How many phone calls do you get as a bedside nurse?

[RNgemini]

I work on a busy tele floor. We get 6 patients to a nurse and the acuity can be pretty high (we have stroke, STEMI, dialysis patients). Lately I felt like the number of phone calls I receive has been getting very high. On my last shift, I felt like all I did was answer phone calls to my cisco phone. At the end of the day I added up my calls, and I RECEIVED 64 CALLS IN ONE 12 HOUR SHIFT. I felt like I could hardly concentrate on one task because my attention was constantly being divided. I brought this up with management, and they said they are looking into ways to decrease the number of phone calls the nurses receive.

These are the main reasons I receive phone calls:

1. Transport calls to tell me they are taking my patient off the floor for a test.

2. Transport calls again when the patient is back in the room.

3. PT, OT, and speech therapy each call before seeing my patients.

4. PT, OT, and speech call when they are done to let me know how it went.

5. My techs/CNAs call me to let me know when a patient needs me or has a request.

6. Other departments call to let me know they are coming to a patient's room to perform a test and want to make sure the patient is in the room (X-ray, respiratory therapy, echo tech, EEG techs)

7. If a patient is off the floor for surgery or cath lab, they call to let me know when the patient is in recovery, and then a second call to give report and let me know the patient is on the way back up.

My question is, which of these phone calls do you think can be safely eliminated? Does anyone work at a hospital that maybe uses a different system to keep nurses informed of patient whereabouts? I am hoping to make suggestions to my management on how we can safely reduce the number of phone calls to the bedside nurse.

[JKL33]

And we are supposed to take a lunch every day. The phone still rings.

Well now that one's easy. If a phone lying on a desk in the nurse's station rings incessantly and humerusRN is in the break room or the cafeteria or even out for a stroll in the crisp fall air, does it make a sound? Of course! You just won't be there to care about it.

[humerusRN]

Well now that one's easy. If a phone lying on a desk in the nurse's station rings incessantly and humerusRN is in the break room or the cafeteria or even out for a stroll in the crisp fall air, does it make a sound? Of course! You just won't be there to care about it.

LOL - ah, it sounds easier than it is!!!

[RNgemini]

We have a unit clerk and she takes calls, but only then to call me and ask if she can transfer a call to me. That would be amazing if our unit clerk was an RN! I think that would lighten the amount of phone calls by a mile.

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

I remember the phone constantly ringing when I worked the floor. So much to the point I had a patient volunteer to throw the thing in his freshly soiled commode (of course I could let him do it).

The only phone calls the eventually got rid of were the REPORT calls. Instead, some genius thought it would be great to just fax it to the unit so it could be noticed sitting on the fax machine as the patient roled onto the unit from ER/OR/Endo/dialysis/ICU you name it. That phone call they took away it it drove me nuts.

Then they decided to have the call bells go directly to our phones so we would be answering through the speakers in the walls. The phone would ring constantly until it was answered. This could be rather annoying when you're already on the phone with someone else or in the middle of putting in a foley and have no way to answer the darn thing that's going off in your pocket nonstop.

Years ago I worked for a hospital that had a charge nurse answer the phone calls at the desk and take orders. This was before the days of cell phones though. Depending on who the unit secretary was would determine if your pager went off like a bomb every two minutes or not. I never thought I would miss that thing until I met the Cisco phone...oh, how I missed that pager!

[NurseSince2014]

How many do I get? Too many, but I'm lucky to have a HUC and manager who answer most of them between 7am-5pm during the week

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

I worked at hospitals that had phones, and ones that had walkie talkies. I can not tell you how many times I took the battery out of my phone when it would not stop ringing while I was drawing blood or starting an IV, only to have someone come busting in like the Kool-Aid man, going "You're not answering!". to which I usually said, "Yeah and I'm not GONNA! In case you can't tell, I'm a wee bit occupied at the moment."

I would leave my walkie on my med cart. My nurse manager was really passive-aggressive and I'd find sticky notes on it all the time that said 'PUT IN POCKET'. I'd staple one to that that said 'IT'S TOO HEAVY'. Eventually she gave up.

I never have held with being tied to a heavy, cumbersome phone while on the floor and I always had my cell so I was reachable. They eventually stopped pushing the issue after the nurse manager audited call volumes. Most of it was ridiculous stuff.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

I worked at hospitals that had phones, and ones that had walkie talkies. I can not tell you how many times I took the battery out of my phone when it would not stop ringing while I was drawing blood or starting an IV, only to have someone come busting in like the Kool-Aid man, going "You're not answering!". to which I usually said, "Yeah and I'm not GONNA! In case you can't tell, I'm a wee bit occupied at the moment."

LOL, I love this visual! Kool-Aid wannabes would come after me too, usually while I was compressing a femoral artery.

[rehabnurse1]

I have learned to never bring the phone in the bathroom with me. The UC once got mad at me because my phone was ringing at the desk. I told her that I deserve to have a bathroom break and not be disturbed. She agreed and never bothered me again. The unit agreed to take messages for all family phone calls until med pass was over, unless it was an emergency. I love the calls that patient so-and-so wants to see me. I go see the patient and they ask for ice water or want to tell me that something is missing on their tray. The staff all know to ask patients what they want from the nurse before calling us. Most of the time it is something anyone can deal with. Unfortunately, most patient think anyone wearing scrubs is the nurse.