Table 1

Barriers and Enablers to taking a break at Organisation, Team and Individual Level

Level	Theme	Qualitative feedback
Barriers to taking a break
Organisation	Work environment	‘No staff room, only able to have break at my desk’; ‘always connected to technology’
	Workload	‘Workload pressure—the squeeze’; ‘trying to complete tasks’; ‘multiple demands’
	Schedule and planning	‘Unexpected work’; ‘lack of wiggle room’; ‘overbooked diary’
Team	Resourcing	‘Staffing shortages’; ‘inadequate staff levels’
Team	Team and organisational culture	‘Not being seen as a human being’; ‘peer pressure’
Individual	Thoughts, feelings and behaviour	‘Personal guilt’; ‘putting yourself last’; ‘finding it hard to say no’; ‘habit’; ‘poor self-discipline’; ‘colleagues being difficult’
Enablers to taking a break
Organisation	Work environment	‘Nice staff room that is inviting for breaks’ Ability to leave department
	Workload	When feeling brain is overloaded
	Schedule and planning	Ability to hand bleep to colleague—supporting each other Write ‘break’ in diary Scheduling breaks as a team
Team	Resourcing
Team	Team and organisational culture	Managers leading by example ‘Patient safety break’ Permission for break and challenge when no break taken
Individual	Thoughts, feelings and behaviour	‘Give yourself permission’; ‘courage to have break uninterrupted’; ‘bring and share lunch’