Hospital patients are happy with nurses' new smart phones

Hmm, I wonder how many nurses were being honest about liking this new system. Sounds inefficient to me. There can be 1 to 3 people answering any 1 call? What happen to the CNAs? What if the nurse come in, pt said need some food? Then the nurse have to go out of her way to get food or ask the CNA to do so?

This is what my hospital use. Pt trigger the call light. Someone at the nurses station answer the call. If it requires a nurse, then just call that nurse's phone.

Speaking from a patient/family point of view, it is very reassuring to be able to tell my nurse what I need directly. When a call is made overhead, you never know if someone is going to come and then when they do, you tell them what you need and then have to wait again. But I can see where it would get really frustrating for nursing staff. We still have the overhead system and patients do get very frustrated. We are supposed to go to a paging system-does anyone use that and if so does it work?

Yes, I guess this goes back to the original topic "Hospital patients are happy with nurses' new smart phones" . Although I like them, it does not mean the nurses do. Patients seem to.

This is definitely an interesting thread. While all of the posters have discussed wireless call light systems/smart phones in acute care settings, I know of a LTC facility that was planning to introduce a similar system. Apparently any time a resident needed something, the nursing assistant would be the first person to receive a call. If the call wasn't answered within a certain amount of time, the nurse would be notified. If there was still no response to the call within a certain amount of time, the call would then be directed to the DON. Of course, if the DON was notified, there would be disciplinary actions taken against the staff who failed to answer their phones in the alloted amount of time.

The ratio of nurses to residents in the facility was 1:25 on day and PM shifts, 1:50 on nocs. The ratio of nursing assistants to residents was probably 3:25 days, 2:25 PMs, 1:25 nocs.

Does this sound like a potential nightmare to anyone else?

My original post was a tad on the negative side. But truth be told, while I hate the constant interruptions, I can’t imagine how this communication took place before phones. (I’ve had them since I started nursing). Yesterday I decided to keep track of my calls. Here is a breakdown of the 150 or so incoming calls I got in my 12 hour shift. It does not include my calls out. Nor does it include the many calls I missed because I opted not to unglove and look at the phone.

9 calls from Transporters
6 Doc’s calling me out of the blue
17 doc’s returning my calls
5 charge nurse asking questions about my patients/staffing
15 call lights I answered
32 call lights I didn’t answer
11 calls from other nurses
3 text messages about lunch (it rings just like the phone calls so you are distracted anyway)
2 text messages to update our report sheet
12 calls from outside procedures (radiology, etc)
5 calls from pharmacy (3 returning my calls)
4 calls from social work
3 calls from a nursing home my pt was being transferred to
7 calls from family members
3 calls from the clerk
6 calls from floor tech
13 calls from monitoring tech (everything from batteries low to VT)
1 staff assist
3 calls from Physical therapy
3 lab