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"?
The facility I work at also keeps track of how long a call light is on. We have had pts state that their call light was on for 30 min. and nobody answered it. Well, in the main offices we have the technology to produce a printout of how long that call light was really on.
Oh, this has happened where I work. A patient will have their own telephone, they will call the facility telephone number, ask for the sv, or the nurses desk on their floor to let them know that their call light has not been answered fast enough.
I love my job as a CNA. I work for an agency so I have been to many different Nursing Home facilities from very nice to not so nice. For some reason RNs and LPNs in these facilities don't think its their job to answere callbells. Now I know the LPN is busy passing out meds and the RN is busy:zzzzz , but the light could be on right in front of their faces and they still will not budge! The CNAs are there to do this, but sometimes (most of the time) we are very busy. My thought as I go around the med cart to get through the door of the blinking light is "what if" what if this resident is hurt...what if this resident died while waiting for help...what if this resident is on the floor....what if you are held accountable.....how will you explain this in your incident report.....The CNA didn't get to the bell on time and "its not my job". :banghead:PATIENT CARE IS EVERYBODYS RESPONSIBILITY!!!!!!!:heartbeat:heartbeat:heartbeat:heartbeat:nurse::heartbeat:heartbeat:heartbeat
Specializes in cardiac, psychiatric emergency, rehab.
well said!
It always helps when hospitals staff sufficiently. Hospitals are not for me. They are just too dangerous and not truly set up to walk the talk of patient safety! My observation is that the blame game is constantly played and they never truly evaluated their systems. The nurse, the CNA, the janitor.. gosh i'ts got to be SOMEBODY'S FAULT AFTER ALL. It is never the fault of the system.. just who they can blame.
Very hard to walk into that environment after working independenty with a history of running a facility. I think if they really sat back and took a look at how things are done with an objective eye, they may realize that it's not the staff but the number of staff and how much responsibility can one human really handle and do well.
I hope that PA makes strides in passing legislation on ratios as well as addressing acuity! Maybe someone will have to be hired just to sit and ANSWER those call bells!!!
I haven't read all of these replies, but in my opinion, the unit coordinator is way too busy to answer call bells. And in my experience, when pt's call, they don't want the unit coordinator, they want a nurse!
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
I Just want to say THANK YOU VERY Much for this comment. I Do AGREE as i am a ward clerk or "unit clerk" I SERIOUSLY think you people underestimate the amount of workload we have already. It may not be in some hospitals but in ours we are expected to do alot. And Also if we had to run down to the room to help the patient every time who would be sitting at the desk answering the call light! Then we get chewed out for not picking it up! It just funny how people think we don't do anything when really we do much more than you think!!
It's not just you. It's because it is the nursing staff's job.
You may have heard the bell for five minutes, but you have no idea what was going on at the desk. Sometimes the phone does not stop ringing, sometimes STAT orders must be put in, sometimes a difficult visitor or physician is at the desk.
As a former unit clerk, I know I've found myself swamped in charts, the phone won't stop ringing, the physicians keep on rounding and rounding, and where was the nursing staff to help me? A lot of times they were busy as well, but sometimes they weren't...and they didn't always help me during those times. But that's okay. It might have been frustrating, but it wasn't their fault or necessarily their job. It was frustrating to begin with, not because of them.
Now, if a bell was ringing for five entire minutes, I probably would have answered it as a unit clerk...unless I could not, and sometimes one cannot. But that's the exception, not the rule.
I COMPLETELY AGREE thank you for putting it in words so well. I have been sitting there swamped in charts trying to catch up and EVERY nurse sitting around me is watching me type and the call light goes off after the phone rings they just sit there until i get off the phone to answer it. It is pretty much a power trip! i'm sorry to all of you good nurses that would lend a helping hand but there are some that just don't give a damn.
I've done shifts to fill in for the secretary and gone home with a headache every single time. God love em, the place would fall to tinders without the secretaries to shore up the walls.
Specializes in Peds Critical Care, Dialysis, General.
Thank you, BlueHen, for your last response.
Prior to becoming an RN, I worked as a Unit Secretary for 12 years (I was in school part of that time). It was my responsibility to answer the phones, answer the call lights and route the requests/problems appropriately, open the door (locked unit), appropriately handle (tell the RN or get some ice, etc) parents at the desk AND enter all the orders. Quite often, I got floated to our sister units in the Peds division of our hospital and adapt to their routines. I was a top performer and our sister units would generally ask if I was availabe to cover their unit.
Like BlueHen stated, you can't always know what the secretary is dealing with at any given moment. I've been hip deep in STAT orders, phones are crazy, child is coding, parents wanting in, carts scattered across the unit, getting orders yelled from every direction and an irate physician with a non-urgent issue and trying to get all the appropriate people paged for any given situation.
That being said, our unit secretaries are AWESOME. They answer the call lights and route appropriately, or if some of us are sitting at the desk, we'll go check on patient needs. They can all anticipate what we need and get the balls all rolling. They will take care of the needs that they can - directions, where the nourishment room is, etc. We also look out for them - they do get a lot of crap from the families, just as we do, and we always back them up and support them. It's that old thing - I've got your back, you've got mine.
Gayle, Cecelia, Kathy, Christine, Susan, Stephanie, Bridgette, Megan, Kathy, Laneka and Carolyn, they totally ROCK!!!
emnicams
179 Posts
I have never expected my unit secretaries to answer call lights. On my unit, they are already drowning in their own work.