Okay So I have been an Enrolled nurse for 3 yrs now and I work only in aged care. I personally don't have a cell phone because at the end of the day I'm either at work or at home so people always know where to reach me and if i for some reason don't answer the phone it means that I am taking a time out for me !!!
Now I am only 36 so I cant really say that I am old fashioned but in the place I work I knocked on a residents door that was closed, I knew 2 staff were in the room as they had informed me that there was something they wanted me to observe. So like I said I knocked and entered the room to find them giving this resident a bed wash whilst one of the girls was on her mobile phone talking.
I quickly asked her to leave the room, I assisted with helping the other girl finish the bed wash and then asked the other girl to come around to my office. I basically gave her the option to either put her phone away and reminded her that she wasn't supposed to have it on her person anyway. She tried to justify this which I stopped her asap and basically said either put your phone away or go home for the rest of the day.
She chose to go home and was very ****** off at me, some of the other staff were shocked at my decision but I thought that it is utter bull *****. If there is a need for a family member to get in contact with us while at work i always thought that people would ring the front office and then either a message would be taken and if it is really urgent then that person could be taken off the floor and take the call in private. Is that un-reasonable.
It's getting out of hand and I hope that most places begin to clamp down on it. So much for direct 1 on 1 patient care.
Specializes in Education, Ortho, Plastics, Gen Surg.
Yep I guess the person doing the talking was a gen Y. No manners or consideration for anyone else, what abbout the risk of radio interference to medical equipment?? Telemetry, IV pumps etc can be effected by mobiles. Most ICU's have a sign asking for phones to be turned off before entry and I guess Gen Y's think they are as important as the Doctor's who don't bother to comply either.
Wow, glad to see that other's feel the same way. I have been working since i was about 14 yrs old and one thing I learned very early on was that when I went to work it was to "work"
In our facility one mistake our DON made was allow staff some exceptions to the rule. Dont get me wrong i am not disrespecting the management but apparently some staff have pleaded their case's as in they need to have their mobile on their person in case the kids need to reach them, my reasoning still doesn't change in that if it's an actual emergency by all means I will come and get you off the floor.
But if it's the kids ringing to ask how to change the channel, or to ask permission to have a cookie.... I rest my case, I will field the calls and if it's no an emergency then I'll take a message and you can ring back on your break.
thanks everyone, i now have a few other ideas on how to battle this ongoing problem.
I'm amazed that she didn't just put the phone away as requested and went home instead. I hate it when people can't figure out how to use their phone appropriately.
This woman is a woman who is in her late 50's and she is very opinionated, always has to put her 2 bobs into everything. It was a pleasure to be able to catch her out, I managed a call centre for 14 yrs and if there was one thing I learned very quick was that I needed to set an example and follow through with what I said I would do.
We have a culture here in Australia where the care staff seem to think that they have more rights than responsibilities and they will call the union in over everything. So we as nurses have to be very careful how we speak to the care staff but then again they get away with being dis-respectful to nurse's, other staff, residents and even family.
I love where I work but I'll tell ya what when certain staff are on you know it, LOL but as of late they also know when i am on cuz I am on em all day to stop holding up the walls , to do their documentation etc.
the other day it was about 11:50 am and they still had 5 patients to wash and dress, they had been slacking through the morning. Normally if I am free which I was that morning I'll roll up my sleeves and get on the floor and help but I thought if they have time to hold up the walls then they obviously dont need my help. One of them did come to me and ask if i could help em out and when I refused and told her why the look I got was very nasty.
We de-briefed later in the shift and it turns out alot of the other staff felt the same way as I did. Tough love I guess. hopefully they will learn.
I think there's at least one in every nursing home. They are the type that make me wonder whether I should be an RN in the same workplace where I have worked as a carer for 3 years, I have to wonder whether a few of them would respect me as a nurse when I used to be one of them. They don't even respect some of the nurses.
We also have a few that are always putting in complaints over silly stuff and talking to the union. Some of it is legitimate, some of it makes me wonder. They always seem to be the same people who are too into routine and wont really meet the needs of the residents as opposed to 'doing the work', which is a huge deal in nursing homes but still, we have good staffing ratios and always finish well before we actually have to.
At the facility I currently work at. This is worse than using her own phone.......... She was in a vision impared residents room and used the RESIDENT cell phone!!! The resdient obviously knew who she was and gave a description to management. Today everyone had to sign a form saying we will not have our cell phones on us or use residents cell or rook phones. Which I thought was already common sense, but guess not! Duh!!! Also I guess it can be considered resident abuse and you can get your certification taken away!!!
I agree that you acted correctly, Milenko! In some of the psych units at our hospital, staff have been seen texting, playing games on their cell phones--while sitting on a 1:1 suicide-precaution patient! It's asinine! Staff know the phones are NOT allowed on the units yet the practice persists despite reprimands.
I love my cell phone. BUT it stays in my locker TURNED OFF while I am at work. It is absolutely inappropriate for someone to be using their cell in a patients room. You acted correctly.
Agreed. As a patient, I once asked an MD on my case to leave because he took a PERSONAL call in the middle of talking over my treatment plan. The big baby went and whined to the nurse that I was being "very rude"...she just rolled her eyes
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
We were encouraged to get all our medical books like the drug guides and tabers medical dictionary and stuff put on our phone or like an Ipod touch or something in school. It has to be used for this purpose only though. I couldn't imagine talking on my phone in a patient room. We were strictly told to the punishments that can happen if we are using our cell for things other then the Nursing Central application. Although it's barely enforced from what I have seen.
As a single mom of two preteens with zero family support, I have to keep my phone with me. But it is always on silent. I would NEVER talk on my phone in front of patients or other employees. My kids know to text me and I'll do a quick text back, to check on them. If their text is really important, i'll talk to them while I am in the bathroom (gross I know but they don't care and I get a reason to make bathroom time). I do not talk to anybody else on my phone at work and I am glad you are putting your foot down.
Isn't it strange that the nurses have no clue about how rude this is?
I've used my cell phone's timer at work. I've also shown a few residents pictures of my cat. However, I only check my e-mail and make calls when I'm on break.
The issue here is not the phone per se, but whether the employee is distracted from her duties. She could have been standing there just as well reading a comic book, playing with a Nintendo DS, or picking her pimples in the mirror. In the station, she could have been using a unit computer to shop while she was supposed to be working. In essence, she was attending to personal matters and was distracted from her paid duties. In the military we used to call it Dereliction Of Duty, ie. the avoidance of any duty which may be properly expected. In this case, the sent home employee was avoiding her duty (bathing the pt) by being on the phone with a personal call. Further, if she had already been told not to do this, and continued to do so; it would clearly constitute gross insubordination, and should be subject to progressive discipline, up to and inclusive of termination of employment.
As for cell phones, our institution has a general no personal calls policy while on duty. That said, it is one matter should an employee receive an urgent call that someone is ill or other household emergency; it is quite another when the cell phone is constantly and routinely used to conduct purely non urgent personal business. For the former, no one would even question that event; for the latter, it would likely be subjected to employee disciplinary procedures.
Sidebar: Some institutions have a no cell phone policy because the signals may "...interfere with sensitive medical electronics..." but then give all their managers and physicians cells to keep in rapid touch. So the idea of electronic interference is really a non starter. Patients and workers can't see why they should not be allowed to use their phones too.
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WorkinperthAus
12 Posts
Yep I guess the person doing the talking was a gen Y. No manners or consideration for anyone else, what abbout the risk of radio interference to medical equipment?? Telemetry, IV pumps etc can be effected by mobiles. Most ICU's have a sign asking for phones to be turned off before entry and I guess Gen Y's think they are as important as the Doctor's who don't bother to comply either.