I'm all for cell phone use for emergencies, but regular conversations while pouring meds, doing pt care, talking to the UM or just sitting at the nurses station IMO is down right rude and is getting out of hand at my facility. I have one, but use it when my car breaks down mostly on my way to and from work. My kids know that if they call me during working hours for non life threatening emergencies, there will be hell to pay when I get home. Way back in the jurassic era when I started out in nursing, we could only receive phone calls for emergencies and could only use the facility phone for an emergency to call home. It seems that in the past few years, more and more employees are becoming obsessed with the cell phone. The last straw was when I saw one nurse passing meds and heard her entire conversation on the CP with her outside of marriage boyfriend. I didn't mean to hear it, but she was loud enough, so I couldn't help it. I wonder how many med errors she made. Then the same nurse was talking to the UM in the hallway and her CP rang. She told the UM, "Could you excuse me please?" and he walked away. I was flabergasted. Then there are all the others with their CP's. Is it a power thing? An attention thing? Or just plain old "I have the right to use it" thing. I don't get it. I really think we could do without these CP's on the job. We did in the past, so what's the problem now? Some facilities ban CP usage. I wonder what's up with our facility? I don't know, maybe it's just me.
How about you? Do you find them annoying if they're used at your work?
Wow. They are banned at all of the hospitals in my city. This ban is strictly enforced at every single facility. I answered mine out in the lobby in front of an admitting clerk, and she tore me a new one. ouch!
Some nurses carry cell phones on my floor, but don't use them. Our tele tech uses her cell phone during work which I don't agree with at all. If you're at work people should respect that and not call you!
I have not seen co-workers use personal cell phones on the floor. They are banned in most parts of our hospital because of the telemetry too. Besides, who has time for personal conversations at work? What kind of manager allows this?
But,our hospital requires each nurse to carry a hospital issued cell phone while on duty. It's the type that won't work outside of the hospital, and does not interfere with electrical equipment. Visitors and patients don't understand this. They just see their nurse talking on the phone ( instead of taking care of grandma!). Visitors see us talking on the phone and whip out theirs too.
In theory, these phones would save time when a doc or other department or front desk wanted to ask about a patient. A nurse can also call directly to another dept or to the charge nurse or unit sect. from a patient's room.
In reality, they are a pain!! That phone rings at the worst times. So, if both my hands are in sterile gloves, (or worse, in grossly :uhoh21: unsterile gloves), just how am I supposed to pick up the phone? Guess I could ask the patient fish it out of my pocket and answer it, take orders.... It also has put me in the position of talking about a patient while in the presence of a different patient. Just try telling the doc you can't talk to them about their patient right now.
Or better yet, tell the doc you can't answer the question because you don't have the chart here in Mrs. Smith's bathroom with you, and you will have to transfer his call BACK to the nurses station...
OK, guess I sidetracked this cell phone topic a bit. This phone thing at work is a sore subject for me right now.
I have not seen co-workers use personal cell phones on the floor. They are banned in most parts of our hospital because of the telemetry too. Besides, who has time for personal conversations at work? What kind of manager allows this?
But,our hospital requires each nurse to carry a hospital issued cell phone while on duty. It's the type that won't work outside of the hospital, and does not interfere with electrical equipment. Visitors and patients don't understand this. They just see their nurse talking on the phone ( instead of taking care of grandma!). Visitors see us talking on the phone and whip out theirs too.
In theory, these phones would save time when a doc or other department or front desk wanted to ask about a patient. A nurse can also call directly to another dept or to the charge nurse or unit sect. from a patient's room.
In reality, they are a pain!! That phone rings at the worst times. So, if both my hands are in sterile gloves, (or worse, in grossly :uhoh21: unsterile gloves), just how am I supposed to pick up the phone? Guess I could ask the patient fish it out of my pocket and answer it, take orders.... It also has put me in the position of talking about a patient while in the presence of a different patient. Just try telling the doc you can't talk to them about their patient right now.
Or better yet, tell the doc you can't answer the question because you don't have the chart here in Mrs. Smith's bathroom with you, and you will have to transfer his call BACK to the nurses station...
OK, guess I sidetracked this cell phone topic a bit. This phone thing at work is a sore subject for me right now.
Yeah, and don't you just love it when the unit secretary just watched you go into the staff bathroom and then put a call in to your phone?
I have not seen co-workers use personal cell phones on the floor. They are banned in most parts of our hospital because of the telemetry too. Besides, who has time for personal conversations at work? What kind of manager allows this?
But,our hospital requires each nurse to carry a hospital issued cell phone while on duty. It's the type that won't work outside of the hospital, and does not interfere with electrical equipment. Visitors and patients don't understand this. They just see their nurse talking on the phone ( instead of taking care of grandma!). Visitors see us talking on the phone and whip out theirs too.
In theory, these phones would save time when a doc or other department or front desk wanted to ask about a patient. A nurse can also call directly to another dept or to the charge nurse or unit sect. from a patient's room.
In reality, they are a pain!! That phone rings at the worst times. So, if both my hands are in sterile gloves, (or worse, in grossly :uhoh21: unsterile gloves), just how am I supposed to pick up the phone? Guess I could ask the patient fish it out of my pocket and answer it, take orders.... It also has put me in the position of talking about a patient while in the presence of a different patient. Just try telling the doc you can't talk to them about their patient right now.
Or better yet, tell the doc you can't answer the question because you don't have the chart here in Mrs. Smith's bathroom with you, and you will have to transfer his call BACK to the nurses station...
OK, guess I sidetracked this cell phone topic a bit. This phone thing at work is a sore subject for me right now.
In one of the local hospitals, the call lights are connected to the nurses pagers. The only way to turn off the call light is in the room. If not turned of in 5 minutes, it pages you again. On the third page, the Supervisor is paged also. (do you know how many times a person can drop their call light, and set it off? Always happens when you are assisting a very, very slow elderly to the bathroom.)
When they set up this system, they said it would assist the nurses in the long run, and administration would up the ratio.
HA. They are always short, agency won't work there anymore.
Personally, I don't know why they don't just strap a vacuum cleaner to our a**, that way we can save $$ on house keeping, we'll just vacuum while we run. (if they could hook up a generator to our shoes somehow...)
CPs are okay in public... but never should be used by someone who is serving someone else. Double for medical professionals!! I have had my cell on silent at work if I expect a call from home... I then check it after it vibrates and return the call from a private area. This is not a normal thing - just occasional. I wont allow the CNAs on the floor to carry theirs... they lose track of what they are supposed to be doing, they end up text messaging the entire shift. I agree -
its not acceptable to whip out a CP at work when your attention is to be on the patients and your work.
We can only use cell phones on our breaks. Otherwise, they are supposed to be on vibrate only or shut off completely.
I got to disagree about the cell phones in public. They need to be used appropriately ie- don't want to hear a people fighting or as one young woman recently chose to do, described her lady partsl discharge problem to her dr, while at the same time ordering a meal. Yuck!!!
They need to be used appropriately ie- don't want to hear a people fighting or as one young woman recently chose to do, described her lady partsl discharge problem to her dr, while at the same time ordering a meal. Yuck!!!
No, what i like is the people in the public bathroom with 12 stalls, and hearing someone have the runs and talking on their phone at the same time, LOUDLY.
Specializes in Happily semi-retired; excited for the whole whammy.
Once again, my response is a tad off the topic, but for those of you with little ones that watch Rugrats, do women with a cell phone connected to your ear ever remind you of Angelica's mother, Charlotte? She's always on the phone with her assistant, Jonathon, acting very self important. That's the impression I always get of women (not meaning to be sexist here, but it sure seems to me more women use their cell phones excessively) who seem to find it necessary to take calls in the ped's waiting room, grocery store, gym locker room, the second the pilot gives the all clear for electronic devices, etc...
Truly_Blessed
423 Posts
Wow. They are banned at all of the hospitals in my city. This ban is strictly enforced at every single facility. I answered mine out in the lobby in front of an admitting clerk, and she tore me a new one. ouch!