Student nurse using phone during procedure

Again, I did not say that phones shouldn't be used on a ward. But in the circumstances described the student was clearly aware she was in the wrong by hastily putting it away when seen.
Further, if its made the parent uncomfortable enough to post on here then that's certainly a potential conduct issue.

It warrants further investigation and the OP shouldn't be made to feel she's being awkward raising it.

Anyway that's my opinion. Im off to bed.

So how are they to record notes on apps etc. when treating the child if they can't have phones anywhere near children?

Students are learning too and also need to learn to use phones in this way. Again, how will that happen if they can't have phones near children.

She wasn't shoving it in the child's face and showing them porn. We can't know exactly what she was doing, but there is a good chance it was legitimate. In the absence of information to the contrary, I wouldn't report.

If you are the age you claim to be I'd be very surprised if you hadn't come across this use of phones in medical settings. They are not simply phones, but actually pretty powerful computers and useful tools.

Bollocks back to you. Feel free to look through old posts and Im in my 40s.

I didnt say phones can't be used on a ward. I said a student shouldn't be on hers next to a child having a treatment and in full view of the parent. You dont know if she's live streaming ffs. There's definitely a potential safeguarding case to answer. I guess you think a code of conduct is there for shits n giggles. 🙄

Was just going to say that maybe it could have been related to something medical? I have type 1 diabetes and my blood sugar sensor is connected to an app on my phone. The only way to know what my blood sugar is would be to look at my phone. So in any job I do, not being allowed to use my phone when I need to would not be an option.

She may have been taking notes or checking something about the next patient. How can you be certain that she is not using her phone for official reasons to do with nursing? Phones are used for so much now.

Bollocks. Phones are often used for work these days, and very much so in medical and care related services.

I somehow doubt you have been a nurse or other healthcare professional anytime recently. If you have been retired for long then that may have been when phones were still more or less banned in hospitals and other medical establishments. Now they are encouraged and are necessary, with apps for many functions. My local hospital also communicates a lot with patients via an app - issuing appointments, posting test results, consultation notes and copies of letters back to other departments or the GP.

So no. Don't report or complain unless you know with absolute certainty what the device was being used for. That would just be being a sanctimonious troublemaker.

This

Former nurse here, definitely report.

Maybe the public could broaden their horizons and use the intelligent part of their brain and realise not everything is as they may think

The fact there are signs that have to be put up because of the public and thei narrow thinking is a worry when some of those public are responsible for raising children

You don't know that it wasn't a work phone, or that she wasn't taking work related notes via her phone even if it was her personal one.

My mother's carers use their phones to link to their office systems and record her answers to their questions. Their bookings and rotas are also on their phones. When my Dad was alive he was once going to phone their office and complain that they were playing on their phones. I stopped him because that simply wasn't what was happening. It was note taking and documenting. My Dad knew next to nothing about tech and mobile phones and was just going to stir up trouble for no reason. Thankfully he did listen on that occasion, although somewhat reluctantly.

The district nurses too also use phones for note taking when they visit my mother.

You really don't know what this was about so people being all sanctimonious about it should bear that in mind when spouting forth.

As for saying that a nurse shouldn't have her phone anywhere near children and that it is a safeguarding concern, parents have their phones near their children most of the time. The children don't spontaneously combust.

I'm sure that if she is doing it repeatedly it will get picked up on and dealt with. It's not something I would go out of my way to complain about unless the moment had presented itself (and it was my child).

I have seen anaesthetists playing Candy Crush

In our Trust iphones are used to view and record just about every aspect of patient care from viewing drug charts to photographing wounds ...

I was in hospital for a couple of weeks recently. Every single nurse had a mobile phone which they used to log procedures, scan my patient wristband, note down my temperature, blood pressure etc and even once to photograph something to show the doctor. Are you sure that wasn’t what the nurse was doing?

There were actually posters in the wards telling patients that nurses had phones for this reason and that we should expect to see all the staff using smart phones for this purpose on the ward, so I guess a lot of people had misunderstood and complained in the past.

I’m a very experienced (13 years in ICU) phones can be useful. Checking the BNF, drug monograph for infusion instructions, nice guidelines, using calculator to double check drug calculations, we have an app made by one of our consultants that has all our unit guidelines and policies on it, obviously we get approval to access it and it isn’t accessible to the public. Of course we can do this on a computer, but it’s the NHS, finding an available computer which has been updated in the past year isn’t always easy! I wouldn’t assume she was scrolling TikTok. in 2025 phones can be very useful clinical tools!

although in saying that I understand how it looks to see a nurse standing looking at her phone, public perception is important. I always make sure I let the patient and/or family that I’m using it for a clinical reason.

Having a 20 min conversation about what they did Saturday no shouldn't be allowed briefly using a phone no issue

When I had my c-section at least 2 of the people in the room had their phones out. One of them had been on a nice sounding holiday to Italy.

I really dislike and disagree with HCPs being on their personal phones during their shifts. I trained 2017-2020 and managed to count resps etc using a fob watch, survive without my phone for calculations (we had a calculator for use if needed or on the desktops). I don't see why that isn't possible now. Apps for vital observations aren't on people's personal phones, so if it was a ward-issued phone that's one thing... most of the phones appearing with multicoloured covers, charms etc clearly aren't.

I have a severely disabled son and needed to be contactable at all times during placement shifts so I gave the ward number to the office staff and changed it with school/respite care every time the ward changed. Yes a pain but necessary to be professional and also contactable for my son. I did check my phone regularly on breaks and it was kindly understood on bad days I might need to pop to the changing rooms more regularly simply to check I hadn't missed a call (took 30 seconds, if that), but I didn't need my phone on me at all times. There were paperback copies of the BNF at the nursing station and I did check them regularly.

I have relatives in psychiatric, stroke rehab and nursing home care presently and hate how much phone use I see. It used to be the case it wouldn't be acceptable but it's creeping in more and more and you're a monster now for expecting HCPs (and students etc) not to be on their personal phones on shift. I would hate to be a patient with staff around me on their personal phones. Particularly with my son and my relative who is in psychiatric care I feel it's a breach of their privacy and their dignity and a huge potential safeguarding/confidentiality issue. I wouldn't have dreamed of assuming it was ok to use my phone during work but then many nurses do it now so the students are just following their example.

Just the way I feel, I know MANY others think my way of thinking is wrong or old-fashioned.

I did tell a student off for taking a picture of a medication that was on a bedside locker. It was completely inappropriate and I couldn’t believe she would be quite so stupid to do it!

Exactly. DH is a paramedic and the Trust go halves on his phone contract so he can take photos, make work calls, phone families, alert hospital etc. it's cheaper than buying him a separate work phone.

I think we've established that nurses or students are likely to be using phones for any number of clinical reasons.
I know I use mine tons. The stopwatch, calculator, checking on drugs or conditions. I will also use the camera for batch numbers or complicated instructions I might to keep track of.
Even the checks on our arrest trolley are now done via QR code on our phones. A phone has become a necessary tool for most nurses.

I’m not a nurse - I’m an ahp. The nurses in my trust are glued to their phones - all the patient stuff and hospital apps for prescribing, results etc are in them but that’s only been the case for about a year - before that only some things were on them. I only have access to electronic notes on a desktop/laptop but I use my phone a lot. Despite being MSc educated and having 15 years experience in my profession every day is a school day and we google things LOADS. We also have our emails on our phones, our WhatsApp groups which we use during work for work, our stopwatch and calculator and rota, all our passwords and notes. We might not need to use those things constantly but we certainly do use them during the working day. I’m in a team of 23 with 3 computers. We need our phones. If she was playing candy crush while one handedly cannulating then I’d say something at the time but it’s sneaky to complain later when you don’t even know what she was doing. I doubt she has a locker. I doubt even more that if it’s a persistent problem then nobody has clocked it and she won’t be told. I’ve had students who’ve used their phone inappropriately and they’ve had their arses handed to them in private.

It may not be the case at all, but I'm T1 diabetic and my phone runs my insulin pump and sensor. I work with patients and have to check my phone because of my diabetes, but I'd always say why I'm doing it and it often starts a conversation. I wouldn't do it during a procedure though!

Just seen she didn’t change her gloves - she should have after washing her hands.

Hons - phlebotomists use gloves to protect themselves from blood borne diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C, not to protect patients . They also don’t swab anymore.

You have zero information it could be work related or she could be waiting in her gp calling or news from a family emergency. I have a non phone job but there is times I use it for work or need it for emergencies. I've never used it for social media or games and it's highly likely she wasn't either.