Nurses have the right to give and recieve information as a professional right?

[bluekermode]

Hello - I'm a fourth year nursing student

I'm doing a presentation on nurses and technology in an issues class. The way I see it nurses use all types of technology from computers, PDA's and the internet etc.. And I think this is an important part of nursing and to promote nurses as professionals and leaders.

I think not being able to use the internet for research or client teaching information at work sets nurses back. Doctors and other medical professionals use this knowledge base.

I am curious if the experienced nurses out there have had clients ask about useful websites, and if most nurses have internet access. I have seen some older posts regarding internet access but didn't see if nurses are being asked about internet information by patients, or if patients are bringing information in for nurses to look at to see if it's from reliable sites.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

Nurses have the same rights as anyone else, but the pts also have the right to have 100% of the nurses' attention. Internet access is often abused by nursing staff, so facilities take the easy way out and limit access.

Ouch...I was sneaking into allnurses while at work to see what was happening during a quiet moment...

[abooker]

Sneaking into allnurses isn't abusing Internet access, it's networking! (That's my story and I'm sticking to it). :)

[abooker]

The way I see it nurses use all types of technology from computers, PDA's and the internet etc.. And I think this is an important part of nursing and to promote nurses as professionals and leaders.

Some of us use computers to chart and pass meds, PDAs to keep ourselves organized, and the internet for networking. I never encountered unfiltered internet access during my clinical training. I don' t know how internet access in general would promote nursing as a profession. I personally think surfing the web for research is the technological equivalent of using a crayon to chart. If you're advocating for Web access to the CINAHL database, I'm with you, but that'll cost extra.

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" Alice asks the Cheshire Cat who is perched on the bough of a tree. "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," is the cat's saucy reply.

Where do you want to get to, with internet access for nurses at work?

Promoting patient education is an important, even essential part of nursing. I'm not sure how lack of internet access for client teaching is a barrier. I don't think the perception that MDs and others might have a higher social status than nurses is because they have internet access at work and we don't. I also don't think that's true ... the filters I've seen apply to everyone.

As a nurse, I've often tried to educate a client or a family member, only to be told "the Internet says that ..." The effect of the Internet I've observed is that it empowers clients, not professionals. It places us healthcare professionals on the same footing as the client's neighbor's brother's dentist's cousin, who may have seen something on a web site somewhere ...

I am curious if the experienced nurses out there have had clients ask about useful websites, and if most nurses have internet access. I have seen some older posts regarding internet access but didn't see if nurses are being asked about internet information by patients, or if patients are bringing information in for nurses to look at to see if it's from reliable sites.[/Quote]

Clients are usually telling me about useful websites, trying to educate me about the benefits of XYZ because they assume the information is reliable. They'll argue with me if I reply this is a commercial site that is trying to sell you something, and yes, I really do feel that you should keep checking your blood sugar and eating right, even though there is a "marvelous new cure that has made insulin obsolete".

Colleagues, too, have been often misled. I'll never forget my best friend since 8th grade, an RN, sending me a warning about some guy on a business trip waking up in his hotel bathtub with one of his kidneys missing. As a nurse, she would've known it was completely implausible to do that kind of surgery in a hotel room, but she wasn't telling me as a nurse. She was just a worried friend who knew I was going out of town and wanted to be helpful.

In my opinion, nursing's image isn't enhanced by technology; just changed a bit.

[Bill E. Rubin]

Oh that's just sad..

I read Tazzi's reply and thought, I can be trusted with the patient's life while injecting meds in their IV but the hospital can't trust me with internet access. Sad that sometimes the higher up treat all nurses like children because of the actions of a few.

I want to be treated as a professional always (ok maybe I picked the wrong job) Dr's have full internet access on their phones and PDA from the first day of med school. It is available everywhere, heck my 11yr has internet on his phone. Nurses should have it.

I agree, mhr. Seeing stuff like this really makes me appreciate my unit. The internet is just there at the nurse's station as well as in the nurse's lounge. We're treated like adults. Of course when working for any institution as large as most hospitals, you have to expect that internet access is tracked by IT... so I wouldn't use it to access anything that I wouldn't use it for if any one of my colleagues were looking over my shoulder. But if someone else wants to shop online during their break, who cares? It might ease their stress about holiday shopping so that they can better concentrate on their job. If someone isn't pulling her or his weight, it will be noticed by the other staff members who really tend to frown on people who slack on the job (which I imagine is the case in most reasonably functional nursing units).

[anonymurse]

Supposedly we can get to med info sites, but half the useful stuff is blocked. Methinks there's a sysadmin somewhere with carbon-to-diamond sphincter tone.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Google is my best friend at work.

[steelcityrn, RN]

Most hospitals have computer programs that can trace your every move. If your told not to use it for anything other than work, I would adhere to that. They can and have terminated nurses for using the internet .

[not now, RN]

How does ISS know who's using the internet? We don't sign on to anything unless it's charting or intranet e-mail and I chart from multiple computers throughout the shift. I can use one computer to chart, stay logged on, walk over to another computer and jump on the internet. Do they know it's me? Probably not.

Some of our computers have limited access(Web MD, drug guide sites), some have a broader access than others. I realized this when I walked past three doctors sitting at a station talking and noticed the Mercedes Benz website up.

I use the internet for the random diagnosis that makes me go "Huh?" Our carenotes/reference system is not that great and hard to find anything.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

Sneaking into allnurses isn't abusing Internet access, it's networking! (That's my story and I'm sticking to it). :)

Thanks...I'll need witnesses...:lol2: