At my hospital, we nurses are not allowed access to the web at work. Doctors, managers, educators and secretaries all have access, but staff nurses at all levels are not allowed!
There are many times when we have a patient with an unusual condition that I'd like to research, but I have to wait until I get home. Also, management expects us to do a lot of things online such as manage our medical/dental/vision coverage and even choose our "gift" for longevity awards - not a problem for me, but many of the nurses I work with don't have access at home, or are technologically challenged.
I just wondered what is going on in the rest of the world, especially after reading this article:
Yes, we have access. We are supposed to use it for things that are nursing related, but many of us use it for personal reasons now and then. As this has not been a problem, the powers that be are letting it be. I think it's wise of them to be sensible about it.
I have it at my work, but I'm not doing bedside care any more. I consider allnurses.com to be work related.
When I was in bedside care, there was *A* computer terminal in the nurses' station, but it was restricted. We could access the intranet, but not get out on the http://www. There was an unrestricted computer in the education office, which we were "officially" allowed to use, but who has enough time to go off the floor like that? Nobody I know. Also, the powers that be took off ALL the games. My buddy, who is an excellent nurse, and quite quick at her work, sometimes had a few minutes she could play solitaire, so they had to get rid of it! Oh well.
I work for a doctor and we have internet access at work, we utilize it to access the local hospital computer for lab work, xrays, etc,,,..My employer is very strict about the sites we are allowed to access,,,but our office charts are computerized so we have to access it alot on certain issues that deal with the charts.
Specializes in Med/Surg, ER, L&D, ICU, OR, Educator.
Yes, we have access, but all have been lectured about carefully logging in and out with our individual passwords because "we are monitoring activity". I think we do need the access but I suppose a few spoil it for the many.
yes we do have internet access at work....it has kept me alive and awake thru many a slow nite when my work is caught up.
Amen to that!! Yep, we have access, and yes, admin. has some sites blocked. None that I visit, though. I'm a www nerd....when I surf, it's to check the news and weather. Color me geek.
We have access also. The only problem this creates is that occasionally we have people from other departments who come to the floor to surf but it's rare thank goodness.
we have internet access , i use it at night betweens rounds ect to do research mainly we have passwords to log on individually for state wide gov.email sysytem
Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.
Yes, we have internet access at work, too, which is a very nice perk. Have instant access to the CareNotes patient teaching system, and it's great to be able to use the internet to look up information on anything related to pt care. Have internet filters in place, but, nonetheless, if anyone is caught going to a Media site, will be cause for instant termination.
Our official hospital drug referrence is MicroMedix so all computers have internet access. There have been several staff fired for either Media or gaming violations
i live in the bay area, and our 3 of the 4 docs have internet, our office manager has internet, and no one else has it. I go home and order vaccines on line mainly because i just don't have time to do it at work, and it saves my office an extra 2% of the price beyond our pedi fed contract. The only item on computer is our billing. Our office manager says it is to difficult to put scheduling on the computer because the docs change their schedules to much. So when someone calls we end up searching for appts manualy, and sometimes they have more than one appt. sched. I know that was off the subject. When new things come up at work I like to research them but I usually do it at home.
sbic56, BSN, RN
1,437 Posts
Yes, we have access. We are supposed to use it for things that are nursing related, but many of us use it for personal reasons now and then. As this has not been a problem, the powers that be are letting it be. I think it's wise of them to be sensible about it.