Is it just me, or do some unit secretaries feel that the call light is for the nursing staff to answer? I don't understand this mentality at all. If all the RN's and CNA's are running around and busy in the rooms, why can't the secretary help us out and answer the call light! Let imagine a patient is choking or is about to soil themselves, in this type of emergency TIME IS OF THE ESSENSE!
Just the other night, When i was changing a dressing, I heard the call bell going off for maybe 5 minutes. Where were the other RN's and CNA's you ask? Doing vital signs, baths, assisting with turning, med passing, suctioning, and other essential patient care routines on a 40-bed med/surg/tele unit.
Is it so hard to move an inch and pick up the call light, Mrs. Secretary? "Nurses Station, How Can I Help You"?
Huge pet peeve of mine!!!! I teach at a hospital outside Boston and the unit secretaries answer the call light within seconds. The nurses and CNA's have individual phones. The appropriate person is rung up and the request made. Efficient, convenient and the job get assigned to the proper person.
I work in town on a busy BMT unit where the secretary doesn't touch the call light and we have a loud overhead intercom system. All shift long you hear, "Amy, phone 6106" repeated at least once. If I were a pt on my unit, I would lose it. We even put a package of guaze over the speakers in the rooms to muffle the sounds. Can't say how many times I'm paged to a pt room for ice, tissues etc. Can't say how many times I'm paged OUT of a room for a ridiculous phone call.
Last pet peeve- I'm busy with a tech in a room. A few nurses sitting in the conference room - in view of pts, visitors, doctors and the call light rings. No one gets off their bums to answer it. Unacceptable, but it's the culture on our unit- sad to say.
What a sad state of affairs. Such laziness, such pettiness, such unhappy, angry, bitter people.
Whatever problems we have, we need, of course, to try to talk things over with the appropriate parties to come to a workable solution.
It is foreign to me to keep helping an aide who never wants to help me. I won't keep doing that. She gets to screw me over 2 or 3 times, until I realize what she is up to. After that, I will call her on it and let her know that I see what she's doing. If she doesn't change, I will not help her any more, short of an emergency.
It is also foreign to me to think that I, the nurse, am supposed to help the secretary. The way I was taught, the secretary is there to help the nurses, the doctors, and the patients and visitors. As a secretary, I don't think I'd view the nurses as being there to help me. On the other hand, while I would answer as many lights as possible from the desk, while I would let staff know who needed what, and would try to save them steps by letting them know to take ice, blankets, etc. to the room with them, I don't think I'd really be inclined to do that myself. I would definitely not unplug machines, help people to the john, or do other things that are not for the clerk to do (for legal and safety reasons).
Hearing all of these gripes, I just wonder if anybody anywhere is happy in their work. I hope I'm overreacting.
Of the 3 unit secretaries I work with, only 1 will answer call bells if there are only 2 NA's on the floor. She even cleans patients. When the unit secretary is unavailable, either the nurses or NA's answer the phone. As for working with the NA's, it all depends who I work with. If I'm working with NAs who are older and/or have more experience, then there is more teamwork and we are able to get things done. However, if I'm working with younger or new NAs, there is no teamwork. Everyone sticks to their own patients. Then everyone gets behind and nothing gets done.
Vito, I fear you have the wrong impression of what I was trying to say. I do everything I can for our patients in order to free up the nurses to do their work, including unplugging the iv pumps from the wall (the outlet is behind and under the bed!) for our surgical patients who have been ambulating on their own. I do not touch the iv's themselves and I'm sorry if I gave that impression. It is completely unreasonable to expect that a surgical patient lean over and around the bed to unplug the pumps when they've been told that ambulating is a huge part of our rapid recovery program and they've been cleared by their nurse to do so. It is also rather silly in my opinion to think that only a nurse can do this. Same for bringing in blankets or pillows or refilling their water pitcher (yes, I also check to make sure of their diet before I do this AND as unit coordinator I am aware of any testing needs). Yes, HUCs are there to help the nurses, however it is a health care TEAM, and team mates should be willing to help each other. I was only trying to point out the drawbacks of having HUCs answer lights... we have to find someone willing to do the task if we cannot and alot of the time I am met with people who are irritated that I am asking them to do something.
My comment about nurses not answering the phone was made because I have several nurses that I work with that will page a MD to MY phone just to have me transfer the call to them, sitting 4 feet from me, instead of paging the MD to the phone in front of them. Also... If I am already on the phone and two more lines are ringing in, it is perfectly acceptable for a nurse to pick up the phone!! I have nurses who will let it ring and ring, even when I am already on two lines and cannot pick up the third. The nurses are also trained to enter computer orders as well, so if I am swamped and they are not... it is reasonable that they could put an order or two in the computer, especially if they are being impatient. I have to prioritize my work, same as the nurses.
I really don't see unit secretaries answer call lights, they are too busy doing their job. I don't expect them to either. I've never worked where the unit secretary can pick up an intercom and speak to the patient in the room, if that's what you're talking about
We DO have a system where you can call a specific room from the nurses station like an intercom. Our Doctors round in the morning and not at night. If there are orders to put in WE are responsible for that. Our unit secretaries answer the phones and stuff charts at night. We still do everything handwritten in the charts. The only thing computerized is ordering labs or tests. I have worked as unit secretary at this same hospital a few years ago and it is in their job description to answer the call light and advise us if it is nursing related. If it is getting a blanket or getting coffee for the snack room administration said they can handle doing that if we are busy. Due to the fact we only have 2 RNs and 3-4 LPN's and 1 aide for 40 pt's at night. After 11pm we don't have a unit secretary so we answer all of them for ourselves. 2 of our unit secretaries are LPN's so they are usually great at helping us when ever they can and we do the same, but we have one who thinks the chair behind the desk has her name engraved on it and she can not get up from it for any reason. I know she has an important job, but after all, the patients are why we are there and we should all take some degree of responsibility for the call lights. I know not all secretaries are not the same because we do have some great ones, but we do have the one or two who think they are there just to answer the phone. Every hospital is set up differently and our Unit secretaries know when they are hired they are to help answer call lights. It is the first piece of equipment they are shown how to use. All personnel are required to answer lights, from management to surgery teams I have even seen physical therapy answer lights when everyone was busy. IT IS A TEAM EFFORT at our hospital, just some of them don't want to participate.
I have worked with some crappy unit clerks, but I have generally been blessed with good ones. When there is a crisis on the unit and everyone is rushing around, the clerk will answer the light and even give someone ice or tissues, but more than that, she does ask the nurse to take care of it, just not ASAP!, whe the nurses hands are already too busy to stop. Takes judgement and common sense, somethings that are in short supply these days.
LOL...appreciate the humor..totally understand though..
where i work ALL staff are expected to answer a light..even if they can't do thing a patient is asking..they can atleast let the person now that we care and will get someone who can assist them. most of time it something simple like " can you get my sweater or book, or i dropped something"...it doesn't take a nurse to pick up a dropped item!!!!!!!!
The last LTC facility i worked at the unit secretaries were not allowed to answer call lights. It was considered nursing staff's responsibility. I can understand that though, 9 times out of 10 it wasn't anything the secretary could do anyways and she would of had to leave the desk to hunt down a nurse or aide....leaving the desk unattended. Just my opinion though.
Everyone has their own job to do on a unit. They are trained specifically for that position.
Does the nurse grab a mop if the floor is sticky & the janitor is busy elsewhere? Would a tech do the paperwork for the clerk if they noticed the clerk was swamped? Have you ever seen a Doc feeding a patient because the tech was in another room toileting someone?
NO!
It would make my job a lot easier if other employees would chip in and do some of my duties for me, but I was hired to do my job, not some other employee.
Remember, no matter how busy you feel you are & no matter how important you think your job is, every other employee in the hospital feels the same way.
On my unit the secretaries answer the call bells and then forward the calls to the appropriate person. Saves the nurse from stopping her med round to go give ice, for example.
oncnursemsn
243 Posts
Huge pet peeve of mine!!!! I teach at a hospital outside Boston and the unit secretaries answer the call light within seconds. The nurses and CNA's have individual phones. The appropriate person is rung up and the request made. Efficient, convenient and the job get assigned to the proper person.
I work in town on a busy BMT unit where the secretary doesn't touch the call light and we have a loud overhead intercom system. All shift long you hear, "Amy, phone 6106" repeated at least once. If I were a pt on my unit, I would lose it. We even put a package of guaze over the speakers in the rooms to muffle the sounds. Can't say how many times I'm paged to a pt room for ice, tissues etc. Can't say how many times I'm paged OUT of a room for a ridiculous phone call.
Last pet peeve- I'm busy with a tech in a room. A few nurses sitting in the conference room - in view of pts, visitors, doctors and the call light rings. No one gets off their bums to answer it. Unacceptable, but it's the culture on our unit- sad to say.