New rules about going online to listen to You Tube!

[FireStarterRN]

My hospital has been very lenient about internet usage at work. I always thought it was abused by a lot of people, turning the nurses station into a You Tube party scene. Today one of the supervisors warned that they are going to start monitoring people and they don't want people to use the internet for non work related stuff.

We got an email memo many months ago warning everyone not to go to video or audio streams. It got totally ignored. Apparently it takes up bandwidth on the hospital server? We haven't gotten any recent memos.

They introduced the internet only about 3 years ago at work. At first you had to log in under your own password, but then they made it so you can go on without personally logging in.

So, I heard some big gripping today. It's funny how when you've never had something, you don't miss it, but if you've had it and it gets taken away, you feel persecuted. I think it might improve the work ethic and make a more professional atmosphere at my hospital.

[Noryn]

I disagree. I think listening the You Tube streams at the nurses station makes us look unprofessional and immature. Hospitals are serious places and we shouldn't be blatently looking like we are goofing off at the nurses station.

I think a lot of companies are grappling with the fact that surfing the internet on company time is a problem at times. What set this off is that many were abusing the privilage, going to inappropriate sites, and using up bandwidth. I don't see why employers need to cater to their employees' internet addictions.

Do you fully understand what "the You Tube streams" are? So, I am at work and have some extra time, could you tell me how this "you tube stream" makes me look unprofessional?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIBDK_y4qWY&feature=related

I try to use common sense, of course I dont condone acting like an idiot at the nurses station, but there is nothing wrong with laughing every now and then if you do see something funny.

[lucky1RN]

We only have access to the internet for medical-related content i.e. lexicomp, Mednet, etc. I work in an ICU and honestly don't miss having access to the internet for personal use, nor do I have the time during my work day. I'm thankful for the access we have as it helps me do my job as safely and effectively as possible. I save the fun stuff (allnurses included) and surfing for when I'm at home.

[psalm51]

they're fortunate that they will be allowed to have internet access.

we had it for a short time - and they took it away b/c of a few people who abused it.

it was very useful for looking up medical dx, new meds, etc. the info was IMMEDIATE - not like having to look it up when you get home (that is, if you're not so tired by then).

now, all we have is the intranet for physician use.

[RN1989]

Unfortunately too many people are unable to discipline themselves. They play on the computer instead of seeing their patients and doing what they are paid for - to work. Work can be a fun but it should not be a party where you expect to play around and be entertained. Staff who play on the internet are staff that get mandated hospital policy applied of warnings leading to termination. We are at work TO WORK!

When you take your car into the shop you usually end up paying the mechanic by the hour. Would you want that mechanic to waste time by playing on the computer, dancing around to the radio, taking smoke breaks, and then charge you for that time that he was playing around having "fun" at work?

And people can't figure out why nurses aren't considered professional? Behavior such as some posters have described is part of the problem with nursing. I am ashamed that there are so many people that cannot find SOMETHING productive to do while there is "down time" at work. So many nurses complain that there isn't time to get all the work done and there certainly isn't time to sit and talk with patients, giving them backrubs and the emotional support that they need while they are ill - yet people are playing on the computer?????? Even being on Allnurses while at work is not professional or appropriate in my mind. This technological society has truly warped some people's idea of what is appropriate and professional. Does no one have a work ethic anymore?

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

Totally agree in limiting access, after all they are paying you to work not surf internet. When I worked on the wards never had the time to go online even on nights always too busy and I would rather get off on time or within reason on time especially as we couldn't put it down as overtime

[Plagueis]

Unfortunately too many people are unable to discipline themselves. They play on the computer instead of seeing their patients and doing what they are paid for - to work. Work can be a fun but it should not be a party where you expect to play around and be entertained. Staff who play on the internet are staff that get mandated hospital policy applied of warnings leading to termination. We are at work TO WORK!

:yeahthat:

Similar to Internet obsession at work is the cellphone/textmessaging obsession that I see at the workplace. I'm tired of trying to find nurses and/or CNAs at my job, only to see them busily talking or texting someone on their cellphone, and they are not on break, nor are they using that device for emergency calls and messages. If some nurses and CNAs who claim to have "no time" to go to the bathroom, or feel they have to rush through patient care or a med pass, then they should stop messing around with the Internet and meaningless cell phone usage, and they would probably have more time to do what they are supposed at work, which is actually work.

[KEL2BanRN]

Floor nurses have time to surf the 'Net???

I'm actually surprised. LOL I'm still just a student, but from what I see in clinicals, I can't imagine nurses having time to sit at the desk and play online.

[rph3664]

Floor nurses have time to surf the 'Net???

I'm actually surprised. LOL I'm still just a student, but from what I see in clinicals, I can't imagine nurses having time to sit at the desk and play online.

I'm not even a nurse and I was wondering the same thing.

A nurse I correspond with on a non-medical site who has posted here told me that she heard about nurses who were disciplined for posting on this and other nursing sites at work. They gave no names, etc. but it ranged from being told not to do it again to outright dismissal.

Our overnight pharmacy staff used to download XM Satellite Radio but were told not to after it infected that computer with a virus. We also had an agency pharmacist who thought it was really funny to download inappropriate screen savers (obese women in thongs was his favorite ) and the same thing happened.

The entire hospital system has blocked the TMZ site and were planning to block Google, which made no sense to me since 90% of the time, Googling a medical term will take you directly to information about the condition. So, we still have Google. Unfortunately, we also still have Myspace, Facebook, and You Tube which some of the younger staff members have abused.

Filters can do weird things. One of my colleagues put a block on her home computer, and couldn't access the Pharmacy Times website because it was about drugs.

Our manager complained about people using recipe sites, but to me, the amount it's used is not any different from people bringing in cooking magazines and copying the recipes.

The best story I heard about Internet abuse at work was an office worker who was looking at pictures of naked women, found one he particularly liked and started to download, and right then, his boss walked in. He tried to back out and instead converted the picture to wallpaper. His boss told him not to do that again - lesson learned.

[Skeletor]

Unfortunately too many people are unable to discipline themselves. They play on the computer instead of seeing their patients and doing what they are paid for - to work. And people can't figure out why nurses aren't considered professional? Behavior such as some posters have described is part of the problem with nursing. I am ashamed that there are so many people that cannot find SOMETHING productive to do while there is "down time" at work. So many nurses complain that there isn't time to get all the work done and there certainly isn't time to sit and talk with patients, giving them backrubs and the emotional support that they need while they are ill - yet people are playing on the computer?????? Even being on Allnurses while at work is not professional or appropriate in my mind. This technological society has truly warped some people's idea of what is appropriate and professional. Does no one have a work ethic anymore?

I couldn't agree with you more. Browsing senseless BoobTube videos and checking your MyWaste comments can wait till you clock out. Internet usage at work is a privilege, not a right. Patient care should be a continuous process to avoid errors and oversight. Complaining that your supposed downtime is being cut short of fun at work is just ridiculous and immature; you're in a hospital, not an amusement park. If you want fun, join a circus, if you want to be a nurse, act like one.

[CHATSDALE]

i don't think that doing your job is acting like a robot..

if you were sick in the bed and an iv infiltrated you would want some one to react quickly

i never saw a nursing station that would forbid good natured banter but your primary focus should be your patients

[Brian, ASN, RN]

In all honesty as long as you arent downloading the videos from youtube, going to that site is probably safer than allnurses and amazon in regards to hackers, crackers, and viruses. Maybe not so much amazon but these messageboards such as allnurses do have exploits.

Please don't make blind claims like this when you have no idea what security settings we have in place. allnurses.com has always taken extreme care in keeping allnurses up to date with the latest security patches and maintaining a secure and safe experience for our members. To my knowledge, we have never had any viruses, security breaches etc...

[Noryn]

Please don't make blind claims like this when you have no idea what security settings we have in place. allnurses.com has always taken extreme care in keeping allnurses up to date with the latest security patches and maintaining a secure and safe experience for our members. To my knowledge, we have never had any viruses, security breaches etc...

Brian, I have a relative idea of the security that is used. I agree that allnurses is extremely safe, in part because you do constantly apply the security patches but also because your mods are extremely active. But like you said, you take extreme care in applying the latest security patches which often are developed because of a security weakness or exploit. It will always be an ongoing process, I doubt that there will ever be software that doesnt need to be patched regularly.

My main point of contention was where the poster alluded to youtube not being safe, but amazon and allnurses were which I feel is not entirely accurate. There is no site out there that is completely safe, we read stories about the cyber attacks on government servers often. You would think major sites like government pages or even big corporations like CNN would be safer than a company that many people had not heard of until a few years ago like Youtube but that is the beauty of the net, youtube in all likelihood has some of the strongest security out there.

But admittedly I get frustrated because I know IT people blame things like youtube for viruses when it generally is something else. Youtube is a great resource, there is no need to stay away from it for fear of a virus.

So in closing, I was not saying allnurses is not safe, I am just saying youtube probably has some of the strongest security measures out there.

And again I am always impressed by the speed of your mods in locking or removing spam or potentially harmful posts.