[ShayRN]

I could not believe this student I had the other night. I picked up a shift on my old unit (telemetry) and the charge asked me if I minded having a student with me as his preceptor had called off sick. Ofcourse not! I love having students. So, I grab my MAR's, Kardexes and tell him we are going to check them over for mistakes. This usually takes about 30 minutes. In that time, NO LIE, he got 2 text messages and an actual phone call. All of which he took.

When I was done I said are you ready? (I will admit, this was said through clenched teeth) and he said, Yeah. CHECKED HIS PHONE ONE MORE TIME Then I said, Good. Because the FIRST thing your going to do is take that phone out of your pocket, put it in your coat and leave it there for the rest of the shift.

OMG! I mean, I will call my husband during my break, but I can't think of anyone I need to talk to while I am at work. It was SOOOO inappropriate. Has anyone else encountered anything like this?

[Scrubby]

I understand that this would be very irritating. But is it possible that he may have a family member or friend who is in some sort of trouble? We had a nursing student a few years ago who was reported for something similar, turned out that a close friend of hers was in a car accident and on life support.

If it's just social then it's completely inappropriate, I agree with your handling of the situation and IMHO the nursing school/preceptor should be made aware.

[Aprilhere]

I'd have been fuming as well.

If there were special circumstances....he should have started out by saying..."XX is going on...I need to take calls..is that ok?"


Apparently we've had similar issues at work..but with staff. They have a rule not to carry your cell phone. One of the nurses actually answered a call in the pts room!

[moomoo111]

Hello, I am a nursing student. I do not think that what you told this student was anyway inappropriate. If there was some type of emergency or need to keep using his cell phone while you are teaching the student, then it was his responsibility and common courtesy to tell you , before the shift started, that he had something of an important nature going on and that he needed to use his cell phone. It was rude on his part. I work as a CNA on a weekend, night shift and I recently had a new CNA added to my shift to take off some of load as I am the only CNA that works the med surg dept. in our small hospital. The first thing the CNA did was clock in, go to the chair where the doctors dictate, prop her feet up on the desk and proceed to receive and send text messages to her husband who was at home taking care of her 4 children. This went on for several hours and another co-worker from another department approached me and let me know that this girl was showing her pornophraphy pictures that her husband was sending her. Here I am working my tail off while she is propped up, sitting in a designated place for doctors and playing on her cell phone, let alone looking at disgusting pictures! I wrote her up and I ended up writing her up several times during the next two weeks. This girl is still working there. Two weeks later, after I found a total care, bed ridden, nursing home patient who had not been turned or changed in over 6 hours that she was assigned to, I took her to an empty room and chewed her out. I told her that I was not going to continue to babysit someone that could not do their job while she stayed on her cell phone the entire night when I had not even been able to take a five minute break. She huffed and puffed and walked off and went right back to her chair and pulled her cell phone out and held it up high so she could see some more pics her husband was sending her. There is a time and a place for cell phones but work is not one of them. Especially in the medical field of such an important nature. If laws are not going to help us then we just have to step up to the plate and take matters in our own hands. I get so tired of being behind people who are about to cause major car accidents because they are using their cell phones and I refuse to pay good money to go to the theatre to watch a movie because of the cell phones that are going off or being flashed all over the place. People need to get a grip and have some good old fashioned manners. PERIOD!

[akcarmean]

i would have done the same thing i have to agree with op

[acerila]

funny that you mention this because I just saw a student last week pick up his phone in the middle of the unit and talk on it very loudly. This is after he went around saying he wants to work at our hospital there in the NICU because the babies don't complain like adults and we have longer breaks then anyone

[canoehead]

Totally inappropriate.

[santhony44]

You weren't nasty.

The student's CI needs to be notified.

I agree with the other poster who said that if there was something critical going on that necessitated the student using his cell, then he should have told you that from the beginning.

[lorilou22RN]

I'd have been angry too. Not professional, and not a good way to get a good grade on his clinical rotation. On another note, (slap me now folks), I do not use my cell phone at work too much, but I have been in a pts room, and answered it (pt was confused and combative, I was sitting there as a 1:1 until the sitter could come) I know I shouldn't have done it, but she was not with it and noone saw. Does that make it better??? Sorry guys.

[webbiedebbie]

Ya know what nurses did "back in the day" before cell phones?

Anything important had to go through the desk phone. And of course personal calls were frowned upon, so a name and # was taken and the call was taken care of at break unless it was an emergency. We all survived.

Very inappropriate especially for a student as well as rude to continue with call while you were going over things with him.

Even when cell phones came out, I would never think to use one when working!!!