To tell my boss she can't look through my pockets?

[ScaryBoss]

I'm a nurse in the nhs.

New boss is randomly stopping people and demanding to see their nails to make sure they're clean and not too long. Checking earrings, socks, etc conform to uniform policy. I can kind of cope with this though do slightly resent it.

But also asking you to empty your pockets to make sure you don't have a mobile phone in your pocket? Can she do this? A police officer couldn't without a warrent?

There's nothing in the uniform policy saying you can't have your phone in your pocket. Obv taking it out and answering calls or texting would be very unprofessional. However a lot of staff have their phone in their pocket on silent incase a school or childminder need to contact us. So we'd feel it vibrate and go and check it when possible after doing what we're doing.

We can't give a ward/land line number to schools, etc as we are often moved to different wards without notice so don't know where we are from one day to another.

Can't you request a pager?

If my boss is bothered aout staff using phones for drug calculations or translations they could buy the ward a calculator which works and a phone which you can take to a bedside so we can use the proper translation service.

No use having a phone based translation service when your only phones are wired to the desk and the patient is bed bound.

Have your husband as the main emergency contact and he SN get a message to you in an emergency. You can check your phone during your breaks or get a cheapie phone and leave it at the nurses station so you can have a quick glance when at the station. Only give that number to school for emergencies and your husband. If you can't leave a phone at the nurses station then buy a cheapy phone and put it in your bra but ensure it is only rung in emergency situations.
Also wondering how parents coped before the invention of mobile phones......or even before the masses had landlines.

You say in your last post that sometimes you would only check your phone an hour after it went off. So its not really about emergencies is it? If your child needs picked up from school your dh can do it or other contact. If its an actual emergency then you will be found. Probably alot quicker than the hour you take to look at your phone!

So that's the hospitals problem, not yours. Or take in a cheap calculator, they cost buttons.

Google translate will be to help the op explain things to patients or their relatives when either English isn't their first language or they don't speak it at all. Hospitals don't deal souly with people who can understand English.

Come and be a nurse in NZ :)

Not being able to carry a mobile is ridiculous in this day and age. We don't even have hospital bleeps any more - all the docs (me included) carry a cellphone. All the nurses have their phones on them in their uniform pockets!

In the days before mobiles (which I do remember), getting hold of someone in an emergency was bloody difficult! The system op is describing sounds chaotic with regard to working patterns.

No idea if your boss is allowed to search your pockets or not but good grief. Some professions I know personal phones are handed in at the door on arrival but nursing isn't one of them.

People who ask 'How did we manage before mobiles?' the answer is that there wasn't an expectation that people would be as immediately contactable as they expect you to be now.
In the old days not everyone even had a landline so the school had a sickroom where they put the sick child till the end of the day (I remember spending an entire day in one with a migraine) but now they just assume you'll all have mobiles and be able to come right away.
Obviously it's better for the kid, but it's tricky if you're in OP's situation.

Your boss sounds like she means well but is trampling her staff's goodwill in the process.

I don't think she can "force" a search. Just like she can't restrain you or stop you leaving or any of those basic things. A polite "please don't touch me" etc would stop it. I think police have "stop and search" rights but bosses don't!

That said the real issue is if you are breaking a rule by having a phone and what alternatives you have.

One of the Drs heard us moaning at work about this and laughed. They all have phones. He pointed out he has a bnf app on his so uses it to look up drug dosages, etc. all the Drs have them on them.

This is an interesting thread because having worked in several department stores it's standard practice to do regular searches - including turning pockets inside out, removing shoes and going through bags on leaving (incase someone is stealing something).

I can see the point about your phone though. I've always sneaked my phone in on silent in jobs too. Sometimes I'd hide it down my bra!

The doctors might be allowed them but your boss doesn't allow them on the ward. And sneaking a phone in isn't going to work if she will see you using it for google translate and calculation surely?

Tatty, I think you're right that everyone is annoyed as she's getting people's backs up. Not just about the phone issue. Other working conditions, etc. people are also hacked off with been treated like a 12 yo and having their nails inspected. It annoyed me and I have nothing to hide with my nails.

She only comes onto the ward to do spot inspections. The rest of the time she's in the office. So the chances of her catching me in the treatment room using my phone as a calculator or at a bedside using it as a translator are slim.

I'd hear her high heels coming down the ward at 50 paces anyway.

Oh and those are non uniform regulation high heels by the way.

And why is using your phone in front of patients unprofessional?

If mine rings, I politely excuse myself, answer it - if it's an emergency I apologise to the patient (while running down the corridor) and if not I explain that I'm with a patient and can I call back in 5. If it's vital I am not disturbed I leave it with someone else.

If it's not specifically banned in your contract, carry it.

I don't think your boss can search you. She can certainly ask you to disclose what you have on you, and your refusal to tell or show her could then be a disciplinary matter (depending on circs-I'm not sure that, without an express contractual provision, you could be required to submit to routine on spec searches), but she certainly can't search you herself.

Anyway will have a think about it all. Am off to bed now. Thanks.

Sorry but I think YABU. Have also been treated by some fairly grubby nurses in the NHS and it's pretty disgusting for the patients. I also read that mobile phones have 18 times more bacteria than a public toilet, so unless you are scrubbing your hands after each time you use it, the best place for it is nowhere near you or your patients!

I think the difference in the treatment of doctors is unfair though - although I suppose they are less "hands on" with patients. They should of course provide the equipment you need to do the job properly, but the emergency contact for your kids is not your employer's problem. Infection control is!

I can't remember the last time we had a working calculator on our ward, we all use our phones. Docs use their phones for all sorts, there's some good resus apps, BNF etc.

I've never been searched btw.

And two weeks ago the phones went down on the wards for hours and we were asked if we'd mind using our personal mobiles for ward to ward contact.

And now this.

I know what I'll say the next time the phones go,down.

Actually, I often use my phone in front of patients. I use the formulary, calculator, medical apps that help explain particular things, I show them pics of my children (and get to see pics of their families on theirs - one chap showed me his dolphin videos from work the day before he was admitted!), I use fruit ninja with kids to calm them down preop - it's massively beneficial. It's part of treating patients like human beings and equal and being human myself.

Plus people can call me on it :)

I take your point about google translate. That is useful.