Irony regarding cellphone use at work

IsabelK · Apr 4, 2017

I carry two phones all the time: my personal phone which I put on silent. I use it for references like Omnio and the Merck Manual. My company provides work cell phones which we are required to carry. It's the number we give to staff, families, etc. it's also one of the ways I can see the on call logs, email, and other company related things. There are legitimate reasons to use a cell phone at work. Texting to make social plans, Facebook, etc doesn't count as legitimate.

MikeyT-c-IV · Apr 5, 2017

I can see both sides of the coin. I managed an inpatient department at one time and I needed to advise a small percentage of the staff to refrain from using their personal cell phone at the station. Overall, I found that most staff were compliant and rarely was this an issue. I think adults should be treated as adults and I also realize that while at work, life outside of the hospital does not stop. As this is the case with any job.

In my current role, I do have an office with a phone but I may not be in that office for 8 or 10 hours at a time. If a family member needed to contact me I wouldn't know it for hours without my phone. Mind you I can't stand talking or playing on my phone. I look at my phone as rarely as possible.

One tool that helps is my smartwatch. If a text or phone call comes in I can simply look at my wrist to see what is going on. I find this more professional and less time consuming that actually pulling out my cell phone in front of my patient or co-worker and risk looking like a jerk.

NurseNeLz · Apr 5, 2017

Sometimes I look up things on my phone, use the calculator etc. The doctors are on their phone 24/7 and no one has a problem with it. I feel in the nursing proffession we are treated like children instead of professionals. If you see someone is excessively on their phone and it is showing through their work then maybe it needs to be addressed. Otherwise stop micromanaging and let us do our jobs without focusing on the small stuff.

Dafabb, LPN · Apr 7, 2017

Well on this these Nurses must not be worrying about keeping their LC. as they would surely be loosing it. There can be also jail time! These people must be short a light bulb or 2.....

Dafabb, LPN · Apr 7, 2017

Well if you would actually have to use 50% of your phone for work in that manner you can take a portion of your phone bill off at tax time....

I have worked places where those Nurses are glued to their phones....You end up answering their lights etc..etc....Having to tell them so and so is calling...It is very frustrating.....

CCU BSN RN · Apr 23, 2017

Things I have used my personal phone for at work this month:

1. Lending a charger to patients

2. Lending my phone to a patient. The ones in patient rooms only make local calls. If a patient is admitted and their next of kin is out of town, I let them use my cell phone to call their relatives to tell them they're in the hospital, and give their family member the number to the phone in their room so that the family member can call them on their room phone. It's also a PITA to use any of the hospital phones to make long distance calls, so it's just way easier to use mine sometimes. Now that talk/text are unlimited and included, there's no extra cost to me, and it's the most expedient way to do this.

3. Patient gets admitted and doesn't remember a loved one's phone number, but does know their address and name. I can see if their # is listed in the white pages way more easily on my phone than the hospital computers, which block a lot of sites

Like a lot of things, there are good and bad uses for your phone at work. Being an adult and a professional is about knowing the difference, and making good choices. I leave my phone at the nursing station instead of in my pocket because it's big and heavy and an annoyance, and I only use it for work-related things or on break. I have co-workers who watch netflix, listen to music, and make personal phone calls while at work. A small percentage of employees wreck a good thing for all of us.

Coloradonurse1983 · Nov 1, 2018

I don't clock out for breaks lunches. Pretty sure returning a quick text a couple of times a shift is no where near 30 minutes. So no, I'll check my phone.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Nov 6, 2018

We use our cell phones all the time at work. We text our DON and/or nurse manager, doctors, etc. We do NOT breach HIPAA. Nobody cares that we have our phones on us. It really makes sense because we all look up drugs and things with our phones. I say, get with the times.

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · Nov 6, 2018

Well if you would actually have to use 50% of your phone for work in that manner you can take a portion of your phone bill off at tax time....
I have worked places where those Nurses are glued to their phones....You end up answering their lights etc..etc....Having to tell them so and so is calling...It is very frustrating.....

Stop answering their lights. Stop covering for them. Stop enabling them. They are making you the fool.

sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN · Nov 15, 2018

Working home health,

I have no choice but to use my cell phone

Unfortunately, or fortunately no time to monitor social media

LoveMyRNlife · Nov 25, 2018

Stop answering their lights. Stop covering for them. Stop enabling them. They are making you the fool.

We are not supposed to have our phones out at my facility either. If we were caught by the charge nurse or manager, sitting at the nurse's station charting on our patients and not answering those call lights of those playing on their phones, we would hear about it in our review and told to go answer them. I personally don't care if staff have their phones on them as long as they are doing their job! We had a tech that was constantly on her phone watching videos of her kid or looking at Facebook and call lights would be going off like crazy and there she sat. Pretty aggravating.