Nurse locator devices...

[JRP1120, RN]

What does your facility use to locate you when you are needed elsewhere? As a nurse, do you carry a phone of some sort? Pager? Do you wear those locator thingies (don't know their name, sorry) next to your ID badges so the nurses station knows exactly what room you're in? Or are you just paged over the intercom?

Just curious to know how many different types of systems there are out there. Our hospital uses small phones that each nurse is assigned when they come on. Good but can be a pain when you're in the middle of something and it's constantly ringing! :)

[elthia]

Phones and tracer tags. Saved a couple of nurses butts a couple of times, like when a pt and family stated that nurses never checked, and there was a log of nurses being in the room q 15-30 min that day and the pt later went to the ICU. Pt was stating the tx was due to lack of care, it wasn't...but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

I tend to ignore the phone ringing when I am doing direct patient care, but it drives me batty when someone lets it ring 10+ times, if I didn't answer in the first 8 rings, then I obviously am not in a position to answer. The other day someone grabbed my phone for me, and "Elthia's phone, this is xxx speaking....no, she's not answering because she is performing CPR right now and that's more important." My phone had been ringing nonstop for 2 minutes. :uhoh3: I was ignoring it, but finally one of the docs asked someone to get it, so someone grabbed it off of where it was clipped to my scrubs. It wasn't related to the code at all, and something that the CNA could have been called for, a tele monitor with low battery or some such thing, can't remember.

[Journey_On, BSN, RN]

The hospital at my previous job used the nurse locator devices (nurses had green ones, techs had red ones). We also carried around a Spectralink phone. Like beckster_01 mentioned, I liked how they automatically turned off the call lights when you walked into a patient's room. When a nurse was in the room, the light above the patient's room would turn green (and I think the light would turn orange if a tech was in there). This was really helpful when you were looking for a nurse or tech and could glance down the hallway to see if they might be down there.

At my current job, we carry around Spectralink phones. They are convenient, but they can be a pain when you're in the middle of something and it goes off.

Our day shift nurses and CNAs carry phones. At night, only the charge nurse carries a phone.

Sounds kind of nice! I would love to be free of the phone at times.

[JRP1120, RN]

Can someone please explain what Vocera is? I'm not familiar with it. TIA!

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

When I used to work at The Cleveland Clinic, we had these little locator things that told the HUC where we were at. Nurses and aides/techs wore them. It was just a basic white locator device; they couldn't call you from it. Instead they would call you on the intercom in the room.

At another hospital, nurses and aides/techs wore Voceras, but only in the ER/critical care areas. They weren't utilized in med-surg or OB; neither were cell phones. If you needed to find someone you would just have to go look for them on the unit!

At the hospital I work at now, we carry cell phones. Each nurse and CNA gets a number assigned to them.

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

Can someone please explain what Vocera is? I'm not familiar with it. TIA!

http://www.planetheadset.com/images/Vocera.png

That is a Vocera. They also come in white.

You can call people on it. All you have to do is push that button and say "call [first & last name]" and it will call the person for you. I like the Voceras because you just clip them to your badge or to your uniform. At my hospital we use cell phones and they're kind of bulky...like the old-school Nokia kind...and it takes up space in my pocket!

[No Stars In My Eyes]

GPS ankle cuff.

Not serious, just bein' silly.

Sorry!

[Poi Dog]

GPS ankle cuff.

Not serious, just bein' silly.

Sorry!

Best answer ever!

[rnccf2007, BSN, RN]

We have the locator thingies, which I totally love. Even if I'm not around the locator board, all I have to do is look for a green light and I know there is an RN in the room.

We don't have phones, but Vocera. Can be a pain, when Voscera thinks you said some other name and you have to ask again, but if somebody calls you it is handless. You can be in the middle of something and not have to worry about using your hands.

Last place that I worked, we had phones. At my current place of employement, we have Hill Rom locators and Voceras. The Vocera is on of the most useless peices of technology ever invented! I have to laugh that some fool is actually making money off of it. Funny to listen to myself and others argue with it. Patients are also amused (and irritated) by it. Some day my Vocera will meet its death (by being slammed into a wall) when I ask for George Washington and Abraham Lincoln comes on the line instead.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Locator things.

And vocera. I LOATHE vocera. Everytime the damn thing pings ughhhh. I dont mind call lights going off and answering them but there is something about the stupid ping that just gets under my skin.

[klone, MSN, RN]

We all carry cellphones

Pt call lights are programmed right to our phone, and if for some reason the nurse doesn't answer a call light, it will then ring to the tech, then to the front desk.

[Gold_SJ]

Our facility it seems its in ancient times, we have no idea where a nurse is, you must hunt them down with your own either sense or instinct. Some nurses just give up and hollar your name down the hall. That or people do Marco Polo ^.^;; This is the public system though, government wouldn't spend that much money for ease of location I guess.

I've worked in some private systems and they had a button you pressed on entering the room, so a green light shows up outside the door. So that was much easier. Intercom is never used in any system I've worked in. Phones are often used in aged care that I remember.