Do YOU answer call lights in a hospital?

[JHansen]

I'm curious, at my hospital only one in every five nurses I would say answers call lights, and one in particular will stand, literally stand, infront of their patients room waiting for a CNA to walk around the corner wondering why the call light is still going off. She will then point at the light then at the CNA and ask them what took them so long.

I asked her one day why she feels the need to do this rather than answer her own patients call lights. "Not my job to do the CNA's.":eek:

So I ask this community: Do YOU answer call lights when they go off or wait as long as possible before the noise makes you go see whats up?

I used to be a CNA so you can be damn sure I answer them unless I am busy with another pt at the moment. CNA's are underpaid and over worked and thats the truth.

[lpnflorida]

oh yah, in our dreams Doctors answer call lights,,,:caduceus:

[Batman24]

If I'm tending to a patient of course I do. All the nurses where I work do. Our CNAs are vg about it too. Thankfully I work on a unit with a team mentality.

[imanedrn]

Yes, I do actually.

I will also do what some nurses call CNA work, bed bath, feeding, bathroom, etc...

There still has to be delegation, but my aids can't do everything. I believe in team work.

Ditto. I work with several "experienced" nurses who don't answer call lights (THEIRS) with much regularity. Unless I'm in the middle of something, I answer all call lights - mine AND other nurses'.

I do NOT like the designation that it's "CNA work." That's just a lazy excuse, esp. from nurses who came from the times when they did NOT have CNAs.

On the other hand... I work with MANY Filipina nurses, and I wonder if it may be cultural. (This is a serious question, if someone knows?) They seem to be the ones who most frequently do NOT answer call lights, period. On the other hand, when I work with Filipina CNAs and offer to help them, they almost always refuse my help (telling me it's "their job" and to go do "your (my) work"). This, in contrast to the white & black American CNAs with whom I work, who almost always accept (if not EXPECT) my assistance.

[JHansen]

Ditto. I work with several "experienced" nurses who don't answer call lights (THEIRS) with much regularity. Unless I'm in the middle of something, I answer all call lights - mine AND other nurses'.

I do NOT like the designation that it's "CNA work." That's just a lazy excuse, esp. from nurses who came from the times when they did NOT have CNAs.

On the other hand... I work with MANY Filipina nurses, and I wonder if it may be cultural. (This is a serious question, if someone knows?) They seem to be the ones who most frequently do NOT answer call lights, period. On the other hand, when I work with Filipina CNAs and offer to help them, they almost always refuse my help (telling me it's "their job" and to go do "your (my) work"). This, in contrast to the white & black American CNAs with whom I work, who almost always accept (if not EXPECT) my assistance.

I have no comment on the cultural question you asked, but I should comment that most of my CNA's don't expect my help but appreciate it, because come on when they have 10 pt and I have 4 I might have a bit more time to provide the care that people deserve. Once when I worked at a retirement home I had 22 pts all I could do was bathroom and turn em that was it. It was a terrible situation for all parties envolved.

[MorganO]

If you have the time, do you not want to know what your patient needs? I am sure this question is not about who answers the light quicker and ethnicity. It is about why a nurse stood outside the door assessing response times rather than stepping inside the door to assess what the patient needed. Please do not tell me that she assessed the response time while that patient waited for someone to come into the room to ask for pain medicine, empty their bladder or was needed an answer to a question that was just weighting on them.

[justme79]

Everywhere I have worked has had a policy that answering call lights was everyone's responsibility! It is a matter of pt safety as well as service and courtesy.

[Thankful RN,BSN]

i only answer the call lights when the cna's are busy. and i only answer my pt's call lights if i am busy. if i am not busy, i will answer other call lights as well. if i constantly answered call lights, i would never get charting done. i am NOT one to stay over to do it...sorry. if the hospital cared so much about the patients...they would hire more help!

[WhoNeedsaShot?]

I just can't imagine, not answering to the need of a patient.... I so hope that I find a job where nursing is a "team" effort. I know there are disappointments with every job, but I certainly don't want to see my co-workers ingnore a patients call for assisstance.

Am I being totally nieve(sp?) to think that nurses become nurses because they really do like to help people?

[RazorbackRN, BSN, RN]

I notice a very clear omission here: What about physicians?

That would be because they "don't know how" to answer it...

For such educated people, some of them are real dummies.

[rockytopRN2b]

I'm a tech, but our nurses and CNA's work very well as a team. Everyone answers call lights, and almost without exception, if I am asked to do something like turn a pt, the nurse will tell us to find him/her when we are ready and so they can assist. I've even had nurses assist with cleaning a particularly messy bm, etc (and use the opportunity to provide wound care for pressure ulcers while they're at it). I have run into one or two nurses that thought they were above CNA work, but thank goodness, they have been few and far in between. Our nurses are wonderful! :heartbeat

[Booty Nurse, BSN]

When I worked med-surg (until 7 months ago), we only had an aide once in a while. We nurses did it all -- all toileting, bathing, feeding, everything. So yes, we sure did answer the call lights! Most of the nurses did their best to pitch in and answer each other's lights.

[back2bRN]

Yes I do, I don't always go to the room, sometimes I need to delegate, but the call light gets answered and the patient is helped. It doesn't matter to me if they are "mine" or not.