Baby monitors for elderly residents

[Antikigirl, ASN, RN]

I brought this up in another post, but not as the highlight and wished to hear some advice or feedback on the practice of using baby monitors to monitor high fall risk elderly patients.

Now, at my facility this is their way of CYA! They place one in the resident's room, the other in the hallway so that all staff can hear if their ambu alarm or crash is heard. Even in the hallway, the caregivers in other residents rooms can't hear it, and about 80-90% of the time that is exactly where they are..tending other residents in their rooms. So considering our average service area is 12-13 rooms, 2-3 with these monitors (how they keep track of what monitor is in what room baffles me, even if the monitor is different, what sound came from which!?!?!) in every service area...they can't put them on and tote them around...is it really helping?

Then there is the large privacy issue!!!!!! Everyone can hear anything going on in that room, from passing gas:rolleyes: , to gossip:chuckle , to residents complaints about things (which leads to many a ticked of caregiver:angryfire ), to...well, we do have couples:uhoh21: ....and the occassional 'talking to oneself' (which even I do!). I think this is a huge invasion of privacy! We have residents that tease other residents.."I see you have gas today *giggle*" or "sounds like you and Maude had fun the other night"...

Who else feels that this is a breach in confidentiality that outweighs its purpose! Anyone else using these? Thoughts please...(my caregivers and other nurses feel the same way..but the admin, they don't see it our way!).:uhoh21: