Do you have internet access at work?

Heather333 · Jun 19, 2002

The hospital where I work is a large teaching and research hospital and we have internet access. Mostly used for looking up info about patients or new meds, but I occasionally find my way to allnurses.com :)

nell · Jun 19, 2002

Thank you all for your replies. It helps to know what other places are doing. Some of us are trying to get access at work, but the paternalistic attitude of management is a great barrier.

There are many times in the NICU when it would be helpful to look up rare conditions or med info, not only for nurses, but to give info to parents that we know is correct.

ga.bones · Jun 20, 2002

Boy, do we have internet access! Daily, I have to wait patiently (can't offend anyone) until they are through checking e-mail or catching the news, to ask what bed a's vs were. This, sitting in the nursing station next to the supervisor. Please!

Nurse Ratched, RN · Jun 21, 2002

We had it until recently, but some night shift techs were apparently playing games online with techs on other units, and IS discovered it, so management took it away from our entire department. I used it in the past to look up strictly work related information. As others said, now I have to wait until I get home. Kinda reeks that everyone was punished for the actions of 2-3. What really bothers me is that I never had TIME to play games when I worked at noc lol.

eltrip · Jun 21, 2002

In the patient care areas the nursing staff has access to our intranet which includes our safety training, MicroMedex, & the CareNotes systems. Most nurses in patient care don't know about MicroMedex or CareNotes, as it's fairly new & they usually don't have time to sit & search for info.

I work in a call center & we have intranet & internet access. I, too consider allnurses.com to be work-related. All 4 of us in our area surf the web when looking for various conditions/diseases. I've found & bookmarked several sites that are quite helpful...everything from license verification for docs to websites that help decipher medications by the imprint on the pill.

What a world we live in!

hapeewendy · Jun 21, 2002

we have internet access at work but I barely use it there, A memo was sent around not too long ago about people surfing for Media and how its sexual harrassment etc etc, that kind of put the fear in me,(just kidding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

but I wonder what their stance on nurse related Media is , just out of curiousity of course!

usually we have about 3 staff that are forever parked in the conference room on the net, the rest of us do our thing and go home to surf and email etc. I have however crept onto allnurses.com

at 3am on my break once or twice

but I didnt look at anything funny ! I swear! I kept it "all about the nursing"

cheers

disher · Jun 22, 2002

We have internet at work, I have done some lit. searches and have several favorite patient education sites.

I think if I didn't have internet access at work I would poll the staff and ask how they would rate the value of internet access to providing patient care. Very valuable, moderately valuable, somewhat valuable, not valuable at all. If the results showed a majority of staff believed it would be valuable I would take it to management and ask them to implement internet in the workplace. They'll either squirm their way out of it or they'll implement it. Either way they can't get to uptight about staff who try and make a few changes to improve patient care :)(Just remember to smile innocently when you stir the pot)

Huganurse · Jun 22, 2002

Didn't have it at the last hospital I worked and even if I did, I would never and I mean never had the time to use it...undersstaffed and overworked.

Cherry Soda · Jul 4, 2002

We have internet at work.

It's good when you want to look up a syndrome or something, but bad because the lazyass nurses stay on it all night/day long and neglect their patients. Or cannot help you out because they are looking at stuff on ebay.

Cherry

thisnurse · Jul 4, 2002

always admired the time mgmt skills of the CNA's who find the time to play games during their shift.

we have internet but its a secret....they have the connection icon hidden...lol

i dont get on that often....way too busy but when i do i have to laff at the ppl i work with who dont know enuff to erase their history and cookies. i do it for them.

had one nurse getting married...all kinds of bridal sites in the history...gee wonder what she was doing on her shift...lol

we have a cpl idiots ....cna's...that keep trying to download AOL instant messanger. their buddy lists come up with their screen names....the comp freezes then crashes. we have to call someone in to fix it because we dont have access to any of the program files...this is WHY it crashes.

dummasses

labornurse · Jul 4, 2002

We have never had it and probably never will. Our unit manager has it ,so administrations thinks if we need the information, we can ask her and she will get it for us. Any way, the thought is that if we have enough time to be on the internet, we aren't busy enough.

mamabear · Jul 4, 2002

We used to have internet access. It was a lifesaver when we needed med info, patient teaching stuff. Yes, some people used it for personal stuff, but mostly it was nursing related.:)

This all came to a screaming halt when we had one of the worst of our worst Nights From Hell. I was working with two techs when we got a dump from one of the local nursing homes. While one tech and I broke our butts trying to get the patient settled (which wasn't easy; dementia, COPD), the other tech (who is gone, praise the Lord) sat on her tush playing solitaire. Once this got back to the H.N. (which didn't take long), the plug was pulled and we all got a very nasty memo about playing games which on duty, theft of hospital services, ad nauseum. The tech, who was about as popular as cholera anyway, got the colder shoulder from nurses and techs, as well as ancillary staff. And she wondered why nobody liked her. :rolleyes: