Cell phones

[SCRN1]

How many of you work in a hospital that requires you to use one of their cell phones in case another employee needs to reach you while away from the nurses' station? What's your opinion of them being used?

This is the 2nd hospital I've worked that has them. I can see where it saves time in tracking you down if another patient needs you. I also realize that it's probably the easiest and most confidential way to let a nurse know what someone needs without announcing it over an intercom.

On the other hand, I feel like they are an intrusion to patient care while you're in a room with a patient, trying to take care of their needs. Even if I'm in the middle of a sterile dressing change, there's no way I'm gonna answer that phone. Still, it's a distraction. Besides, they're bulky & we have enough stuff to carry around in our pockets. :rotfl:

I do think it's a good idea for the techs to use them since their tasks are different...besides the fact that some of ours sometimes have a habit of disappearing.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

I worked a floor that used locator clip-ons we were supposed to be on our badges. The call light system at the desk showed where every nurse/tech was at all times. The thing was that the nurses/techs that didn't have issues were easy to locate anyway, they were generally at the desk or in one of their patient's rooms. The nurses/techs who tended to take extensive breaks or hide in empty rooms always seemed to forget to wear their locators or they would forget them in their pocket (the sensors couldn't pick them up if they were in your pocket).

Personally I hated the things. But that's because I was either usually available to answer my patient's calls because I was at the desk or I was out performing patient cares. I guess it was nice to find another patient had a need because I went all the way back to the desk.

[rollingstone]

The hospital I'm working at now has "cell" phones that all of nurses carry. I like them and I'm not tied to a desk waiting for a physician to call me back.

[SharkLPN]

We have the cordless phones at my hospital, but usually only day shift uses them, and not nocs. It is nice to not have the unit secretary screaming, "WHO PAGED HOUSE?!?!" down the hallway at 10:30 pm when I'd just spent an hour getting my lols to sleep, but sadly we hardly use them on our shift.

[RN_Amy, RN]

Where I used to work we had a cordless phone system which worked really well when working on the ward...

It was a whole lot easier in terms of paging doctors directly back to your phone thereby not having to walk the entire length of the floor for to take a call...

We also had a computer program that allowed the nurse in charge of the shift to program certain rooms and beds to certain nurses' phones at the start of the shift.... so that patients' call buzzers could also come through to the phone as text message....

Also if an emergency button was pressed... all nurses on the floor would get a message... which meant a whole lot of people normally came a-running!

Working in PACU, we could use this program to ascertain the nurses assigned to take each patient and call them directly... which made my day a whole lot easier!

Sorry so long... just haven't seen this system anywhere else... :)

Amy