texting at work

[questionsforall]

I don't know if it bothers anyone else, but I think that constantly texting at work (I mean constant, like their eyes never leave the phone) when you are suppossed to be taking care of patient's is so unprofessional. This is not just any job, we are nurses and we should be taking things seriously. It is so annoying to me especially when the person is ignoring their patients and the patient alarms, pumps, etc. Don't people know that you are at work and that you can not talk to them all day? What would you be doing before text messaging came around?

[karabug]

I think as long as texting isn't interfering w/work it's fine. It has certainly cut down on the number of personal phone calls & you can answer a text at your convenience. Since our managers text too, they have not mandated that texting stop! (Plus many of us use our cellphone calculators which can appear to be texting too).

[tewdles, RN]

Seems this could be a generational sort of thing...my generation has spent more years working without cellular devices than with. We are, perhaps, more likely to think of work as a place where you have limited interaction with your personal life while you...well...work.

I actually prefer not to be interrupted repeatedly during my day.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

I will continue to carry my cell phone wherever I and whenever I choose until someone ruins it for everyone else. Not for my amusement or entertainment, but based upon general principle: My family doesn't have my work number. If an emergency should arise, they can leave a message on my phone. (I rarely have it on my person and certainly not in pt's rooms)

The argument about the cell phones is starting to become less about the phones themselves but how nurses spend the time they are supposed to be 'nursing'. Every night there are as many as 3 lines tied up at once with mindless jabbering to someone by the staff... totally non-work related.

I try as much as possible to overlook certain behaviours, but sometimes it gets really difficult. If we complain about it, then our own rights (those of us would like to protect our rights to carry our cell phones) would be curtailed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If people would only use these things judiciously and operate with a little common sense, we would all be better off.

I share this opinion. Judicious use will avoid having policy changes so that they are banned with risk of termination. For all of us, we would like the option for emergencies or break time or medical app use. I would hate for a couple people to be injudicious about the use, and we all have to make other arrangements for emergencies. I see it coming across the board, and that's sad. It should be the assumption when one whips out a phone that there is an emergency or a medical app is being used. Unfortunately, the assumption is personal texting.

[Perpetual Student]

I pretty much just use mine on my breaks, but I like to keep it in my pocket set on silent to peek at every now and again to see if I've gotten a call when I've got a second. I don't get very many calls (nor text messages) on my cell phone and when I do they tend to be important, esp. when I'm working nights (pretty much nobody calls at 0300 unless they've been drinking ).

[RNCEN]

The workplace is not a place to be texting, IMO. Unless there is an emergency, there is no need....you are there to work. There must be some awfully tolerant managers out there. It drives me nuts in my current field...I cannot imagine seeing that behavior in a health care setting.

[Rocknurse, MSN, APRN, NP]

I use my cell phone continuously in the line of my work. I am a charge nurse of an acute dialysis unit, and I constantly have management, administration, Biomed and staff calling and texting me on my personal phone. I rely heavily on communication like texting, cell phones and email while I am working as I have to coordinate a lot of stuff during the day. I am also doing patient care while doing this but obviously my patients have priority. My job would be much tougher if I didn't have access to texting. I have to coordinate staffing across several facilities in the state and it changes throubout the day. Texting means one less phone call I have to make.

[RNCEN]

Rocknurse, that is slightly different.

[tewdles, RN]

importantly different...that is not "texting"...that is working.

[emt123277]

What pisses me off is the fact that a few umprofessional people will get cell phones banned at our facility and on my Droid are numerous med apps, my calculator, and Micromedex that I use to check y-site and syringe compatability on. I've already had some of Florence Nightingale's co-workers pull me aside and state that I "shouldn't be playing with my thing while I'm at work". After assuring them that my "thing" wasn't a toy and I prefer to look at information myself instead of dialing the pharmacy everytime I have a question I get a look like I'm some sort of di*k. Technology is part of our lives, more in healthcare than in most jobs. If you screw the younger nurses who use technology to work smarter (not harder), the same who you run to everytime you can't figure out the computer or pyxis, then don't expect a cheerful smile and help the next time you can't find the caps lock button.

If someone on their phone has created ANY unsafe condition or ANY pt was put in harms way then you should report it. The fact is they're not, they are just perceived as doing so. Writing them up had nothing to do with pt care, only your perception of a non-existent problem.

[nursel56]

Yeah, what tewdles and Career Change said, Rocknurse, people would be wondering what the heck was wrong if you weren't using your phone! I just hope your employer is buying you lots of "anytime minutes" if you are expected to use your personal phone for work- related calls! :)

I've never liked to talk on the phone just to chit-chat, so I text my kids- with the phone on silent. I work Home Health, so I could talk or text a lot but I choose not to. I hear some of the other nurses pretty much talk non-stop. It irritates the patients.

[tewdles, RN]

emt, I appreciate your sentiment. I don't think any of us have a problem with using a work related app on your pda...I do. we all know that there are people who abuse the freedom to carry a personal cell at work by spending too much time attending to it rather than their duties. I share your concern that those folks will cost us all that bit of freedom.

[RN1980]

Im sure I take what I do as serious as anyone else. But to have nurses leave their cell phones in the car before clocking in seems a bit childish. I use my phone often during the shift both texting, calling and to gather infromation. With that being said I dont text in rooms or while doing a procedure. I have text while sitting at the nurses desk during a quiet moment, and will again. To say patient care suffered while I sent a fast message is silly. Besides I feel like others in this forum, there should be no restriction in someones ability to contact me, doesnt matter if it's a emergency or not.