Dozens of nurses at Northern California hospital balk at wearing locators

Nurses Activism

Published

About two dozen nurses at Eden Medical Center near San Jose, Calif., have turned in the personal locator devices the hospital had required them to wear. The hospital contends the devices help provide more efficient patient care, but the nurses say they are a Big Brother-like intrusion.

San Jose Mercury News, Sept. 6, 2002

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/4015298.htm

So---are these devices going to be used to track how much time nurses spend in the bathroom during their shift???

Will having a GI upset during work hours be grounds for disciplinary action???

It will be a cold day in hell before I would wear one of those "locaters." I am not a dog and I will refuse to be treated as such. Those nurses have my unconditional support and respect for telling the suits no. It is about time somebody got the balls up to put an end to the way nurses are treated.

Specializes in Emergency Room.

sorta like a global tracking device... Don't even tell me this is for the patient's overall well-being. This is to track nurse response time.

Exactly correct Erdiane,

Then it will tell over a period of time just how long it takes to:

Change dressings

Set up IVs

Pass other meds

Chart

Take medical histories

Every specific function a nurse can do will have an allotment time.

Patients will now be grouped into task/time criteria and the number of nurses required.

Final product...allnurses have to perform at the level of the super

nurses. No allowances for age, experience, and or things that go wrong.

It would have been a lot cheaper if they just make everyone wear NEON SWAZTIKAS, magnetically coded and strategically placed as well.

I sure the devil am not going to wear one of those, and nursing ain't so cool that I would wear a dog collar either...don't believe I need either of them that badly.

Originally posted by NMAguiar

I have them in my Pomeranians so they don't get lost.

Fear not new technology! Let's go at this from a different angle: The next time you need -- or are waiting for -- transport personnel, wouldn't these devices be GREAT on them! :rolleyes:

Overhead paging and traditional pagers work just as well...even better...by the time l have to use the locater systems, usually l can already have a response to a traditional page....l don't need to know if they are in the toilet doing their buisness!.....We had locaters...not the kind you can communicate with though....mine stays in the bottom of my nurse bag with the battery OUT!

I was disappointed to read the comments that "many nurses have become knee-jerk reactionaries" who are unable to put aside their "parinoid (sic) fears"---------this from a copy editor/staff writer of a website self-described as founded "By Nurses, For Nurses".

I do not fear technology as you asserted. For example, there are devices in the marketplace which can reduce lifting injuries. The $273, 000 spent on the nurse tracking system for 2 floors would have gone a long way towards making the staff's job safer. Care to wager as to the presence or absence of adequate lifting devices and optimal ergonomics in that facility?

This administration has chosen to purchase a toy--- a demeaning and intrusive system capable of generating volumes of meaningless reports. If an administrator truly wished to learn why call lights are not always answered within targeted times, all he or she need do is forgo some of those "important" meetings for a few days and follow a nurse on the floor. In fact, why not put on some scrubs and show how it should be done?

In most employment situations it is the right of management to eavesdrop on employees, make them wear tracking devices around their necks and to second guess the nurse's professional judgment as to the ever changing priorities which occur during a shift. But make no mistake....nurses recognize this treatment for exactly what it is. And that is why they are leaving the hospital environment.

Specializes in correctional, psych, ICU, CCU, ER.

Agreed, I have them inmpalnted in my Rotts, have a lojack on my car and when I can implant them in my sons, will probably do that too.

Guess we should all be happy they weren't injected!!

:rolleyes:
Specializes in ER.

I don't think the admin is going to give the union all their tracking data so they can have evidence of a need for better staffing.

Perhaps access to raw data from the tracking devices should be a union demand before it's members agree to wear them.

NMAguiar,

I respect your position, but I conclude and think anyone with an education should be able to conclude that this device will meet considerable resistance. I appreciate the "benefits" as you described, and am looking forward to a competently fully staffed unit with support caregivers to fill in the holes for performing those mundane items that distract me from being cost effective.

However, I dare say that when staff nurses balk at this as they are doing, they may be able to work the same unit as an agency nurse, and not have to subject themselves to the whims of small minds.

Is it cost effective to staff with agency? I think that is what may happen...so you are correct. I can already see nurses pooling together represented by an agency to staff a hospital. Would be a very good thing for nurses, and probably a major step toward nurses being able to charge on a fee basis..especially since their is a documentable record to retrieve billing information from...I think I am beginning to like these dog collars. Let's not let everone know we have an ulterior motive here and resist them until they are advantageous for us. Good scam huh...I like it.

why cant you just leave the thing on the desk & go about your business without it?

Yeah but some hospitals havent gotten the idea that they dont have to spend a dime to make themselves more attractive to RNs if they just make the competition LESS attractive by refusing to pay the rates the agencies want. Theyre holding agun to the agencies heads & saying if you want a contract with us, you will take what we want to pay. They believe that those RNs who would work agency (usually without benefits), would come back to hospitals jobs for the benefits since the money wouldnt be that different. Several large hospital systems that encompass hospitals in entire areas are already doing this & have cut the fees they pay for agency. In turn the agencies have made up the loss by cutting the rates they pay their RNs - some by as much as $13/hr less than what they were paying them.... or let the hospitals put them out of business. Agencies are filing lawsuits over this but it will probably be years before there is any outcome.

+ Add a Comment