Should we be able to use mobile phone on wards?

Posted by:

9 July, 2012

It may seem an obvious question - of course you shouldn’t allow nurses and students access to their mobile phones while working. This could lead to an irresistible temptation to message your friends or check your social networks.

However, as a dyslexic student, I theoretically have the right to use my mobile phone on the ward to make notes, check details and to use my calculator.

I have to confess that I haven’t used this privilege much, if at all. The reason is simple, I am too afraid of the stigma that surrounds using a phone at work.

On the rare occasion that I have used my phone to check a fact, I was promptly told that using phones was not allowed. When I had explained my situation I was still aware of the other nurses’ gazes.

I’m not sure what the answer is and I honestly have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand I can fully understand the view of many staff and patients. The sight of a nurse fiddling about on a mobile phone does give an air of unprofessionalism even if the reason why that nurse was on the phone was totally legitimate - to check a fact, to use a calculator, to namecheck a condition or a drug.

Do you think that if we could get rid of some of the stigma attached to using a phone, nursing could become more safe and productive?

A nurses is more likely to have a phone in their pocket than a calculator, so would that mean we would have less drug calculation errors if the nurse could feel comfortable just checking on their phone?

Now that phones are becoming increasingly more sophisticated could it be that they could become an indispensable tool for the modern nurse or just another distraction in an already hectic environment?

I would love to hear what people think.

Readers' comments (26)

redpaddys12 | 12-Jul-2012 8:55 am
What's wrong with using a piece of paper and your brain to work out a drug calculation? You aren't working out pi to 100 decimal places or Fermat's last theorem
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Anonymous | 12-Jul-2012 8:56 am
I think somesort of compramise would be useful.
As so many people have mentioned how useful the apps are, but there are concerns around the use of Facebook, texting & cameras, couldn't a mobile devise be allowed where ONLY the useful apps were available for use? No access to text messaging, social networking sites etc.
It would be a little more money to put up site blockers, IT staff etc, but isn't that a fair price to pay for an even better performance by staff on ward?
If the nurses/doctors wish to use it, they can perhaps buy their own? or a deal could be arranged between suppliers & hospital where the staff who want a device would pay part of the cost?
I can never see it happening though.

In reality though, as Anonymous | 11-Jul-2012 2:16 pm says, some sort of trail would be useful to see if the use of mobile devices would actually be of benifit or hindarance.
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Anonymous | 12-Jul-2012 10:48 pm
redpaddys12, I don't use my phone to make drug calculations, I use the best computer in the world that is resident between my ears. Someone mocked me having the reus council app on my phone, of course I don't use it during arrests, that was a facetious remark to make; but it is useful as an aide-memoire for paediatric drugs, as is the paeds ED app. These applications can only be as useful as the user wants them to be, but to suggest that using a smart phone on the ward is unprofessional is ridiculous, they are tools that we can use. What is the difference between dragging a paper copy of the BNF, which is an infection risk is it not, and having the same information on a phone or tablet? our ambulance service are using hand held computers to hold patient data on instead of paper PRFs. Some EDs have abolished paper records and have gone completely computerised. I/V drug policies are held on Medusa, accessible by desk top computer. Why are smart phones different, especially since the computing power of the average smart phone is many more times more powerful than the computer that directed the Apollo spacecraft. Having instant access to information should be encouraged.
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Anonymous | 13-Jul-2012 3:22 am
I worked in a large (100 trolley space) A&E Department in New Zealand. Within this department mobile phones, accessible though the the main hospital telephone system, were provided by the employer for use by the Senior Nurses and Doctors. This ensured that Senior staff where always contactable for advice or to alert them to serious incoming cases. The phones were also made available to patents/relatives who needed to make urgent calls.

The phone,s were simple devices with no internet capability. The phones remained within the department and were passed over to the on-coming shift. The phone numbers were simple easily remembered and known by all junior staff.

The availability of these phones improved communication and where invaluable in aiding the overall management of a very busy A&E.

Personal mobile phones should never be available to staff on duty within clinical areas.
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Anonymous | 13-Jul-2012 4:11 pm
Personal mobile phones have no place in the clinical arena.
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Toby Ornottoby | 13-Jul-2012 4:26 pm
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