My phone keeps going off at work...

[Brian]

Do you carry your phone around work? Does your place of work have a phone/technology policy?

Click Like if you enjoyed it. Please share this with friends and post your comments below! Want more nursing cartoons

[eatmysoxRN, ASN, RN]

I am torn about the professionalism of cell phones because I love that I'm able to kind of use mine at work. I keep it on silent but while at the nursing station I use it for very quiet music. I don't talk on my cell phone unless I'm in the break room. I have also occasionally used the flashlight function to plug in IV pumps that are beeping so the patient doesn't have to turn on overhead lighting.

~ No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without Your Consent -Eleanor Roosevelt ~

[SuzieVN]

Is that a HIPPA violation?

[Kittylin]

We are discouraged from having our phones on us but most people put them on silent and address calls or messages when in the break room. Many people also use them for a calculator and their calendar so they do get pulled out for legitimate use. I have not seen anyone abuse it during work time.

[Music in My Heart]

I see nothing wrong with a "no cell phone" policy.

I'd love to see many in our cell phone addicted society be forced to go cold turkey. It would amuse me.

What if you have a smart phone and you use it for any number of important tasks in your unit? I always put my cell on vibrate when I go into the hospital. But we use our phones for meds, to calcs, to review of relevant data, you name it. I love my iPhone. We are never parted from each other. LOL

I don't consider mine a phone; it's my PC that, incidentally, can also communicate in various fashions as well as running useful programs and holding a number of nursing references in electronic format.

I don't particularly care about being able to communicate at work but my efficiency and effectiveness are greatly enhanced by access to my computer.

To avoid this misunderstanding (from other staff, patients, and families), no cell phone policy. To look up meds and do calcs, use only facility-approved resources which should be available to you.

Right... let's impede efficiency d/t the misunderstanding of others... better to educate them or tell them to mind their own business.

[JeanOfAllTraits]

I use mine to look up translations. I would never use it when I was presenting paperwork for informed consent to doing formal patient teaching. I love that I can look up the words for body parts or items in the room or an action that I need my patients to perform. I love seeing the relief on the patient and family's faces when I can at least speak a small bit of their language!

[Twinmom06, ASN, APN]

why is it that a silly cartoon had to immediately spawn a conversation about cell phone usage?

[%63theend]

I have no problem with people sending or receiving an occasional text while at work. I don't see it as any different than talking about something non-work related with a co-worker! As long as you are quick about it and it isn't interrupting your work who cares? Now if all you're doing is sitting around and texting then you shouldn't be getting paid to work obviously. But nothing wrong with a quick text or even a quick phone call. Many of the nurses I work with call to make sure their kids made it home from school or made it to school or whatever. All great nurses. I work night shift and many nurses use their phones for A) Flashlights B) Music when charting C) Looking up drugs and D) Calculating EKG rhythms. I use mine the most for D. I don't really get to text anyone b/c everyone sleeps while I work. But I'll send off a goodnight text at 11pm to my hubby and I see nothing wrong with that. People in other lines of work call their families and text them often. Nothing unprofessional about it in my opinion.

[LithEruiel]

While we're at it: The desk staff, who already takes way too many unnecessary phone calls, would appreciate it if you'd just give your family members your portable phone's number and stop calling the desk to ask for you too.

This is true. Then some people just talk on non-emergency personal calls and ignore the other lines ringing. One day I was running around like crazy trying to get things done AFTER I was supposed to be off the clock for about a half an hour and a secretary on a personal call actually yelled at me for not answering the other line. Really?

[Guest343211]

I would disallow the use of cell phones if I were an administrator. On my last orientation, an instructor told a story about an RN who was called into the principal's office for being on her phone all the time. Turned out, she was looking up meds and doing calcs- innocent! To avoid this misunderstanding (from other staff, patients, and families), no cell phone policy. To look up meds and do calcs, use only facility-approved resources which should be available to you.

On a related note, I almost died when a Nordstrom's clerk pulled out her iPhone and started typing in the middle of doing a shoe sale with me. Turned out, she was ringing me up!

This IMHO is just extreme and ridiculous...sorry...typical nursing, punitive stuff. Smart phones are great devices and areand should continue to be used productively. I can see docs and nps etc giving this the eyeroll. You can tell if someone is productive or not. Businesses don't function this way. They use phone device etiquette, and look at productivity, and approach nonproductive behavior on a case by case basis.

Yes let's keep treating nurses like children in high school.

Why do people go to extremes? If someone is goofing off and not doing their job, you can tell. Approach them on a case by case basis.

Sorry if iPad did autocorrect

[stephaniemaried]

I'm not a nurse yet but I would just assume that naturally there would be a no cell phone policy. Occasionally in a rare bathroom break I might take a minute to check it if I am trying to arrange some plans or something.. But what's more important- the facebook update on someone's new hair color, or the patient?

[twinkletoes53]

No cell phones allowed in the NICU at all. Management used to allow staff to carry their cell phones in the unit I worked in. Then a nurse was caught texting on her phone while her arms were inside an infant's Isolette, supposedly giving him care.

[sbostonRN]

We have a "no cell phone" policy. If you are caught with your cell phone at work you're fired on the spot. It's not even supposed to be in the building. However I have an iPhone and sorry, but it's not sitting in my car when it gets to 20* in the winter and 90* in the summer. I keep it on vibrate, in my locker and don't access it during the workday.

It is pretty liberating actually.