no cell phones no personal phone calls at work

[ohmeowzer RN]

just wanted your opinion on this... my friend who just graduated from nursing school just started a job where he cannot get personal phone calls or cannot bring his cell phone into the unit.. they are worried about pictures being taken ectra with the cell phone.. he has 6 kids and his wife has MS .. they told him if they catch him with a cell phone on the unit it is a write up .. it is a psych unit.. i understand the facility worries.. but to cut you off of all communication from family seems to much .. they told him they wrote up 2 nurses last week for bringing their cell phones in .. you cannot even use them on your break .. that is where they caught the nurses to write them up.. they also warned him they have cameras and voice recording all over the unit and will catch them if they are not on target with their job ... is this excessive control over a nurse about cell phones and personal calls for a psych unit.... seems like it to me... they use the cameras to see if the nurse really does her job and what she says besides the safety of the staff and patients...

what do you think ?? thank you in advance !!

[baldee]

Back in the days before cell phones and pagers I'd give my family the number at work for emergencies only.

If I had an urgent call to make, I'd ask my supervisor permission to use the phone.

What's the big deal? Cell phones are a convenient form of communication, not a necessity.

Don't you know? These people BSing on the phone is more important than highway safety or employer's right to expect a fair day's work (as well as supplying their brain, joint, digits, and heart with the proper amount of oxygen).

:coollook:

[SnowStar4]

Although I fully agree that cell phones and non-emergency personal calls have no place in the work place, I think the point here is that this is a psych floor.

I have been on many psych floors both in school and work and they always have had no cell phone policies. Many of the patients are paranoid about what you are taking pics of/talking to other people about. There is also a concern about the patients that are there unvoluntarily trying to get the cell phones away from employees which could result in some dangerous situations.

The employees were allowed to use cell phones on break- but they had to be off the locked unit. I think that is perfectly acceptable.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Okay, I'm a crotchety old nurse who's been a nurse since way before we had cell phones - yes, I'm that old!

Give your family your unit's phone number!

Get over the cell phone use at work....gee whiz!

We gotta use some common sense here.

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

Personally I am tired of going into the utility room or med room and finding a coworker hiding out there texting. I'm also tired of having to cover for nurse X when the doc needs a hand with her patients. At work your mind should be on patients, not on the little crises that happen at home and your family calls about. Every time your concentration is broken by a vibrating phone your attention is taken away from the person being cared for.

Team no cell phones. Go team.

i do agree that we should not be conducting routine home business during work hours. some people have ruined it for everyone by being on their phones, txt- ing friends etc. That is completelly wrong. These are not emergencies. My fear is if there is a real emergency- the "person at the office" taking the call will not get that call there. It was nice to be told that my MIL was dying and when I got the message she had already died( not expected) I have worked with others who were nOT told of TRUE emergencies until much later after the fact. This does not excuse the use of phones in the workplace- but since upper admin/mgmt cant be trusted to get a simple message across, what can one do?

and if i may quote"Every time your concentration is broken by a vibrating phone your attention is taken away from the person being cared for" how is this any different than the staff carrying those stupid pt care pagers- which btw when one goes off- my patient i am providing care for thinks its my own personal pager- as if! Luv it when it goes of 3 x in 2 minutes for varous reasons- love being interupted while I'm titrating drips or something.

[elkpark]

My fear is if there is a real emergency- the "person at the office" taking the call will not get that call there. It was nice to be told that my MIL was dying and when I got the message she had already died( not expected) I have worked with others who were nOT told of TRUE emergencies until much later after the fact. This does not excuse the use of phones in the workplace- but since upper admin/mgmt cant be trusted to get a simple message across, what can one do?

I'm sure there are many different possibilities out there, but I've never in my lengthy career worked anywhere where someone who needed to reach me could not (easily) get put through directly to the unit on which I was working and simply ask to speak with me. My family has had my direct work number and could call the nurses' station directly, or, if someone didn't have a direct number, someone would figure out where I was and put the call through to the right number.

I can't imagine, anywhere I've ever worked, someone calling and identifying that they're calling about an emergent/urgent situation and someone simply taking a message and laying it aside. Are there actually places where that could happen???

[Multicollinearity, BSN, RN]

IMO, too many have cell-phone & texting addiction like their phones are an appendage of their body. I don't believe there is any inherent right to a cell phone at anyone's place of employment.

I have no problem with an employer banning cell phones. Leave your phone in your car. Go to work and work. If there's an emergency, someone can call the unit.

[HealthShepherd]

And security cameras are not all that unusual in psychiatric settings.

Thanks for the info. I'm curious, how does the balance with privacy work? What areas are on camera? Are they actually recording, or just providing a live feed to the security desk without being saved? And how do paranoid patients respond to the sight of the cameras?

[Nascar nurse, ASN, RN]

The employer has every right to make the "rules". You have every right to seek new employment if you don't like the rules.

Simple, simple, simple

[kcochrane]

i do agree that we should not be conducting routine home business during work hours. some people have ruined it for everyone by being on their phones, txt- ing friends etc. That is completelly wrong. These are not emergencies. My fear is if there is a real emergency- the "person at the office" taking the call will not get that call there. It was nice to be told that my MIL was dying and when I got the message she had already died( not expected) I have worked with others who were nOT told of TRUE emergencies until much later after the fact. This does not excuse the use of phones in the workplace- but since upper admin/mgmt cant be trusted to get a simple message across, what can one do?

and if i may quote"Every time your concentration is broken by a vibrating phone your attention is taken away from the person being cared for" how is this any different than the staff carrying those stupid pt care pagers- which btw when one goes off- my patient i am providing care for thinks its my own personal pager- as if! Luv it when it goes of 3 x in 2 minutes for varous reasons- love being interupted while I'm titrating drips or something.

Same thing at my old job. We were told that family was supposed to call the nursing office if they needed us. The one time there was an emergency with my co-worker, she never got the message. According to the supervisor "I'm not your secretary". Nice...my coworker's dad had a stroke and was in the ED. She found out when she got home 8 hours later.

I carry my phone on vibrate. I rarely get a call - especially since I work nights. They need to deal with the people that have no common sense about when and where to use a cell phone. The rest of us are adults and don't abuse it.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Yay. You sound like fun.

For the ignorant perhaps. Human behavior has the widest variance of all and is little in statistical verification. You need to bone-up on RESPONSE VARIABLES. And yes, I also have a BBA in mgt and an MA in Human Relations (so make up some more degrees you don't have, with double-blind verifications). As well, I got top one percentile in NATION for NET (Nursing Entrance Test). So far all of your reported qualifications in life are one post (and one no-name non-accredited NE school), which you relentlessly market in your free time. All I can say is you are applying (student theory) business pseudo-science to limited range of occurrences (which randomly may or may not hold water); and then, you are wildly extrapolating your pseudo-science misinterpretations significantly beyond reality. In effect, you are arguing uneducated student theory against facts, reality, and a valid source.

You must have a counter placed on the post, and getting 2.03 cents per hit. You must be from Beijing or the likes, or you bought a $30 book on getting rich off of posting tiny ads. Hroo hrorry Charlie! I've taken that class before :lol2:

[Redhead28]

I have a cell phone in my bag. I check it on my lunch break, 30 minutes of unpaid time. I never get a break, like to know where you work if you do. My children when they were little were told to call the desk only in an emergency.

I had a family members come in by ambulance twice and both times I was notified by nursing services that they were in route and beat both down to the ER.

I think this policy is for the people that can no longer look up from their cell phones. They must constantly be texting or checking facebook. When at work, work. That is all I ask. I do not begrudge you an occasional call from home, but a constant stream of creditors all day... Just too much and not professional.

[pedicurn, LPN, RN]

Same thing at my old job. We were told that family was supposed to call the nursing office if they needed us. The one time there was an emergency with my co-worker, she never got the message. According to the supervisor "I'm not your secretary". Nice...my coworker's dad had a stroke and was in the ED. She found out when she got home 8 hours later.

I carry my phone on vibrate. I rarely get a call - especially since I work nights. They need to deal with the people that have no common sense about when and where to use a cell phone. The rest of us are adults and don't abuse it.

Agree ...I would never work anywhere that didn't allow me to have my cellphone with me.

I did once leave a job with this policy

(snitches everywhere) ..... I had a sick child who called the front desk .... the message was not passed on to me.

Deal with the non-commonsense people ....just don't apply a blanket rule and treat everyone like children who can't be trusted to be sensible.

It's this type of management behaviour that contributes to burnout and poor retention. It is reflective of our traditional subservient status.

We are educated adults ...not naughty children.

I need to know my children have gotten home safe and sound .... I have that right.

My manager is brilliant ... noone is penalised, except the silly ones. Also must say we have great retention