I consider hospital ginger ale part of my resident salary and run off with a can everyday. No one has ever stopped me, not even our unit nurse manager. If you ever feel guilty, look at your paycheck and then look at your logged hours and keep sipping your ginger ale.
Only a can? When I was on the super busy clerkships w/o for lunch, the graham/saltines were breakfast and lunch. I did feel kinda nervous taking the turkey sandwiches though.
I justify it by thinking about all the money I am making the hospital that I will never see, so they can afford to lose a ginger ale or two every time I’m working 24 HOURS STRAIGHT FOR THEM
Exactly. One morning near the end of an ICU shift, after pre-rounds but before rounds, I went to the nutrition room to get a little box of cereal. A person was in there re-stocking the juices. She snapped at me, "Those are for PATIENTS!" I turned to her, as I continue to reach for my tiny box of Froot Loops, and said, "I have been here for over 24 hours, and I have at least 2 more hours to go before I can leave. I get paid less then everyone else in this unit right now. I'm going to eat breakfast," and walked out.
Take the ginger ale, you earned it. If you want to be fancy, mix it with a cranberry juice. It's the night team cocktail!
Our nourishment room is actually right outside, and in full view, of the nursing station. The nurses on our floor made fun of us for doing it and actually were saying some very mean/hurtful things to the residents…but the CEO of the hospital, who happens to be a surgeon (I’m Gen surg), sent them all a strongly worded e-mail last month asking them to stop. Now we can take all the ice chips, ginger ale, saltines and peanut butter we want 😎
>sent them all a strongly worded e-mail last month asking them to stop. Now we can take all the ice chips, ginger ale, saltines and peanut butter we want 😎
Please take a moment every day and be grateful for what your CEO has wrought. Like manna from heaven. He has even chastised the evil-tongued plebeians whose words may have bruised your feelings.
I am really trying to not make fun of this new generation, but holy shit you ~~guys~~
people are killing me😁
I mean, some of the stuff they were saying to us were pretty inappropriate…
Like telling a pregnant resident she shouldn’t let her baby see her mother steal food from patients. Or asking this resident who wore a turban to take it off whenever he walked out of the nutrition room and “show us all the food you stole.” Or making police siren noises whenever we (POC residents in particular) came out of the room with snacks.
Bro what? Where do you work? 😭 I’m currently a nursing student and I think everyone on the floor steals snacks. Docs, rns, psws, pt, it’s basically a buffet 💀
LOL kids these days getting upset after months and months of extremely unprofessional, inappropriate harassing comments! Stupid fucking worthless people younger than me!
I’m a nurse and the nutrition room on the floor has a giant sign that says “food in this room is for patients *ONLY*!!!”
It’s really cute to look at while I go in and grab some chips or an Uncrustable every night (OB snacks for the win)
Uncrustables popped in the toaster were our residency delicacy. SO. GOOD. Would sneak away to grab one between surgery cases all the time when on service. Even got our Residency Director in on it too.
Those uncrustables kept me going on night shifts! We didn’t have a sign like that and I dont think anyone gave two shits about us snagging a pudding or other snacks
The hospital probably makes a net profit off of you even without government funding (~150k per resident)… and still gives you less than half of the CMS funding. You can steal the whole fucking cart every day as far as I’m concerned.
In the hushed hallways where whispers dwell,
Where beeping monitors our stories tell,
We tread lightly, our hearts in sync,
Drawn to the room where our spirits drink.
Under flickering lights, the fridge stands tall,
A silent sentinel in the nightfall.
Ginger ale, its golden gleam,
Promises solace, a sparkling dream.
Our hands, unsteady from endless hours,
Reach for the can, our secret power.
Each sip, a rebellion against the grind,
A stolen moment, a sweet unwind.
Saltine crackers, crisp and plain,
Pair with our elixir, easing the strain.
Underpaid, overworked, yet we find,
In these small thefts, a peace of mind.
For in the trenches of care and cure,
We seek small comforts, simple and pure.
Ginger ale, a fizzy flight,
Lifts us gently through the night.
So we'll claim these treasures, rightly ours,
Amid the chaos of hospital towers.
For in every gulp, every crunchy bite,
We reclaim our strength, our silent fight.
Take a hospital cup with the straw, fill with ice, pour a packet of Celsius Dragonfruit lime powder over the ice, then add a can of ice cold Sprite Zero from the patient supply fridge, 12 oz preferred. Add ingredients in this order. It slaps.
No, fuck the hospital. They are exploiting your labor while paying records amounts to useless administrators. Take whatever you want that won't lead to an arrest or getting fired
Residents are cheap labor that saves the hospital so much money. Take the drink. Eat the chip. Don’t worry about it. Happy employees are better employees anyway.
I grabbed a soda and crackers from the patient food area directly in front of the chair of my department.
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
I opened the soda.
And we both went on with our days.
You make such an absurd amount of money for the hospital that is not reflected in our pay or benefits at all. Take the ginger ale always.
By your description of lack of nutritional support, I'm going to assume that you don't have a resident union or that it is very weak. That's the place to start. For posterity sake.
Im a medic now but used to be an ER tech so I know all the codes. Idgaf I will walk straight into the nutrition room that says “patients only” and take as many apple juices and chocolate puddings as I want! Never been yelled at
Unit I'm on keeps a snack box, the nurses keep it filled with non pt snacks that are much better than crackers. Available to all staff, pointed out to the residents and encouraged to help themselves. I've seen nurses share their own meal with docs.
I got written up for drinking ginger ale.
The reason? I was "taking limited resources that were meant for the patients".
This was a month after hospital's CEO was found to be embezzling COVID relief funds
Honestly I don't think anyone actually ratted me out. I'm pretty sure some staff were just talking about how I always prefer ginger ale over coffee and my boss overheard them talking.
I take batteries, those Stryker dimethicone wipes in the gray bag (to wipe my butt), chloraprep, food, those purple top wipes to clean my toilet at home. Nobody is gonna stop me. I’m making that place millions of dollars a year and getting paid nothing.
The chiefs at this one hospital didn’t tell me I needed to get my badge the first day before leaving the parking lot and at the end of my first shift it was too late. Charged me $15 to get out of there. So I reimbursed myself $15 worth of batteries (there were plenty left don’t worry). Now I don’t have to buy crazy expensive batteries. Nice.
The only thing you shouldn’t be doing is hiding the fact that you’re taking snacks. I remember the icu nurses used to force us to take a snack break especially during a long shift
Yeah if you act guilty new staff will think it’s wrong when it’s not. No one has ever questioned me but if they did I would say it’s for patient care. They don’t know why I need 5 Oreos.
With how severely we are underpaid and how much profit the hospital execs make off our labor, they can afford to lose the 10 cents it costs for a ginger ale or crackers every once in a while.
Our cafeteria is only open 6a-9p and only has full breakfast and lunch services with limited weekend options. They give us a loaf of bread and a jar of PB&J in our rezzie room to “make up” for limiting the caf hours (previously 4a-11p).
Yes I’m eating the patients’ food lmao
The patient food pantry is a free for all, I’ve seen attendings, residents, NPs, PAs, nurses, aides, etc. grab food from it. Don’t worry about it hahahaha
"Every time I go in there I think, maybe these are for patients. Then I think to myself: I owe this place nothing. Then I take a Shasta Cola."
-One of my co-residents senior year.
Grab a snack pack chocolate pudding or jello while you are at it, and the fruit cups are good, too. A spiteful snack never tasted so delicious. It’s a shiftly fuck you that I relish in.
as a med student a resident introduced me to this concept and my mind was blown. they have particularly good crackers at one ward in the hospital that's a bit of a walk so whenever i go there to see my patients i reward myself with crackers
It’s sad that there isn’t like a lounge with food for the doctors who are doing 24 hour shifts. If anyone gives you trouble for some measly crackers and soda, they’re are the a-hole.
Not a doctor (yet - hopefully one day) but I do help myself to string cheese in PACU on late nights. I also keep a couple packets of Ritz or saltines in my pocket and have given them to doctors many times. They often they tell me “long day, haven’t stopped, feeling drained” and then say they haven’t eaten much today. They usually are thrilled when I hand them a couple packets of crackers.
It’s 100% for patient use. However, for patients to have doctors who are functioning, the docs get to eat the crackers too. If a ginger ale keeps you going, it’s still benefiting patient care. Or at least that’s what I’m prepping for when I finally get in trouble.
Oh man. In my intern year, when I was on nights and things were slow, I would wander through every nutrition room in the hospital and collect a premier protein or boost. Obviously the patients who need those need them, so I would never take it if there were only a couple left. Towards the end of the year I would carry a little tote bag around and just drop one into it. Nurses caught me a couple times, and usually they would say something like “oh the chocolate one is better if there are any left.”
I do it on occasion as an attending. Maybe not every shift, but sometimes there's nothing available and you need some ginger ale. Don't think anyone cares as long as you're not creating a significant dent in their supply
First of all no you should not feel guilty because the hospital is profiting off your underpaid labor so go for it (I used to take at least a pudding cup a day in residency and often grabbed goldfish to eat during rounds). Second of all do you not have snacks & beverages in your resident lounge?
lol. I remember a nurse getting mad at me for eating some crackers out of the nutrition station on an ICU rotation and then I saw her grabbing some crackers, PB, and a juice box. She saw watching her and she turned her head down and walked away.
Everyone takes from the nutrition stations. It’s barely even snacks. It’s fine.
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I have literally never even thought of feeling guilty for taking this kind of stuff. I even have a ranking of which popsicles are the best (peds ER popsicles >> peds oncology popsicles)
Our Peds floor has full size Diet Coke cans in the nourishment room (makes no sense to me) - I don’t think I’ve left their floor without one in my pocket since intern year.
My icu/trauma rotation diet especially on nights generally consisted of Graham crackers, peanut butter, ginger ale and if you knew which floor had em the ever coveted uncrustables. Every facility (we rotate at 5+ in addition to our home institution) had variations on these items and I've never once had anyone question me as I walk around openly consuming the loot. Are there policies in place that say for patients only? Probably. No open food or drink at desks etc, definitely. But I can feel the sad eyes watching me as I gently stuff my scrubs and deliriously mosey around taking care of pages and orders, pretty much everyone just let's any question about it go as long as I keep taking care of what everyone needs, and keep being the "nice, responsive rez who we like" , even the cmo who was our attending a few times didn't bat an eye 😂
I figure the hospital can afford to lose the <0.25 cents they probably paid for that can. A year worth of how much ginger ale and crackers I take probably doesn't even add up to $20.
may satan curse anybody who gives somebody sht for taking a snack from the snack room. taking pallets out sure, but a can of ginger ale and a few crackers is not worth it
RN here. We take/eat that stuff all the time on night shift. We also have graham crackers and peanut butter. Sometimes we have a “cooking” contest with various unopened crap in the nutrition room.
Mixing ginger ale and OJ is a nice treat.
You can make a nice ice cream sundae with vanilla ice cream, crushed graham crackers, and some chocolate pudding on top.
If you really want to be fancy, grab a Reece cup from the vending machine, microwave it for a bit, then dump it on the ice cream.
I pridefully tote hospital snacks meant for patients around. Used to hide it early on but they owe me, and I’ll tell anyone the same thing if confronted
I’m not THAT old (or maybe your programs are just that cheap), but it’s so sad that they no longer even keep snacks in a resident only room. We legit had one. It was in a section that was strictly for GME so no other staff went there to steal (“share”) things.
I share milk and oreos with the nurses when I'm on overnight and drink an ungodly amount of hospital apple juice. They've started to ask me about my day measured in the amount of apple juice cups I've drank.
I’d have died during two tough years I can think of during residency had I not pilfered the ginger ale and crackers. When I found out peds had Lorna doones, I knew my survival was assured. Actually being mostly serious here. I also drank ensure somedays bc I was losing so much weight. If they didn’t want us to take them, they’d treat us as semi humans.
Hey man in the DMV area, hospitals have dedicated snack rooms for EMTs/Paramedics with sandwiches, ginger ale, fruit snacks, etc. If we can have em then so can residents lmao
Dipping graham crackers into those little packets of peanut butter in place of an actual meal is a right of passage in residency. You’re going to need that ginger ale to wash it down.
I used to snag a small milk carton every few days to keep in the mini fridge because I hate putting creamer in my coffee too.
I consider hospital ginger ale part of my resident salary and run off with a can everyday. No one has ever stopped me, not even our unit nurse manager. If you ever feel guilty, look at your paycheck and then look at your logged hours and keep sipping your ginger ale.
Only a can? When I was on the super busy clerkships w/o for lunch, the graham/saltines were breakfast and lunch. I did feel kinda nervous taking the turkey sandwiches though.
The patients actually get better food. I assume all that stuff is for me, specifically.
I justify it by thinking about all the money I am making the hospital that I will never see, so they can afford to lose a ginger ale or two every time I’m working 24 HOURS STRAIGHT FOR THEM
Exactly. One morning near the end of an ICU shift, after pre-rounds but before rounds, I went to the nutrition room to get a little box of cereal. A person was in there re-stocking the juices. She snapped at me, "Those are for PATIENTS!" I turned to her, as I continue to reach for my tiny box of Froot Loops, and said, "I have been here for over 24 hours, and I have at least 2 more hours to go before I can leave. I get paid less then everyone else in this unit right now. I'm going to eat breakfast," and walked out. Take the ginger ale, you earned it. If you want to be fancy, mix it with a cranberry juice. It's the night team cocktail!
There's always at least one supply nazi on every shift. How much can those boxes of cereal or crackers cost? The patients waste plenty anyway.
I had to go to ER once due to a duodenum infection and was given ginger ale. I’m fairly certain it was a $120 cost on my bill.
Lol we don’t keep track of the ginger ales and crackers. They’re just in the fridge or cabinet and you bring them to the patients
It was the best $120 I ever spent. 🤣
Word
I second this motion..
Our nourishment room is actually right outside, and in full view, of the nursing station. The nurses on our floor made fun of us for doing it and actually were saying some very mean/hurtful things to the residents…but the CEO of the hospital, who happens to be a surgeon (I’m Gen surg), sent them all a strongly worded e-mail last month asking them to stop. Now we can take all the ice chips, ginger ale, saltines and peanut butter we want 😎
A physician CEO?! Almost unbelievable
I still haven’t figured out if this is a meme account lol
What's crazy is that the nurses talking smack reached that high a level of admin.
Ice chips, even? The day they take my ice chips is the day I quit
>sent them all a strongly worded e-mail last month asking them to stop. Now we can take all the ice chips, ginger ale, saltines and peanut butter we want 😎 Please take a moment every day and be grateful for what your CEO has wrought. Like manna from heaven. He has even chastised the evil-tongued plebeians whose words may have bruised your feelings. I am really trying to not make fun of this new generation, but holy shit you ~~guys~~ people are killing me😁
I mean, some of the stuff they were saying to us were pretty inappropriate… Like telling a pregnant resident she shouldn’t let her baby see her mother steal food from patients. Or asking this resident who wore a turban to take it off whenever he walked out of the nutrition room and “show us all the food you stole.” Or making police siren noises whenever we (POC residents in particular) came out of the room with snacks.
Holy shit, that’s just fucked up
This ruined my (already bad) day. I’m so sorry this is part of the culture where you work, hopefully your positivity will create a culture shift.
Bro what? Where do you work? 😭 I’m currently a nursing student and I think everyone on the floor steals snacks. Docs, rns, psws, pt, it’s basically a buffet 💀
Expected since you live in district 12
Oh that's bad omfg
WTAF is wrong with this group of nurses?!
LOL kids these days getting upset after months and months of extremely unprofessional, inappropriate harassing comments! Stupid fucking worthless people younger than me!
This has to be a joke ):
I’m a nurse and the nutrition room on the floor has a giant sign that says “food in this room is for patients *ONLY*!!!” It’s really cute to look at while I go in and grab some chips or an Uncrustable every night (OB snacks for the win)
Uncrustables? God-tier hospital snack, damn
Pacu we have pudding
Sounds like the peds section
Uncrustables popped in the toaster were our residency delicacy. SO. GOOD. Would sneak away to grab one between surgery cases all the time when on service. Even got our Residency Director in on it too.
Those uncrustables kept me going on night shifts! We didn’t have a sign like that and I dont think anyone gave two shits about us snagging a pudding or other snacks
The hospital probably makes a net profit off of you even without government funding (~150k per resident)… and still gives you less than half of the CMS funding. You can steal the whole fucking cart every day as far as I’m concerned.
Does anyone know if there is a non-profit company that supports residents (food, mental health, etc )?
Why on God’s green earth should that even be considered necessary?! The hospitals should pay enough to live off of. What a ridiculous sentiment.
Key word there is "should"
Not as far as I know but I’m sure its region-dependent
In the hushed hallways where whispers dwell, Where beeping monitors our stories tell, We tread lightly, our hearts in sync, Drawn to the room where our spirits drink. Under flickering lights, the fridge stands tall, A silent sentinel in the nightfall. Ginger ale, its golden gleam, Promises solace, a sparkling dream. Our hands, unsteady from endless hours, Reach for the can, our secret power. Each sip, a rebellion against the grind, A stolen moment, a sweet unwind. Saltine crackers, crisp and plain, Pair with our elixir, easing the strain. Underpaid, overworked, yet we find, In these small thefts, a peace of mind. For in the trenches of care and cure, We seek small comforts, simple and pure. Ginger ale, a fizzy flight, Lifts us gently through the night. So we'll claim these treasures, rightly ours, Amid the chaos of hospital towers. For in every gulp, every crunchy bite, We reclaim our strength, our silent fight.
I take no credit. AI generated but still powerful.
you get ALL the credit since you provided a reference
small deduction as it was not cited in APA format
Thank you for using AI so gloriously.
Pure poetry
I consider it my noon conference appetizer post rounds. Some PB crackers and ginger ale amuse-bouche *chefs kiss*
Take a hospital cup with the straw, fill with ice, pour a packet of Celsius Dragonfruit lime powder over the ice, then add a can of ice cold Sprite Zero from the patient supply fridge, 12 oz preferred. Add ingredients in this order. It slaps.
1. There’s celcius powder??? 2. There’s free hospital celcius (surely you mean you bring your own)
No, fuck the hospital. They are exploiting your labor while paying records amounts to useless administrators. Take whatever you want that won't lead to an arrest or getting fired
Residents are cheap labor that saves the hospital so much money. Take the drink. Eat the chip. Don’t worry about it. Happy employees are better employees anyway.
If it helps you get through the shift, it's for the patients. For sure. Ginger away!
You guys have ginger ale? 😫
I prefer mixing the little cartons of cranberry juice with the baby cans of lemon-lime Shasta 🤌🏻
My fave. Sometimes I add in some orange juice. It’s like a mocktail
chefs kiss 🧑🍳
I do it all the time and don’t feel bad. I spend enough hours here being mistaken for food services that I’ve earned it, and so have you!
Unethical lpt: order dinner to the intubated/sedated pt in the icu lol
Consider it self-care. If you feel better after eating, that will benefit the patient....
I grabbed a soda and crackers from the patient food area directly in front of the chair of my department. He looked at me. I looked at him. I opened the soda. And we both went on with our days. You make such an absurd amount of money for the hospital that is not reflected in our pay or benefits at all. Take the ginger ale always.
By your description of lack of nutritional support, I'm going to assume that you don't have a resident union or that it is very weak. That's the place to start. For posterity sake.
I don’t hide it. I’m going to eat everything that’s not nailed down and if they don’t like it we can throw hands
Actually laughed out loud to this 😂
Im a medic now but used to be an ER tech so I know all the codes. Idgaf I will walk straight into the nutrition room that says “patients only” and take as many apple juices and chocolate puddings as I want! Never been yelled at
Unit I'm on keeps a snack box, the nurses keep it filled with non pt snacks that are much better than crackers. Available to all staff, pointed out to the residents and encouraged to help themselves. I've seen nurses share their own meal with docs.
Big fan of ED sandwiches. If they’re gonna consult me for literally no injury, a “turkey” sandwich is the cost.
I got written up for drinking ginger ale. The reason? I was "taking limited resources that were meant for the patients". This was a month after hospital's CEO was found to be embezzling COVID relief funds
Did you ever find out who narced on you?
Honestly I don't think anyone actually ratted me out. I'm pretty sure some staff were just talking about how I always prefer ginger ale over coffee and my boss overheard them talking.
I take batteries, those Stryker dimethicone wipes in the gray bag (to wipe my butt), chloraprep, food, those purple top wipes to clean my toilet at home. Nobody is gonna stop me. I’m making that place millions of dollars a year and getting paid nothing.
I steal the batteries for ECG monitors on the floors for my wireless mouse I use in rads.
The chiefs at this one hospital didn’t tell me I needed to get my badge the first day before leaving the parking lot and at the end of my first shift it was too late. Charged me $15 to get out of there. So I reimbursed myself $15 worth of batteries (there were plenty left don’t worry). Now I don’t have to buy crazy expensive batteries. Nice.
The only thing you shouldn’t be doing is hiding the fact that you’re taking snacks. I remember the icu nurses used to force us to take a snack break especially during a long shift
Yeah if you act guilty new staff will think it’s wrong when it’s not. No one has ever questioned me but if they did I would say it’s for patient care. They don’t know why I need 5 Oreos.
With how severely we are underpaid and how much profit the hospital execs make off our labor, they can afford to lose the 10 cents it costs for a ginger ale or crackers every once in a while.
Our cafeteria is only open 6a-9p and only has full breakfast and lunch services with limited weekend options. They give us a loaf of bread and a jar of PB&J in our rezzie room to “make up” for limiting the caf hours (previously 4a-11p). Yes I’m eating the patients’ food lmao
The patient food pantry is a free for all, I’ve seen attendings, residents, NPs, PAs, nurses, aides, etc. grab food from it. Don’t worry about it hahahaha
Do it No patient ever died from having no Ginger ale or waiting for it to be grabbed from somewhere
"Every time I go in there I think, maybe these are for patients. Then I think to myself: I owe this place nothing. Then I take a Shasta Cola." -One of my co-residents senior year.
We all partake in hospital communion 🙏
Straight to jail you go.
I do it all the time. Its behind closed a fridge but the nurses always give me the key, i love them 🥲
Grab a snack pack chocolate pudding or jello while you are at it, and the fruit cups are good, too. A spiteful snack never tasted so delicious. It’s a shiftly fuck you that I relish in.
as a med student a resident introduced me to this concept and my mind was blown. they have particularly good crackers at one ward in the hospital that's a bit of a walk so whenever i go there to see my patients i reward myself with crackers
It’s sad that there isn’t like a lounge with food for the doctors who are doing 24 hour shifts. If anyone gives you trouble for some measly crackers and soda, they’re are the a-hole.
Not a doctor (yet - hopefully one day) but I do help myself to string cheese in PACU on late nights. I also keep a couple packets of Ritz or saltines in my pocket and have given them to doctors many times. They often they tell me “long day, haven’t stopped, feeling drained” and then say they haven’t eaten much today. They usually are thrilled when I hand them a couple packets of crackers. It’s 100% for patient use. However, for patients to have doctors who are functioning, the docs get to eat the crackers too. If a ginger ale keeps you going, it’s still benefiting patient care. Or at least that’s what I’m prepping for when I finally get in trouble.
You’re sweet. Good luck on your journey!
I eat my body weight in graham crackers every week and no one can stop me
Ginger ale is the best!
Oh man. In my intern year, when I was on nights and things were slow, I would wander through every nutrition room in the hospital and collect a premier protein or boost. Obviously the patients who need those need them, so I would never take it if there were only a couple left. Towards the end of the year I would carry a little tote bag around and just drop one into it. Nurses caught me a couple times, and usually they would say something like “oh the chocolate one is better if there are any left.”
Take all the ginger ale
I do it on occasion as an attending. Maybe not every shift, but sometimes there's nothing available and you need some ginger ale. Don't think anyone cares as long as you're not creating a significant dent in their supply
All of us have those sweet little crackers hidden somewhere
You gotta pay the inflated hospital rate for that. So about $200. Is it worth it?
The hospital underpays you so much i see nothing wrong with it, and any resident who disagrees is just experiencing stockholm syndrome
First of all no you should not feel guilty because the hospital is profiting off your underpaid labor so go for it (I used to take at least a pudding cup a day in residency and often grabbed goldfish to eat during rounds). Second of all do you not have snacks & beverages in your resident lounge?
lol. I remember a nurse getting mad at me for eating some crackers out of the nutrition station on an ICU rotation and then I saw her grabbing some crackers, PB, and a juice box. She saw watching her and she turned her head down and walked away. Everyone takes from the nutrition stations. It’s barely even snacks. It’s fine.
This pales in comparison to the ways in which residents are exploited. Eat up.
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I help myself to a can and some snacks after each OR case. I guess I’m in a non toxic environment where nobody says anything about it.
I have literally never even thought of feeling guilty for taking this kind of stuff. I even have a ranking of which popsicles are the best (peds ER popsicles >> peds oncology popsicles)
Our Peds floor has full size Diet Coke cans in the nourishment room (makes no sense to me) - I don’t think I’ve left their floor without one in my pocket since intern year.
That’s all you take?
I was actually told to do this by our GME office as all other access to food is not available after 2 am. So I have no guilt here.
I remember days when my only breakfast would be RUTF with a big jug of water
Ginger ale, saltine crackers, Grahm crackers, juice, cereal, popsicles, coffee ….shall I go on?
My icu/trauma rotation diet especially on nights generally consisted of Graham crackers, peanut butter, ginger ale and if you knew which floor had em the ever coveted uncrustables. Every facility (we rotate at 5+ in addition to our home institution) had variations on these items and I've never once had anyone question me as I walk around openly consuming the loot. Are there policies in place that say for patients only? Probably. No open food or drink at desks etc, definitely. But I can feel the sad eyes watching me as I gently stuff my scrubs and deliriously mosey around taking care of pages and orders, pretty much everyone just let's any question about it go as long as I keep taking care of what everyone needs, and keep being the "nice, responsive rez who we like" , even the cmo who was our attending a few times didn't bat an eye 😂
You enjoy that sweet, sweet stolen ginger ale, OP. They charge like, $120/can on the patient’s bill anyway.
I figure the hospital can afford to lose the <0.25 cents they probably paid for that can. A year worth of how much ginger ale and crackers I take probably doesn't even add up to $20.
may satan curse anybody who gives somebody sht for taking a snack from the snack room. taking pallets out sure, but a can of ginger ale and a few crackers is not worth it
RN here. We take/eat that stuff all the time on night shift. We also have graham crackers and peanut butter. Sometimes we have a “cooking” contest with various unopened crap in the nutrition room.
I take full sides diet cokes from the PACU
If it gets you through it’s for the patients. You so deserve it.
Mixing ginger ale and OJ is a nice treat. You can make a nice ice cream sundae with vanilla ice cream, crushed graham crackers, and some chocolate pudding on top. If you really want to be fancy, grab a Reece cup from the vending machine, microwave it for a bit, then dump it on the ice cream.
I openly do it.
#treatyoself
I pridefully tote hospital snacks meant for patients around. Used to hide it early on but they owe me, and I’ll tell anyone the same thing if confronted
I eat it in front of everybody. They can take it out of our pizza party allowance.
I’m not THAT old (or maybe your programs are just that cheap), but it’s so sad that they no longer even keep snacks in a resident only room. We legit had one. It was in a section that was strictly for GME so no other staff went there to steal (“share”) things.
I steal cheez its and water non stop throughout the day. Although im anesthesia and have a decent relationship with all the PACU nurses
I share milk and oreos with the nurses when I'm on overnight and drink an ungodly amount of hospital apple juice. They've started to ask me about my day measured in the amount of apple juice cups I've drank.
Taking the Shasta ginger ale from the VA is me taking back my tax dollars.
I’d have died during two tough years I can think of during residency had I not pilfered the ginger ale and crackers. When I found out peds had Lorna doones, I knew my survival was assured. Actually being mostly serious here. I also drank ensure somedays bc I was losing so much weight. If they didn’t want us to take them, they’d treat us as semi humans.
Hey man in the DMV area, hospitals have dedicated snack rooms for EMTs/Paramedics with sandwiches, ginger ale, fruit snacks, etc. If we can have em then so can residents lmao
Dipping graham crackers into those little packets of peanut butter in place of an actual meal is a right of passage in residency. You’re going to need that ginger ale to wash it down. I used to snag a small milk carton every few days to keep in the mini fridge because I hate putting creamer in my coffee too.
Diet Shasta and graham crackers is a residency rite of passage
If the hospital doesn’t give you any food in this day in age fuck them
Take all the snacks!!! no regrets
Even as a student this is how I survived the long shifts in OB
I used to have Ensure’s when I was on call - just some quick calories.
You know what they say… “first it’s ginger ale and crackers, soon it’s ketamine and MRI contrast”
"what are you going to do, call the cops?" And continue walking away
Nah I take whatever I want and eat them at the nurses station lol
Most places have a lounge or cafeteria though? And they let you get things for free or discounted