no cell phones no personal phone calls at work

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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 !!:yeah:

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.

I do remember the days when you had to ask your supervisor to use the facility phone. Cell phone usage at work is a not a right!

Sign me up for banning cell phones at work!

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Specializes in Vascular Access Nurse.
your "scientific data" from our cancer society of our government is from the same government who had the top 2 oil lobbyist as president and vp for 8 years making a mockery of our constitution? i did not see anything scientific about it. it just looked like lists of propaganda the gullible are asked to believe (which supports people's own short sighted goals). quote]

tell you what....i'll let you worry about it if you like. i've got many other things to think about and my cell phone and blue tooth aren't something i'm going to wring my hands over or stop/decrease use. heck, i have to be able to text to keep in touch with my kids! and i'm not going to drive a car whle holding the phone, so the blue tooth it is! i'm glad that you are taking the steps you feel are necessary for your own health and well being, though. to each his own.

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Only time I have ever used a cell phone while at work (not a nurse yet, at the time I was working in a day care center) was the day before one of my surgeries and it was the nurse who calls to make sure you are ok to have surgery. Talked to the director that morning, explained why I wanted to leave my cell on she said ok. I stepped outside the classroom for the 5 minutes or so it takes and took care of it then turned it off and went back to work. she felt that was a valid reason (especially because I was covering a shift for someone who called out anyway) and was OK with it, because I talked to her and didnt just do it. otehr then that it is always off at work.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.
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???

It happened to my mother when she worked for Amtrak. Mom a dining car attendant, was on the road, and hadn't bothered to activate her cell phone. When her aunt died, I called the crew base, who said they would contact Mom. They finally told Mom about her aunt's death a week after the funeral. She finally activated her cell phone that week.

Gertting back on topic, cell phones were the bane of my existence when I was at an ALF. They were only supposed to be used in the break room, but people thought nothing of using them anywhere and everywhere, including leaving them on counters in the dining room. I finally started confiscating any phone I saw out. When the owner came looking for it, I told them they could have it at the end of the shift. I got away with it because was the charge nurse, but it shouldn't have come to that.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

Guys if you want to discuss health risks and mobile phone use start another thread please.

Further off topic posts will be deleted

thank you

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Specializes in Health Information Management.
Where I work, a lot of the nurses live out of town...we are allowed to bring out cell phones to work and leave them in the breakroom. Our manager even bought a could of power strips so we can keep them charged...and they have a bunch of chargers for different brands of phones, so we can leave our own chargers at home.

We are not allowed to have our phones on us in any patient care area. We do, however sometimes text our providers and say things like, "Call Me!" So...they can go to the movie or church or whatever and not disturb anyone when we call them. We have a few nurses who use them when they probably shouldn't but they are few and far between.

I am not willing to leave my phone in my car. If my employer required it, I would leave it in my bag and turned off, but I don't want it in the car for twelve hours in sweltering heat or freezing cold.

As far as calls to the unit...are there employers that would really not let a call through if someone called and said, "Cotjockey's dad passed away...I need to talk to her now!" I get a little annoyed when coworkers get the, "Where is the peanut butter?" calls, but for the most part, we don't have that problem.

I get really annoyed when we are under a tornado warning or something and people are rushing to call their families instead of helping evacuate patients!

:-)

Wow, your employer sounds uncommonly decent about the whole thing. I'm starting to wonder when my husband's place is going to start charging the employees for the workplace electricity used to charge the cell phones they're expected to have on them 24/7. ;)

In answer to your question about whether there are employers who don't allow emergency calls through...short answer: yes. Perhaps calls to individual units would be less likely to be diverted. I can't speak to that scenario from personal experience.

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It's been interesting reading through the posts on this thread. It makes me feel lucky to work not only where I do but to work with whom I work with as well. A majority of us have cell phones in our pockets and I have never seen anyone using it in such a way that I would classify it as unprofessional or irresponsible.

Some people mentioned concerns about not receiving messages in an emergency or not being relieved from their shift if something was wrong at home. This suprises me. My coworkers and I always look out for each other. I can't think of anyone who would absolutely refuse to come in and help out, if they were in a position they could, if someone had to leave in an emergency.

Every nurse and tech on our unit carries around a portable phone in their pocket that is issued each morning- basically we have our own extension each shift. Any calls made to doctors, lab, etc are transferred to our phone or people can call us directly. We don't have any rules against personal calls on these phones that are enforced- but mostly because there hasn't been a problem. I am assuming places that have such hard core rules have had problems, which leads to every one being punished.

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Specializes in Interested in Everything.

Is he allowed to get emergency phone calls? If he can't get emergency phone calls then I think that is CRAZY! I have a husband who is deploying next month & I have 3 kids in elementary school (a 7 yr old & two-5.5 yrs old twins), one of which has severe food allergies & asthma. There have been plenty of time my kids school has called me on emergency issues. My son feel off a tall monkey bar and ended up knocking himself out. He has asthma attacks, brought on by eating a "treat" that contained nuts.

So, for a job to tell me that I cannot have personal phone calls or a cell phone AT ALL will force me to do one of 2 things: 1) not take the job or quit & 2) get written up for using my phone. B/C I'm gong to have my phone with me at all times.

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Specializes in LTC, Acute care.

I always have my phone in my pocket and it's always set to vibrate or silent. The only times I check it is if I'm expecting some sort of important call (which I rarely do) and I always do that in the ladies' room. I don't think I will leave my phone in my car all through a 12-hour shift but I wouldn't also be caught using it in a patient care area.

On the other hand, I have worked with people who spoke on their phone during the shift and in patients' rooms. These were people you would think would know better, but apparently they didn't. I even worked with someone who had the blue-tooth thingy on her ear and was constantly talking into it no matter what she was doing or where she was; I found that extremely unprofessional. And no, the conversations were not any sort of emergencies just mostly squabbling with her husband or screaming at her kids.:rolleyes:

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

on the other hand, i have worked with people who spoke on their phone during the shift and in patients' rooms. these were people you would think would know better, but apparently they didn't. i even worked with someone who had the blue-tooth thingy on her ear and was constantly talking into it no matter what she was doing or where she was; i found that extremely unprofessional. and no, the conversations were not any sort of emergelivencies just mostly squabbling with her husband or screaming at her kids.:rolleyes:

the above example illustrates the inappropriate cellphone usage in the workplace that causes employers to adopt such policies.... add me to the list.

as manager in a home care cental intake office, i've been forced to post: no cell phones, no ipods while office phones on" as issue was affecting workflow. staff received counciling and poor performance eval, but still couldn't out the devices away, so signs went up. 2 weeks ago, one of the staff disciplied for inappropriate use missed a stair, fell and injured themselves as talking to a staffer while also texting while on the stairs during break to get ice cream -- non work comp injury too. ;)

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Well as someone who has been working in one capacity or another for 30 years, I can say I've seen communications at the workplace change tremendously in my lifetime. Although I think a nurse, tech, doctor, or housekeeper should be severely reprimanded for use of a personal cell phone in a patient care area, I would not want to work in a place that banned them entirely.

About 6 years ago I was working in a large family practice clinic with a ridiculous phone system (or nonsystem!) when my daughter's elementary school tried to call me repeatedly one day. Finally I received a call from my high-school aged daughter telling me I needed to contact the elementary school right away (it's a small town...when they couldn't get through to me, they caught up with my daughter instead).

My younger daughter had a case of head lice and the school social worker was very upset with me on the phone and informed me that they were going to contact the county social services department to REPORT me as nonresponsive to their calls. No one in my office bothered to let me know I had a call...they transferred it through to voicemail, which I do not always have time to check during patient care!

After that I kept my cell phone on my desk or in my pocket at all times -- on vibrate -- so my kids or their school could reach me if necessary. When our manager tried to make all staff sign acknowledgement that we were no longer allowed to do so, I informed her that I would be happy to leave my cell in my purse just as soon as she fixed the horrible switchboard situation at the office. She didn't, so I didn't.

The reason for the new policy at the office, incidentally, was due to one bad apple who we all knew about but whom the office manager did not want to deal with on an individual basis.

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Specializes in Operating Room Nursing.
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

I totally agree with your comment about being treated like naughty children.

Personally, I carry a mobile with me but it's always on silent and set to vibrate. Everyday surgeons demand I answer their phones and take messages for them. Ok, but if they get to bring their phone in then I'm bloody well going to

as well.

As for nurses inappropriately using their phones, this annoys me as well. It's people like this who are the reason why management treat us like naughty children.

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