I feel a rant coming on...

Okay, so yesterday was an awful day and I feel the need to bitch about it so I can move on. I figured this was a much better forum than complaining at work, especially since I considered bringing up the subject during the next staff meeting, which would make me public enemy number one. The issue is the amount of time the day staff people spend on "breaks."
I am an evening float nurse, which means I work from 3pm to 11pm. Half my shift is with the day staff (they work 7am to 7pm), and the other half is with the night staff. Most days when I start work, a couple of people immediately go for "coffee," which means they pick up a coffee downstairs and then sit in the back room for a few minutes and rest. Sometimes the smokers will go for a smoke break. Most of the time I don't really mind. After all, not everyone goes and they usually only go for half an hour at the most. When I used to work day shift, I would occasionally sit in the back for a few minutes if my rooms were quiet and I had all my charting done. However, if my call bell rang, I would go answer it.
Yesterday, I spent the entire first half of my shift with at least someone on break. And it was BUSY! When I first got there, one of the smokers went for a break, but she was only gone for about 20 minutes. She's pretty good about not going unless her rooms are quiet, and sure enough her call bells did not ring once while she was gone. The three non-smoking nurses went for a break when she came back. They sat in the back room for at least 45 minutes and their bells were going off like fireworks. At one point there were four bells ringing! When I went to the back to ask for help, they complained that the two smokers went on a really long lunch(before I start) and that they had to cover for them, so those two nurses should be helping.
Well, anyone who has a job anywhere knows that what should happen and what does happen are two entirely different things. The one nurse did help with a couple of bells, but the other nurse basically stayed in her rooms the whole time. To be fair, she did have a patient with a GI bleed (bleeding in the gastrointestinal system, a potentially fatal problem). The other float nurse was run off her feet just as much as I was. When all the call bells were ringing, she was trying to admit a patient back from the operating room.
So, the time for first supper break came at around 4:30 and the three nurses were still sitting in the back. The smokers and me were supposed to go for that break, but of course, I couldn't go until the others came back. At 4:40, somebody's PCA (patient controlled analgesia) pump started to beep because the bag was empty. When I went to check what kind of medication was in there, I noticed that the doctor had ordered for it to be replaced with oral medication. I'm pretty sure that my blood sugar was getting low because, while I wasn't mad, I was getting pretty cranky. I went into the back room to make sure the nurse wanted the PCA to be done, and she said yes. I was probably more curt than usual because a couple of minutes later she came out and asked if I was angry with her. I wasn't; I was just frustrated with how busy it was and the fact that I was now 15 minutes late for my own break. She said that it wasn't fair because the smokers go for long breaks and that she shouldn't feel bad for having a break, too. I agree, but I don't think it's fair for me to be covering for three nurses when it's that busy. Anyway, I finally got a break, and when I came back, the floor was just as busy. In fact, the nurses that had the long afternoon break skipped their dinner break because it was too busy to leave(although I'm sure they put in for overtime to make it up).
Okay, so here's the part that drives me nuts everytime the nurses protest about being entitled to an afternoon break: according to our union agreement, we're not. In a 12 hour shift, we are entitled to two half-hour meal breaks and two 15-minute coffee breaks. On most floors including ours, we combine the coffee breaks into an additional meal break. That equals three meal breaks with no afternoon coffee breaks. The culture on our unit also means we usually stretch those meal breaks to about 45 minutes, sometimes an hour. Nobody minds this because everyone does it. The problem comes when 3pm rolls around and people take an extra coffee break. Like I said before, I don't usually mind because it is generally quiet on the floor this time of day and the nurses are usually gone for only a few minutes. But yesterday was ridiculous, as far as I'm concerned. I should not be spending four hours of my shift with at least one nurse off the floor the whole time.
Okay, so now I feel better. And I don't want you to think I don't like my job or my co-workers, because I do. In fact, I know at least a couple of my co-workers will be reading this. I also don't want to make them feel guilty, I just wanted to express how I feel sometimes.
End rant.