locked unit problems

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Jul 13, 2009

We are a locked unit, usually we have a secretary at our desk to man the door, but if we don't we get to it as we can. When they complain we give them our manager's card and tell them to tell her. I like the locked unit, but it is a royal PITA if you are busy!

babydoll99_99 · Jul 13, 2009

I guess the grass is always greener. We have been begging for them to lock our unit. We have the hugs system and it is constantly going off with our moms walking in the hall. It drives us nuts with all the false alrams we have to run for. Also, without the locked unit we have absolutely no control over how many visitors are in the room. We have to step around visitors to do EVERYTHING and then when we have to check moms it takes 5 minutes to convince all the visitors (all 15 of them) to leave for a few minutes. Our L&D is locked and they don't have half the problems we do with visitors. They have a secretary that mans the door. It seems to work out good for them. The nursery/NICU is locked too and the secretary mans that door as well. Be careful what you wish for. Having 8 million visitors in a room is a PITA too.

HeartsOpenWide, RN · Jul 13, 2009

I did a preceptorship on a locked unit. It did have a doorbell so we would know so someone could let them it. I kinda just got use to it; the annoying part was the people that could not figure out how to open the door...it was a double door and only one side would unlock, the one closer to the buzzer, and inevitably some people would pull on the wrong door and get all flustered or they would pull on the door right when you were unlocking so it would not open (like when some one pulls on the door handle when you are unlocking the car door). I start work on a unit that uses the alarms on the bands. Not sure how that is going to go.

wonderbee, BSN, RN · Jul 13, 2009

We are pretty strict about visiting hours. We have staff assigned to take care of the door.

im_an_honest_1 · Jul 13, 2009

We are in a locked unit and are anxiously awaiting a security system. The doorbell thing gets really old. Recently our hospital ran a code pink drill - we failed - the fake baby made its way right out the door. :-(.

S.N. Visit, BSN, RN · Jul 13, 2009

I'm on a locked Geri-psych unit. I don't mind the doorbell, although it goes off by itself with no one there. That becomes an annoyance. We all say "oh it's just Caspar again".. We don't have too much of a problem with peeps coming and going. We have posted visiting hours and the other hospital staff (lab, PT, OT) usually come to the unit at regular times.

Penguin67 · Jul 14, 2009

I used to take students to a floor in a hospital that was locked. For many years, ths hospital issued namebadges to the students and the strip on the namebadge allowed them to access the unit door, to open to enter and to leave. One day, in the middle of a shift, the cards stopped allowing access. Someone decided that students didn't need full access in and out of the unit, and had the cards deactivated in the middle of a shift. Not a very polite way to treat the students. Especially when they did alot of discharges, patient transports, and off unit errands for the nurses. No one ever liked answering the door when someone needed in and out, so it just added to the workload of an already busy unit secretary. It was interesting to note, however, that access was never denied to medical students who rotated through the same unit more frequently than the nursing students. I can understand the need to keep the unit locked, but there should be some way to get the students in and out without creating work for other staff.

jenrninmi, MSN, RN · Jul 20, 2009

Ours are locked only from 8p-8a.

RNBelle · Jul 20, 2009

Not a single lock in site on our unit. We would love it though. I did work in a place that had a locked L&D. There was a doorbell, it rang to security - where they had a video screen watching the door, security would then call L&D and ask if it was ok to allow in the visitors. Seemed to work ok.

HappyNurse2005, RN · Jul 23, 2009

we had a unlocked labor unit, now we moved hospitals and its locked.

previously, before our unit moved, the public elevator came up to the labor floor at the end of labor hall, and not in view of the nurses station. ppl in theory could come off the elevator and sneak into a room/break room/bathroom/etc without us seeing them! (unless a nurse was in the hallway) htey could also go down the other side of the hall to the OBOR without ever passing the nurses station. the unit wasn't locked...but the refreshment station was :)

now, our unit is locked, but the refreshment area isn't. we have 2 doors to get into the units, both with cameras we can see from both nurses stations on our labor unit. to get in, a visitor has to pick up a phone. when they do, our telephone rings, and we can see on the caller ID that it is the door. we ask them who they are here to see, and to let them in we have to push the * key on the phone. staff has a badge to swipe to make door open. mother baby/peds/picu/nicu has this too. its nice, you can keep some ppl out. its easy enough to open, you just pick up a phone. and its kind of funny to watch ppl hit the door open button,stare in the door, try to pull or push it open b/c htey didnt read the sign (that is in English and Spanish) of how to get the door to open. of course, you get stray visitors who run in when someone else has the door opened for them, or when staff goes in.

i find it very respectable when a person gets the door opened and goes in, then the next visitor comes up while the door is still open and still picks up the phone to get in b/c they are supposed to, when in theory they could just run in.

the stairwells in the unit, to get from teh stairs into the units (labor, m/b, peds, nicu) you have to use your badge to swipe in. no one can just sneak in from the stairwell.

sure, the phone ringing to open the door is annoying. but better than unlimited people roaming the halls! we have 24 rooms, 3 triage, and the obor-that is a lot of potential visitors!

of course, we dont limit the visitors per room, except at delivery/epidural time.