Dozens of nurses at Northern California hospital balk at wearing locators

l.rae · Sep 20, 2002

Originally posted by teeituptom
Howdy yall
from deep in the heat of texas

Heya I.rae with a 5 handicap, I generally dont need to.

doo wah ditty

OK!!OK!!...YOU WIN!

NMAguiar · Sep 20, 2002

KC CHICK · Sep 20, 2002

I feel that the arguement here is a valid one...although somewhat skewed from the original statement that started this thread.

I am a nurse. I am not a newspaper writer. I couldn't begin to understand issues a newspaper writer must face. Therefore, I am not qualified to give advice to a newspaper writer in regards to issues they encounter on the job. I am certainly NOT qualified to judge a newspaper writer "paranoid" because of a response he/she has to a change, potential or real, implemented on the job.

'Nuff said,

Anne:nurse:

PS: I don't think the rest of us went to RN school to "blow a couple of years".

jani · Sep 20, 2002

Have tracking system at my hospital. Hated idea at first, but is very convenient. Can locate staff and help quickly, don't spend time trying to locate CNA. Can call for emergency aid with the push of a button. Tracking system not wired for BR!!!

Youda · Sep 21, 2002

Can't resist this . . .

You know the saying. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that someone isn't out to get you.

Sleepyeyes · Sep 21, 2002

Well, I for one appreciate the revealing posts about NM.

I was beginning to suspect he was a management plant.

:coollook:

NMAguiar · Sep 21, 2002

BPruitt · Sep 21, 2002

As the money begins to increase -- as it has recently on the West Coast -- medical personnel need to remain focused on why they accepted their jobs. They can't be rubber stamps for either organized labor or hospital administrations. They have to recognize the faults -- like job burnout -- that creep into all of us over time.

There are hard times coming to heath care. In California, 12 HMOs have failed so far this year and many others are in dire financial straights. It will require truthful awareness of the issues, not raw activism, to deal with these challenges. But with people on the front lines like NMAguiar, I trust we will survive.

I've composed a piece on our forums stating my further feelings on this subject. I have no illusions that anything I write here, no matter how articulate, won't be likewise attacked, ridiculed and minimized. But journalists have always dealt with all forms of censorship with a smile.

Sleepyeyes · Sep 21, 2002

Originally posted by BPruitt, editor
I have no illusions that anything I write here, no matter how articulate, won't be likewise attacked, ridiculed and minimized. But journalists have always dealt with all forms of censorship with a smile.

Censorship?

Censorship???

I fail to see how any of the responses in this thread could possibly be misconstrued as "censorship." Unless you are referring to NM's deletion of his own posts. :confused:

MollyMo · Sep 21, 2002

I didn't like the idea of phones at first. They had a bad habit of ringing while I was in the bathroom or performing a dressing change or some other sterile procedure or if I was in isolation. Then the light bulb went off. Turn the darn thing off when I didn't want to or couldn't answer it. The phone did come in handy when I needed to code a patient. The entire code team was beeped in one fell swoop and responded in record time. The hospital I work at now tried the phones but the nurses refused to carry them. It would have helped the one night a patient was having seizures and his nurse was on her 5th smoke break( a slight exaggeration). The phone also helped me the night a patient went AWOL. Security and the supervisor were notified quickly. I didn't like the idea at first. My unit is small so I don't carry the phone at all times. But you better believe I use it. As for the locators, the ones I used in Arizona were used to locate a nurse in the patient's room, utility room, supply room, places like that. They didn't sense you in the bathroom or in the lounge. If you were on the floor and busy you just dropped it below your waist and it couldn't sense you. When you walked in the patient's room the locator turned off the call light which saved the aggravation of trying to climb over equipment to do it. The locators almost totally eliminated paging because we knew where you were. Since I work nights and paging isn't allowed after 10pm, the locaters were useful. Change isn't easy, but sometimes it's worthwhile.

sjoe · Sep 21, 2002

fellow posters: if you don't want to deal with posts you find inappropriate, offensive, pointless, etc. simply use the "ignore" option you will find in the poster's profile. You will, in the future, be relieved of seeing any more of this person's posts.

purplemania, BSN, RN · Oct 2, 2002

I quit wearing mine when I was changing a sterile dressing, could not stop to shut the thing off and had complaint that I refused to answer page. After that, I never put it on again. Other nurses took same attitude and the expensive device now just sits in a box. Waste of time, money and created ill will.