tracking nursing movements

Nurses General Nursing

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is it legal for management to track nursing movement in and out of patients room. I have heard through the grapevine that this is going to start at the hospital i am working at (a non union hospital).

i would like also to see people's feedback on this issue if it would effect quality of care and also the legality. union vs non union.

thanks

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Why would you think it's illegal? Efficiency experts have long done these kind of studies: tracked the number of times nurses went from patient rooms to the med room, utility rooms, etc; how many times they went in search of equipment, etc. Trying to find out the biggest wastes of time and resources. What are you afraid they'll find?

Why would you care whether it was union or non-union?

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i just felt it was an invasion. i would feel that i would be more concerned with tracking than patient monitoring. even though i do walking round quite frequently at least Q30 minutes. on the union vs non union. i think a unionized hospital would have more say on the treatment of an employee.

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Specializes in NICU.
is it legal for management to track nursing movement in and out of patients room. I have heard through the grapevine that this is going to start at the hospital i am working at (a non union hospital).

i would like also to see people's feedback on this issue if it would effect quality of care and also the legality. union vs non union.

thanks

I don't know why it would matter. All three of the hospitals I have spent any time in "track" their nurses electronically. Everyone's badge has a little sensor in it, and it lights up the bar outside of a patient's room when and RN enters, so everyone else knows there's an RN in there. I don't see the difference between that, or cameras, or whatever....and I don't really care.

Legalities....I don't really know. I would guess that if everyone signs that magic "yes, I know about this and I still agree to work here" paper, it's just fine.

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quote from hermance: "I just felt it was an invasion. i would feel that i would be more concerned with tracking than patient monitoring. even though i do walking round quite frequently at least Q30 minutes. on the union vs non union. i think a unionized hospital would have more say on the treatment of an employee."

Not sure I'd agree with that. Like I said, it's a pretty common survey, done all over the place, union or not. It's not the "treatment of the employee" that's in question, but rather the efficiency of the unit for best patient care. Just a matter of finding out the fastest way to do things, if a better system can be instilled to limit wasted steps. Personally, I'd welcome such a thing: maybe someone would finally realize how much time I spend looking for scarce equipment, scarce aides, and chasing pharmacy to get the meds in our medroom when I need them!

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Flight.

hmm.. no.. don't think that would be illegal @ all.. one of the hopsitals i work @. the employees have a badge on their nametag that will show you what room they are in... if it is a nurse or a cna room.. it will show it to you from the color of the call light outside the room...... very trackable....

don't be worried about that... it is really nothing...

unless you are saying you did something w/ that pt in their room when you were never really in the room..

don't sweat it... it is no big deal....

:cool:

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I forgot: we use Vocera, and when we're "on" it shows exactly where we are. Not very useful, LOL, and still that is going on....I'd be way more interested in someone figuring out how I could save a hundred steps a day!

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Psych.

The problem with trackers is management considers them proof of your actions. You can check on patients from outside the room or with a quick check inside the room, yet the tracker won't pick it up so management can claim you didn't check on the patients. And if the tracker doesn't work for some reason, management will claim you weren't in the patient room. That actually happened to me. So if you have to wear a tracker, find out exactly how it works so you can protect yourself.

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i just think when do you say enough is enough. such as staffing for example "they are doing fine 4 nurses and 1 pca and this becomes the norm. if you keep accepting the changes there will be continually pushing the limits.

i also work on a floor that has no hoyer or any type of equipment to faciliate patient transfer safely. this is where money should go not how many times i went into such and such room.

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I don't care for tracking equipment either. I am not a donkey or a dog to be monitored. Next thing you know someone will decide all citizens need to be injected with one of those dog tags for tracking at all times. I am shocked because several years ago a post just like this was posted and a least half the respondents were totally on the posters side. Now some persons seem to be infering that there is something wrong with a person who objects to this practice. The fact that people are getting used to being monitored disturbes me.

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I have to agree with oramar on this one....

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I agree with Oramar, too. It is amazing to me that people bother to do nursing at all sometimes. I don't hear about this happening to other people at their non-nursing jobs.

I would quit that job, Hermance. I manage my patients very well and they are very well taken care of. As long as they aren't abandoned or neglected my movements are my business.

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