Nurses pictures on patients whiteboards???

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi, I was recently informed that I had to have my picture taken for a "new project" at our hospital. Nsg admin is gonna take all staff nurses pics and then put them up in the rooms of the patients that nurse is assigned to for the shift. I find that a little bit strange myself. We are a small community hospital (25 beds including ICU and OB) and everyone works 12 hr shifts, so it's not like we r continually changing assignments, staff, etc. Does anyone else have anything like this where they work? we also have the white boards with r name, title, doc, etc in every room.

Specializes in LPN.

Why not put your address and phone numbers up as well? Don't nurses have privacy rights too?

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So whose job will it be to do the nursing picture shuffle every shift?

Tsk roser, clearly you're not thinking properly. It only takes a few seconds to change a picture, surely the nursing staff can attend to this at the beginning of each shift. To help you, there will be whiteboard audits. :rolleyes:

(My real thoughts on the idea are not printable).

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Tsk roser, clearly you're not thinking properly. It only takes a few seconds to change a picture, surely the nursing staff can attend to this at the beginning of each shift. To help you, there will be whiteboard audits. :rolleyes:

(My real thoughts on the idea are not printable).

Chuckle... yes let's add another staffer to check the boards, send nasty-grams, etc. Or better yet, let's get some little white haired volunteers who can hang at the nurses elbow and call her "dear" and say "sorry" until the photo is correct.... :yeah:

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Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.

they'd have to be big pictures so the patients could all see them from their beds...what if you don't have that room on your assignment one day? is it up to the nurses to put the pictures in the right rooms? grumble.

I like the name thing, but pictures is just more work for the nurses...

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they'd have to be big pictures so the patients could all see them from their beds...what if you don't have that room on your assignment one day? is it up to the nurses to put the pictures in the right rooms? grumble.

I like the name thing, but pictures is just more work for the nurses...

Now that's a very good point. Every nurse must from now on arrange for their pre-approved photo to be printed on a large canvas for use in patient rooms. If you work LTC you will have to provide 30, 40, 50 or even more copies so that there will be one for each room you are assigned to. We realise this may be costly for some staff however the benefits of this new scheme will far outweigh any temporary financial impost on the individual nurse. :D

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

we have the white boards in every room, and we're supposed to put up the day, date and nurse's name. however, all the dry erase markers disappeared months ago . . . . we still find the occasional dry erase marker, but they're more likely to be utilized to keep count of the units of products we've given or to draw pictures.

as far as the pictures go, my unit started doing that about a year ago. in the hallway. i keep taking mine down. they keep putting it back up. i keep taking it down. it's down right now. i think. i haven't been to work in two days.

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Specializes in ER.
we have the white boards in every room, and we're supposed to put up the day, date and nurse's name. however, all the dry erase markers disappeared months ago . . . .

lol, when i worked for a hospital that used them, it was amazing how all the trackers would disappear. or some nights, i spent the whole shift in the locker room or at the nurses' station. :D

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.
Why not put your address and phone numbers up as well? Don't nurses have privacy rights too?

A weak slippery slope argument which doesn't validate or negate anything. If you are afraid of a picture then you may want to put a bag over your head because your face is right there on the front of your body. We aren't posting our license numbers on the board.

To the OP: Our facility is in the process of making the aforementioned "picture boards" in the hallway. They have a simple, uniform, small image. In most cases it isn't for the patients, but for the physicians that are newer or less frequent on our floor. There is also talk of posting a picture of the nurses for the day on the patient board at the nursing station so that MD's can quickly locate the RN that has their patient.

In reference to posting the pictures in the room I think it is ok, as long as the picture of the tech, hospitalist for the day, RT, and PT/OT are there as well. In this day and age one of the most significant issues in hospitals is that patients rarely know who anyone walking into their room is. This leads to misinformation, confusion, decreased positive patient outcomes, and (yeah you have to deal with it) poor overall patient satisfaction.

If you want to keep the pictures off the boards then everyone needs to do a better job of clearly stating who they are and keeping their patients involved. And by everyone I mean even the docs and housekeepers as well!

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Thanks everyone for all your input! Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks it is a bit strange. I don't know who will be responsible for putting up the right picture in the correct room. Suppose we'll all get a 3 ring binder full of pics of ourselves that we'll be required to bring with nightly and supply each patient with the appropriate image. Admin is being very tight lipped on the whole ordeal (what a shock). So we'll see how it goes! It's not that I am opposed to having my patients and their families know who I am, but I agree that if nurses have to have their picture up then so should every other staff member that has contact with the patients. And how much more clutter can we put on the wall? got the falls sign, the turn sign, the wash your hands sign, the know your rights sign,etc..... And this coming from a facility that didn't want to put sharps containers and glove boxes INSIDE pt rooms because it took away from the hotel like atmosphere they were trying to portray......***!! Pretty sure, well I hope anyway, that my picture isn't hanging up in every hotel room i've ever been in!

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Specializes in Hospice, ONC, Tele, Med Surg, Endo/Output.
Hi, I was recently informed that I had to have my picture taken for a "new project" at our hospital. Nsg admin is gonna take all staff nurses pics and then put them up in the rooms of the patients that nurse is assigned to for the shift. I find that a little bit strange myself. We are a small community hospital (25 beds including ICU and OB) and everyone works 12 hr shifts, so it's not like we r continually changing assignments, staff, etc. Does anyone else have anything like this where they work? we also have the white boards with r name, title, doc, etc in every room.

Nice, then pt's and family members can just point to the nurse du jour who ****** them off when management visits. Gosh, i'm so glad i don't work in hospitals anymore. All the crap they dish out to the staff.

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Figure they'll have a "master" book with all our mug shots in that they can just take from room to room for pt's to help them identify the "bad nurses"!!

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Specializes in Hospice, ONC, Tele, Med Surg, Endo/Output.
Why not put your address and phone numbers up as well? Don't nurses have privacy rights too?

Well, hell, Kaiser used to have us put our work cell phone numbers and pagers on the white board. How lovely to get calls while in the toilet from patients or family asking for water, blankets, trip to the crapper, or graham crackers--not in that order, lol. Interestingly enough, the cnas weren't given a phone or pager. I got back by changing the number by one digit. Hey, if the upper echelons want to play that game, i will play my game. The patient or family need to use the call light not call my phones.

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