that keeps us going too. I mean, I hate graham crackers, so the only reason I eat them is because I can't focus due to my body telling me it needs food.
I once got told off for taking a tiny cup of juice from the kitchen. Seriously, my med student was passing out... for real.
ReplyDeleteStill, I haven't found a hospital where staff don't take food from the kitchen.
Also, I don't understand why hospital cafeterias have such limited opening hours.
I'd suggest bringing it up w/ someone administrative. Pitch it just as you did above: a cheap way to make employees happy without adding more expensive benefits or raises. If they're really worried about running out for patients, add a polite sign saying "Patients need this too! Take one only, please" or something.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea, but then again, I'm hungry every time I'm in clinic, and they have no food for us or patients...
Doctor Blondie: Wow, who told you off?
ReplyDeleteAndrew: I feel like I'm too new here to start complaining about stuff like that. It really does seem like if a couple of packages of graham crackers increase job satisfaction, it's worth it financially.
As a previous nutrition aide I can tell you why they get angry. Its not that the hospital is mad, its that the kitchen is mad. At the two hospitals I worked at, the kitchen is given a finite amount of resources which does not take into account how much food the doctors want to eat. As a result, the kitchens budget gets dinged and they have to lay off dietary employees and find cheaper food for the patients.
ReplyDeleteI lived on graham crackers and peanut butter during my surgery rotation. Any every once in a while you'd stumble across the gold that is a Kornig coffee maker.
ReplyDeleteI always feel bad taking food from the kitchen too, but I see nurses snacking on it all the time. I was told when I started by a tech that the fridges all had cameras and they monitored who took the food. I know that's ridiculous and the tech was probably more paranoid than me. I've seen no evidence of cameras nor of monitoring, but I always feel like a criminal or ninja when I sneak to the kitchen to grab some trail mix or a graham cracker.
ReplyDeleteMDness: I guess the solution then is that the hospital should allot more money to the kitchen. I can't believe that the staff on our floor is eating enough graham crackers to make any kind of dent in the budget.
ReplyDeleteAmanda: I'm not sure the loss of graham crackers would warrant the purchasing of expensive monitoring equipment :)
Fizzy: I've seen hospitals spend more stupidly, but I do believe the tech was either pulling my leg or just super paranoid! It still makes me think twice when I go to grab a graham cracker, even if it is irrational.
ReplyDeleteHuh...the only thing really monitored at my hospital are the sharps bins and that was after someone was caught stealing meds that hadn't been properly wasted....
ReplyDeleteI only work at a small hospital that only takes 5 minutes to walk the whole length, so no excuses going to the cafeteria...but it closes at 8pm until 7am...so if you need food after that, you're SOL...but family birth has a stocked kitchen and they'll share if you didn't get a meal...and graham crackers are everywhere...
Oh and our providers have a stocked lounge, but seeing as I'm only a lowly imaging tech, I can't tell you what it is stocked with ;-)
I used to manage food services at a major company and it was my job to keep the pantry stocked. Unfortunately, while it seems that this is pretty inexpensive for the company, in reality, it adds up to a lot of money. Plus, I don't understand why a doctor resorts to taking food from a place where it is prohibited. Shouldn't the doctors be setting the example? Also, can't you just stick a granola bar in your pocket like us med students do when we have a busy day?
ReplyDeleteLori: It does seem simple perhaps for doctors to "set an example," but there are a few things that make it more difficult, one of which is I don't have a desk or office on our unit, so would have to trek across the hospital to my office or the break room to get any stored food, taking up time I honestly don't have when I'm already racing to pick up my daughter before daycare closes. Also, the doctors on our unit never wear white coats, and I'm not sure what your clothes look like, but there's zero room for stored food in mine. It would look kind of unprofessional to see patients with a granola bar hanging out of my front pocket, plus there are germ issues.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, I've worked in several offices in the past where there's a kitchen with free coffee, etc. It seems like the least they could do is allow a starving doctor to grab a very cheap bite to eat when she's very busy and doesn't have time to search the hospital looking for food.
Also, don't act like med students aren't the *worst* scavengers! They will eat anything that isn't pinned down. I remember we used to have lunch meetings with free food in med school, and if you didn't get there early, you'd never get food because students not even attending the meeting would grab it and leave.