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Discussion

Call light question-Please help...(m)

Hello all, I am a CNA and nursing student, but I have a question about a situation that happened last night while I was working my CNA job. I work in a hospital on a Med-Surg floor. We get mostly post op patients, but from time to time we get regular medical patients too. I have been a CNA for 3 years and the one thing I remember them drilling into our heads is that the call light MUST be in reach of the patient at all times.

Last night I go in and take vitals on 2 patients in the same room. One is pleasantly confused and in mitts. The other is on comfort measures. The bottom line is that the RN came in to help me turn the patient who is on comfort measures and he reaches BEHIND him to the wall to turn on the light. The light control is ON the patients call light control. It was then that I noticed that BOTH patients call lights were hanging up on the wall behind the beds. When I said to the RN, Oh we better give them their call lights someone must have forgotten, his reply to me was "well they are both so confused anyways that they probably wouldn't know what to do with them if they did have them" I was FLOORED! Now am I wrong is thinking that no matter HOW confused a patient is, it is still the law that the must have their call light WITHIN REACH? I can still remember back 3 years and watching those movies they show you of abuse and the patient in the movie saying "Please don't take my light away, its the only way I can contact you" now ok, maybe this lady was on comfort measures, maybe she couldn't have used the light, but maybe she could have. Shouldn't these 2 ladies have had their call lights within reach? What are your thoughts.

Thanks

Shannon

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Regulations require that the patient be able to reach their call light. The only justifiable exception I can think of is if they are trying to harm themselves with the call light ( wrapping it around their neck, etc).

Yes all patients should have their call bells within reach at all times. :)

I agree that the call lights should have been left within reach of the patients.

It falls under safety issues for one thing. It could also be viewed as a form of patient abuse, involuntary seclusion.

They should have their call light in place. Even if they are pleasantly confused, it is still a responsibility to re-orient them and educate them on the call light and asking for help.

Even if they don't use it, it is negligence to not have it within reach. Glad I'm not a patient in that facility! :uhoh21:

they should have their call lights

I was totally out of it while in the ICU a couple of weeks ago for a few hours right after surgery...I had an oxygen mask on and I got sick...I had just recently had my breathing tube taken out so I could not talk that loudly...my nurse had gone out of my bed area for a few minutes so I could not get her attention right away...and I wish I could have gotten her attention sooner.

In my state, this is a reportable offense to the BON.

Hi

Call light should always be within reach of patient. We have to document this every shift in our safety measures screen. Mental status doesn't change the rules. In fact that patient may need that light more then others.

Mary Ann

even where i work in the mental health/behavioral health unit of a LTC, we have a lady who likes to rip the cord out of the wall and swing it at people...she should have been a cowboy the way she can swing that lasso...but we have to get it from her and plug it back in...usually after she leaves the room, everyone has to have the light......her son even tried to get me to take hers out of her room on sunday after she tried to whip him with it,,,and i told him that i could not.

I work in a Memory Care Unit in an Assisted Living Facility and our residents don't even have call lights hooked up in their rooms. I'm wondering if there are any rules about this?

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