New rules about going online to listen to You Tube!

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Dec 11, 2007

My health system strictly limits Internet access to point I can not go to some insurance companies websites without IT exemption. Allnurses is blocked also. Our computers scanned weekly for website visits via remote access.

I've found 2 of my staff coming into office to check their home email...one even let her daughter online to chat with friends for her birthday as home computer Internet down.....so I fully support what health system is doing.

Diary/Dairy, RN · Dec 11, 2007

The best story I heard about Internet abuse at work was an office worker who was looking at pictures of naked women, found one he particularly liked and started to download, and right then, his boss walked in. He tried to back out and instead converted the picture to wallpaper. His boss told him not to do that again - lesson learned.

:lol2: That's great!! I know of someone who got fired for looking @ Media - he got caught by a family!

Bottom line, they are paying for the internet and for us to take care of people - If they want to block the sites, they are within their rights to do it.

prmenrs, RN · Dec 11, 2007

I worked a really long shift once--came in @ 07 and finally went home @ 01 the next am. I was logged onto one of teh computers the entire time. Including checking allnurses q2hrs, or whenever I was sitting there feeding a baby.

I'm waiting for IT to come in one day and slap me. :trout:

august07 · Dec 11, 2007

My old job banned the internet and I thought it was so going to be so terrible, but after about a month, I had totally forgotten about it. You get used to it. I would think if you are complaining about not being able to use the internet, you've probably got a pretty nice job!

Editorial Team / Admin · Dec 11, 2007

So in closing, I was not saying allnurses is not safe, I am just saying youtube probably has some of the strongest security measures out there.

As does allnurses.com -

And again I am always impressed by the speed of your mods in locking or removing spam or potentially harmful posts.

On behalf of the staff members, I thank you. We do have an extremely wonderful group of volunteers who help make Brian's site safe and secure for all.

allnurses Guide · Dec 11, 2007

Must be nice to be able to go on it at all at work. The last job that I had, we all had internet access and it was pretty liberal; we just had to stay away from staying on certain websites such as YouTube for too long. Plus, we did have to log on under our own usernames. The job before that, we could get on the internet without any kind of user name, but certain websites were blocked (I couldn't check my Hotmail from work).

Now where I work, I can't get on AT ALL without a password and username, and I haven't been given one. In fact, one of the things that kinda busts my chops about my new place of business is that the ONLY employees who have any kind of email are charge nurses and on up. The first hospital I worked, **EVERYONE** had email. Housekeepers, cafeteria workers, everyone. Made for TOO MUCH communication sometimes. =)

One thing I can do at work right now is Telnet. There is this old BBS that I have been using for many many years, before the WWW was even around, that I can go to and read and post stuff on.

Indy, LPN, LVN · Dec 12, 2007

Telnet brings back memories... remember usenet, uninet, etc. I remember having to type in the dialing string... ATDT something and it would type out "RING" before connecting. Fun times.

We don't have sound on our computer so it would be useless to do anything on youtube. Unless you wanna watch videos of kittens going to sleep! I think the other computers outside my unit have sound though.

I do not like to check my email at work because I don't want someone to log into it from IT if they can see my history, etc. I don't know exactly how close they monitor. We do have a fair amount of downtime in my unit, balanced by lots of nights where you can barely sit down to chart, let alone play. Some of my coworkers sew, knit, etc. I'd bring in my crochet except that a) don't want my projects to get dirty and b) spacewise they are large and I don't feel like carrying all that stuff. One of us brings her homework, but normally doesn't have time to do it. I bring books but sometimes they put me to sleep so it's not a great idea.

There is a metric ton of nursing educational material sitting on a shelf, so my boss would rather me read that than play. I make a point of reading stuff once in a while and if it's interesting, I'll mention it to her. If she leaves something on the desk I know it's something I need to read so I'll do so if at all possible.

Things I think are relatively unprofessional ways to entertain ourselves at work: Youtube, myspace, having the friggen television up really loud, and whatever else takes away from actual patient care or makes the patients unable to sleep.

rph3664 · Dec 12, 2007

I work weekends with two male pharmacists who were abusing TV privileges. We had a TV in our back room, and if a baseball, basketball, or football game was on, they would sit in the back and watch it, and not work no matter how busy it was. Oh, they might check a stat if someone brought it to them, but once I walked in the door, THEY WOULD NOT BUDGE. :angryfire I would consider this, among other things, stealing from your employer - stealing time.

A stat Levophed drip for which the floor has been waiting for 3 hours? Who cares? The Chicago Bulls are playing!

Because of who one of them is, it seemed they were impervious to any disciplinary action until one of the techs had a relative who did not receive an ASAP order for eight hours, and I brought it to the manager's attention and the TV was removed. This really ticked off a lot of people, because we all liked to watch it on legitimate breaks, but who knows how many people might have died because of this garbage? I really couldn't believe that nobody had complained about it before me, but apparently that was the case. Personally, I was surprised that the TV was taken out; my manager's personality is such that I thought he might pull those two men aside and tell them not to do it any more, or maybe send e-mails about TV use, but no, the proper thing was done.

Everyone knows I'm the one who got the TV removed (well, those two men really were but I'm the one who brought it up) but nobody, including those two men, has bellyached too much about it because IMHO, they know I did the right thing.

We have also had problems with technicians who were just out of high school who would say things like "Make me" or "I'll do it later" and we would have to say "You will do it NOW!" like they were children, which in a way they were.

rph3664 · Dec 13, 2007

p.s. When I told my manager about this, I asked if he had seen "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and when he said he had, I said, "Can you imagine kids watching that and thinking people really act that way at work?"

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Dec 13, 2007

youtube is one of the sites that gets us the big red no no screen. Ebay, facebbook, myspace and any other auction site are a few more. We can use the internet, but we don't do it when there are families in the rooms or there are things to be done.

rph3664 · Dec 13, 2007

We occasionally get reminders about Internet use (they go out to all employees) and they always mention "anti-semantic" websites. I think they mean "anti-Semitic" but whatever.

Kunzieo · Dec 13, 2007

:lol2: