Reported to the BON for cellphone usage?

[Lady_Leijing]

I was fairly recently fired for having my phone out at the wrong time. Per hospital policy, we aren't supposed to have our personal phones out except in the break room, but at night, it's not uncommon for nurses to have their phones out at the nurses' station, and I have seen several others scrolling social media while holding a sleeping baby. I wasn't touching my phone at the time in question, just listening to a podcast while feeding a baby, but since I had prior offenses, they called it "failure to follow directions". Just got a notice that it was reported to the state BON.

What do I do now? Is this the end of my nursing career? Because of a cell phone?!

[BeatsPerMinute, BSN, RN]

This is a curious one. I don't mean to make assumptions but there has to be more to the story. I don't doubt that you're doing everything you can... Something about this story doesn't make sense however. I know nurses who have done things that would be considered much worse, and in states where rules are pretty strict. 

[Rita Clayton]

That seems more like an employment issue to me than a matter for the nursing board. My state would laugh in their faces. Provided your phone use did not put the patient at risk or violate their privacy. It would be a big stretch to try to make it out like a negligence or abandonment issue. 

[londonflo]

I read today about convenience stores installing a blocking service to keep employees off their phones. The question is if they can call 911.  We will probably see this in the hospitals. 

I have taught since  before the cell phone existed. The students had the floor number. From their reports, they all had a child who needed them every minute of every day.  We always had moms/fathers in touch.  Then phones happened. We had parents who thought  it was so important to wake the child to get up to go to school. Alarm clocks -- no