telemetry

[hcole]

recently our acting cno removed our telemetry off the med surge floor stating if we do not have techs to read it we can be fined according to ca. regs. are their any regs in ca. to this fact? our floor rn/lvn's monitored the pts.

[mentalhealthRN]

That makes no sense to me. Techs are not licenced to read the telemetry generally anyways. I never worked in tele so maybe a tele nurse can give you a better answer. However this seems silly to me as the nurses are trained and responsible to monitor and report to MD/PA/NP any problems so I am not sure where the techs play a role here.

[TeleNurse2010]

I work on a telemetry floor and we don't have monitor techs either. It is up to each nurse to check the monitors and respond to any alarms, regardless of if it's our patient or not. We used to carry pagers that would alert us to any alarms, but now we just have to glance at the monitors whenever we walk by or go to them if we hear an alarm.

[noregrets]

I am nurse manager of a telemetry floor (not in CA). Monitors have to be watched 24/7. They are NEVER left alone! We have a monitor tech/HUC sitting at the desk at all times. I have never worked in a hospital were the monitors were not constantly watched. A lawsuit waiting to happen if you don't and first of all it is bad patient care. Why would you be on a Tele floor if you are not watched?

[Up2nogood RN, RN]

We have monitor techs too plus we carry pagers. I agree it wouldn't be very wise to have tele without someone trained watching at all times not just glancing at a monitor when you get a chance.

[pers]

I work telemetry (not CA) and we have a tech who sits there 24/7. If they want to get up to the bathroom, they have to wait for a nurse to sit there for them before leaving. I wouldn't feel safe not having a tech! Our tech also monitors the tele patients on the med/surge units as well and calls the floor if there is a problem.

Our tech reads the tele strips and then an RN signs off them (indicating they saw the strip and agreed with the reading). If the RN doesn't agree, they provide their interpetation and sign it. One of the tele RNs also reads the strips for the med/surge units and sends them down to be placed in the charts.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I am nurse manager of a telemetry floor (not in CA). Monitors have to be watched 24/7. They are NEVER left alone! We have a monitor tech/HUC sitting at the desk at all times. I have never worked in a hospital were the monitors were not constantly watched. A lawsuit waiting to happen if you don't and first of all it is bad patient care. Why would you be on a Tele floor if you are not watched?

This is all I have seen also. There are tele techs that are at the monitor station 24/7. Just had some recent problems with finding a few of them falling asleep or not calling in things they should have, so that was being addressed and they are revamping the training. The techs are not nurses.

Also the hospital was trying out a few new systems in regards to this, hospital wide monitoring by the tele techs because they are finding that although nurses have learned how to read strips, unless they are on a floor (ED, TELE for example) that sees them often, they often don't really have the in depth training to know what's what. When to really call the Doc and stuff.