Not that it would be used for anything but an emergency, but how do you feel about being told that you may not carry your cell phone while working?
Even if it's off, even if it's on vibrate. Even if it's part of your PDA that helps you get your job done.
I kinda feel like I'm back in high school. All the "grownups" -- docs, managers, administrators -- may keep their cell phones. But I, a lowly staff nurse (middle-aged, educated, professional, and presumably with decent morals and good judgment), cannot.
So so true CoolPeach times have changed and its nothing anyone can do about it. Like receptionist are getting fustrated when employees kids call and ask to talk to mom or dad. It makes no sense you get paid to take calls and give messages no matter who it is. And for eveyone who has a problem with the people having there phone just tell your superior because that and talking about it is the only thing you can do. U can't do anything else.
Well, I've only made it thru page 4, but I have to stop and ask...do I work at the only hospital that doesn't get cell phone reception inside? Or the only hospital that still has a sign posted "please turn off all cell phones"? I don't see anyone, nurses, techs, doctors, anyone, walking around with their cell phones. All the nurses and techs (and some secretarys) carry a work phone and the doctors have their pagers. The only people who try to use their cells are the patients, but they can't really get any signal, so its pointless.
My hospital gets a signal in the majority of areas...also, patients and visitors are allowed to use cell phones. I'm pretty sure some of the floors allow staff to have them too.
The old analog cell phones used to interfere with equipment but the newer ones do not..any cell phone they sell now are digital-the analogs don't work anymore, at least not in my area. My mom found this out the hard way-she had to upgrade.
My hospital gets a signal in the majority of areas...also, patients and visitors are allowed to use cell phones. I'm pretty sure some of the floors allow staff to have them too.
The old analog cell phones used to interfere with equipment but the newer ones do not..any cell phone they sell now are digital-the analogs don't work anymore, at least not in my area. My mom found this out the hard way-she had to upgrade.
I've read that the old phones were the "problem" phones as far as equipment goes, but my hospital still has the signs up everywhere (on our new buildings too) banning cell phone use. We are encouraged to ask patients and visitors to turn them off when they are inside the building.
I work as a teachers helper in a daycare center. We are not supposed to have our cellphones. The director of the program knows, that I will have my phone and answer it if:
1) I am coming up to surgery the next day (since pre-op calls you at some point the day before and I do not want to play phone tag with them) or
2) I am expecting a call from a doctors office about a problem I am having.
I always warn her if it is one of the days that one of these things is happening, and I apologize, and she is generally ok with it, because I have a LEGITIMATE reason to use it. some of the others were just talking to their friends.
when i was in the day surgery they had signs all over the place forbidding the use of cell phones.when i was wheeled into the or everyone there, no exageration, was using a cell phone
.in the er if anyone attempted to use a cell phone the nurses would call security and demand that the offender be removed at once
as for being treated like a two year old, i have never experienced this in working in an office or hospital or ltc or rehab..some of the fellow nurses could be a royal pain
i didn't buy a phone until 9/11 either, i guess i was the last person on the planet to have one, i really didn't feel the need: now i will turn around and drive 5 miles to retrieve my phone if i have left it home
Chatsdale, you weren't the last, I got one a couple months ago and forget it more often than I have it. I have to drive 11 hours to get home when I visit, and figured I would be better off with a phone in the car, instead of hiking to the nearest gas station.
Remember the days when people stopped if there was a car broken down? Now I think everyone assumes people can just call on their cell. It's true, but it was also nice to know that strangers would have your back in a crisis. I've been off the road in the wintertime twice, far from home, and couldn't have asked for more help or nicer people. I feel really lucky when that happens.
This is going to be an unpopular comment I am certain, but perhaps the reason that so many employers treat their staff as children is because of the childish attitudes I see demonstrated:
"The rules should apply to others, not me"
"I don't care what the rules are, I'm doing it anyway"
"I just sneak it in in my pocket"
"They can't make me!"
"My situation is special"
Sound like anyone's favorite adolescent?
A more appropriate response would be to work together with your fellow employees to present the reasons you feel the rule should be changed and parameters you feel appropriate to insure that it is not abused, and request a trial period to see if it impacts patient care.
This would be the professional way to address this issue.
Actually, management is behaving paternalistically, as usual, so what do they expect? We already know that they don't care about us, our personal needs, or our family situations, otherwise staff nurse working conditions would've improved by now. This pervasive culture of nurses being treated like chattel has really got to stop. We shouldn't have to beg to be treated like respected professionals. We shouldn't have to vote with our feet to protest ridiculous management mandates.
But that's the culture that nurses today have inherited and this is a battle that cannot be won. So we protest in a different way -- by ignoring a rule, by flying under the radar, and hoping that in another few weeks, management will find another target. Because they always do.
I bought a cell phone to help me take care of my personal business more efficiently so that I could devote myself to my job. Because I have a cell phone and can trust that I will get emergency phone calls, if there's a family crisis brewing 1400 miles away, I will come to work rather than stay home and wait for that phone call.
If I put my phone into my locker, I have to go to the locker room to check my phone for messages. It's silly and inefficient. As it is, I just check my messages when I take my potty break and call back on my lunch break.
I bought a cell phone for my personal safety, inside and outside of the hospital. Something I never thought of until this moment -- what's the hosptial's liability if my cell is locked in my locker and I have some personal emergency? Unusual, I know, but I've had two fainting spells at my job over the years, and if I'd had a cell with me I could've gotten help quicker.
I'm not as irate over the rule as I am with the application of it. Again, staff nurses are targeted as being unprofessional and worse, the rule presumes that staff nurses are unable to behave professionally, with a tool that ultimately improves their efficiency as workers. Only the floor nursing staff has this rule. Everyone else has cell phones and can use them with impunity.
As someone else said earlier, if the rule is no one can have a cell phone on their person, then the rule should apply to everyone, from the CEO on down. JMO.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
remember the days when people stopped if there was a car broken down? now i think everyone assumes people can just call on their cell. it's true, but it was also nice to know that strangers would have your back in a crisis. i've been off the road in the wintertime twice, far from home, and couldn't have asked for more help or nicer people. i feel really lucky when that happens.
i remember the days when people stopped if there was a car broken down. i got my first cell right after an aquaintence of mine had a breakdown. she waited by the side of the road for six hours for someone to stop and help her -- and when he did, he raped her. i used to stop if there was a car broken down. one time i stopped when i saw a woman at the side of the road with a broken down car, and when i did, a man jumped out of the ditch and tried to jump into the car with me! fortunately i usually drive with my doors locked. i won't stop any more, and if i'm broken down, i call my husband or aaa.
I got my cell phone several years ago when I had a breakdown. I went shopping a couple of hours before picking my kids up from school. When I went out to my car to leave it wouldn't start. I know nothing about cars other than where to put in the gas, oil, and wiper stuff. I needed to not only call for car help, but I needed to call my kids school and let them know I would be late, and call someone to pick up my kids. I went back in the clothing store who refused to let me use the phone. They told me that it was only for employees. Even after I explained my problem they told me if they let me use it they would have to let everyone else, and I should just use my cell.....DOH. I went to the few stores in the strip mall and got the same answer from all of them. Finally a man came out who did not speak any english, and some how I was able to communicate with him enough to find out that he had a cell phone, and borrow it.
I said never again. Like the above posters said its just too dangerous these days to ask for help, and everyone assumes everyone else has a cell phone so no one stops to help.
Hasn't everyone noticed that its a rare situation to find a pay phone anymore.
And as far as you telling the aide that was helping you that u would report her. I'm sure u could of told her that you all were in the middle of tending to a patient and answering her cell phone was or would be inapropriate. Instead of making a threat. .
The first five times it happened I was polite and ask her not to answer while in a patients room. The threats came as result of being ignored the first five times.
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MzGurl
28 Posts
So so true CoolPeach times have changed and its nothing anyone can do about it. Like receptionist are getting fustrated when employees kids call and ask to talk to mom or dad. It makes no sense you get paid to take calls and give messages no matter who it is. And for eveyone who has a problem with the people having there phone just tell your superior because that and talking about it is the only thing you can do. U can't do anything else.