Should Personal Internet Use be Banned During Nursing Shifts?

[Anxious Patient]

How should we be spending our time during work hours? Are we there for patients or ....? Should personal Internet use be monitored/banned during nursing work hours?

Some responses

The internet is no different from books, magazines, and newspapers that nurses entertain themselves with when there is nothing to do.

If you're on the internet, are you the first to jump up & answer? Not likely unless you make everyone swear not to touch the machine until you can get back to it. It's not like turning down the corner of a page & come back to it later.

I look up info for family members, ie. Mapquest, or pull up info about books for them to read that pertains to their situation--death of family member.

This discussion reminds me of the times 40 years ago when personal phone calls were not allowed.

http://boards.medscape.com/forums?128@@.29ee8028!comment=1

[truern]

"The other day one of the physicians was on facebook, I thought that site was blocked"

OK, thats just............pffft.............outrageous. A doctor on facebook @ work. Probably flipping out on nurses calling for pain management reasons at the same time too.

OT: eriksoln, I love your new sig

Yeah, ebay can't be accessed from work, but some shopping websites can?? Not sure about facebook...

I honestly don't see the difference in reading a magazine and looking something up online...IF all your work is done. If it were really a problem they'd shut it all down.

[diane227, LPN, RN]

I like my staff to confine their use to when they are on break but this does not always work. We have terminals all over the place and I just don't have time to watch them all. Plus, the staff very frequently uses them to look up medical information.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

I rarely get a full 30 minutes away from my patients for lunch. (Although when I get a chance, I do try to take at least 15-20 minutes.) So if I get a break in my day, I'll check my email or check a couple places I like to visit online that make me happy. I'm also the resident Google queen, that when anyone has a question about anything, I'm the one that goes and finds out. Whether it's medically related or not.:) It's a huge resource for my work, and it's my escape for a few minutes here and there so I don't feel "trapped" in the building. They clamped down blocking more than the usual for a while, and I felt almost claustrophobic. Thankfully I got places like allnurses back. It's like a smoke break but healthier.:)

Are there people that spend half the shift online? Yes. But without the internet access, they'd spend half the shift doing something else. Don't punish those of us using it sparingly to keep others from "wasting time" because it won't work anyway!

[chicookie, BSN, RN]

Are there people that spend half the shift online? Yes. But without the internet access, they'd spend half the shift doing something else. Don't punish those of us using it sparingly to keep others from "wasting time" because it won't work anyway!

Exactly. Even if the internet was banned there would be people hiding in patients rooms or something to get out of work. If a person doesn't want to work, they will not work. That is just how it goes.

[massrn116]

I think when there is "down time" it is okay to use the internet for personal use. HOWEVER, the patient comes first and then your co-workers then the internet. Where I work I know they go on line to play games, etc. but when I come on shift it frosts my a** to find infiltrated IV's, the rooms a mess, the patient looking like he has not been touched all night, carts not restocked, where is the professionalism???

[hypocaffeinemia, BSN, RN]

The internet is an essential lifeline at work. We have full access to research databases and when a treatment is called into question, we can easily research the answer.

I think the opposition to it may be generational-- I'm 25 and part of the "internet generation". I grew up with the internet and I'm able to utilize its potential in all sorts of unique daily situations at work. More so, because it has been such a part of mine and my generation's lives growing up, we know how to be professional around it.

I think that other generations that are not as tech savvy as ours is are far more prone to being sucked into trying to accomplish something online to the detriment of everything else. I can multitask on the computer and often have 10+ different firefox tabs open at any given time in addition to the EMR.

And yes, my hospital let me install firefox after I convinced them it was safer than internet explorer.

I will refuse outright to work for a facility with severely limited internet access policies. Either that or I will use the EVDO rev A broadband capability of my PDA to bypass the hospital's network and instead use it as a modem for my work computer. That's just how I roll.

[Chixie]

The likes of facebook/myspace/utube are blocked at work

I often use the net to find out about the conditions,meds or intervention. I have used it to help explain something to a patient

Unfotunately there are those who seem to spend hours on the computer/net

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I say if its use doesn't interfere with your provision of patient care, then using the internet should be allowed. But I also feel the organization has to right to restrict/limit/track its use in any way they see fit to, since we are using it on the organizations' time and dime.

If I want free and unrestricted use of the internet, then I can wait until I get home to do so. If I have the compulsion to spend hours online while I'm work...then I'm either working in IT or (more likely) not doing my job as well as I should be :)