Walkie Talkies on Your Unit?

[NursingAgainstdaOdds]

...or some other staff-to-staff communication device?

My sis recently started working an ED that uses shoulder-mounted walkie-talkies (a la cops). I have to say, I'm so jealous! I spend so much time in my day trying to find an aide, trying to find a specific nurse, etc. I can imagine so many reasons why this would be incredibly useful on our unit, especially for a couple people I can think of right off who frequently *disappear* into their own little holes in the space-time continuum. (A couple of whom HAVE been overhead paged after a pattern of disappearances.) It also strikes me as being much safer for nursing staff and patients, when immediate help is just a call over the walkie away.

My thoughts on this are that a more closed system, like an earpiece w/ mic (a la Old Navy:lol2:) is more appropriate in a med-surg setting because of a potential HIPAA issue. Me, I prefer a hands-free means of communication. Right now we have cell phones (which weigh like 3lbs, I kid you not), which inevitably ring in our pocket while transferring an unstable pt or doing something similar. I do wonder if a constant chatter would drive me batty, but at the same time I really feel the positives would outweigh the negatives.

Wonder how I could talk my manager into this one ... it's gotta have a customer service angle somewhere...

[CrispyRN]

We have "Vocera" where I work, a kinda walkie talkie. Pros: find someone easily, communicate with difference departments with ease. Cons: voice recognition, finds you during lunch and bath room breaks! Enough said! Ours does not have an earpiece, but needs one for Hippa!

[casi, ASN, RN]

Our hospital uses the Vocera too. We don't use it at night on our unit, but from what I've seen of it it seems rather effecitve, well except when you call respiratory therapy and get an RT at a sister hospital 10miles away... The one thing that I like is you don't have to answer it if you are in the middle of something and the person calling you can leave a message.

[Dolce, RN]

I dont want to look like I work at Mcdonalds

Besides I also want to be able to totally ignore some people

Too funny. :rotfl:

[MAISY, RN-ER, BSN, RN]

Vocera...horrible, horrible, horrible. They do not work. Log in as Mary Smith, get....did you want to log on as Barbara Jones? Voice recognition, lack of signal, noncompliance and a million other reasons-mostly "I didn't understand" as the computer generated voice states a million times. Definately a recipe for workplace violence!

They don't work. Huge waste of money!!!

Increase my pay, stop buying stupid devices, hard wire each room to be voice activated with a password-for communication with secretary and charge desk. We are still paging overhead for housekeeping, clinical techs, nurses, and physicians, what was the point of spending so much money?

Maisy;)

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

I saw nurses and aides using the Vocera system. It looked like a fairly user friendly system.

I work in a forensic facility where we wear "cop" radios for ICS reasons. They do work well but I think that they are very heavy. We don't have earpieces so we clip the mic next to our ears.

Voceras are 'cool', but, they are pieces of junk.

Plus, its voice recognition program has an attitude. Sometimes it just refuses to lock on to what you are saying, no matter that you have clearly annunciated for the 323rd time.

After we went through 2 complete sets in less than a year, the hospital decided they were too expensive.

~faith,

Timothy.

[bagladyrn, RN]

I think it is incredibly rude to patients to have the phone going off, much less answer it while you are doing patient care. Walkie-talkies sound like too much chance of privacy violations, having them blare out about one patient while you are with another. Besides, those things (and many cordless phones) can be picked up by anyone with a scanner. Would you really want anyone in the neighborhood listening in to healthcare workers discussing your private business?

I have been "chewed out" by a unit clerk for not answering the cordless phone on one contract. Told her (since I work L&D) that considering where my hand was at the moment, no way was I going to grab the phone!

[jojotoo, RN]

When I saw this thread title, I thought it was r/t patients who were ambulatory and communicative

Me too!

[NursingAgainstdaOdds]

I really wish we had a different solution other than our cordless phones. On my shift yesterday I refused to answer my phone while I was pulling meds, and several times while I was hanging FFP (pt got 4 units, so it happened a lot). The ward clerk then went down the hall yelling my name. Ridiculous. I really need to discuss disruptions with my unit manager. The number of times I get interrupted in the med room is astronomical, and I really should have the option of not answering my phone while doing something like hanging blood products!

I THINK you can take a flippin' message from the pharmacy, ya know??

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

LOL, I thought you were talking about patients who were "Walkie Talkies" as in not vented, tubed, and sedated...

[NursingAgainstdaOdds]

LOL I know!! I thought about that when I started the thread, but I couldn't think of another term for walkie talkies that wasn't vague as hell.

[abundantjoy07, RN]

we have cell phones we have to carry. they are huge like bricks. and yes they do ring all the time. the only thing i don't like that there's no caller id and i csn't stand the fact you can't silence them when they ring. and when they ring they ring!!!

but there's pros and cons to them in any situation.

[JennieJenRN]

We have cell phones nextel the are light and when I am in charge and I have to go potty I give it to someone who is qualified to be in charge! or I tell the clerk not to transfer. i like the phones that way if someone needs help at the bedside they do not have to search for me. I also work in an ICU so nurse's are at the bedside.