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.

Talk about missing the point
OP isn't asking whether she should be allowed her phone, she's asking whether the ward manager can spot-search staff.

Email your Trust HR and get clarity on this. Usually there'll be a protocol in place - ask to read it (and if all else fails, bung your phone in the back of a cupboard in the sluice and give it a quick glance every hour or two )

Where has OP suggested she wants to take calls while with patients? Complete red herring.

careeristbitchnigel
This is where a simple pager would be the answer.

A pocket search is off, but a phone should be in a locker and nurses should learn how to do drug calculations on a piece of paper or in their heads rather than on a phone. I trained as a nurse, we weren't allowed to use calculators and had to have a maths test. If you put one number into the calculator incorrectly you can overdose your patient.

Haven't rtft so don't know if this has been said or not...

But at my nhs trust there is a policy of no mobile phones in clinical areas because patients have complained that staff are checking their phones instead of concentrating on them, plus also the possibility of breaking confidentiality with most people having camera phones these days....particularly uncomfortable for the patients in clinical areas that involve them wearing very little (just theatre gowns, no underwear etc).

It made enough patients uncomfortable to complain, thus resulting in the policy - so it can't really be argued that it is a minority of staff who are using their phones in front of patients.

I agree with this policy fwiw and wish that patients/relatives would be told to put their bloody camera phones away too....I am sick of seeing pics on fbook for e.g. that people have taken of their new baby or whatever with other patients visible in the background! What about their confidentiality and the possibility of safeguarding issues?!? (E.g being spotted online by stalker ex-partner or not wanting violent ex to know you've had a baby etc)

With regards to spot checks....I think only the police have powers to 'stop and search' but the policy at our hospital states that staff found in possession of a mobile in clinical areas face disciplinary

Am back. Have had my usual refreshing two hour post night shift sleep.

5 hours sleep since Tuesday and I am feeling slightly delirious.

Thanks for all the responses.

I have got an ancient pager so will give dh the number for that and leave my phone at home. Won't be able to use translate on it which is a shame for the patients who don't speak a word of English but there you go. I've had two of those in the last 48 hours and the phone was a god send.

I type in a sentence, they read it in their language. They can type stuff in in their language (shock infection control risk a patient has used my phone) and it tells me it in English. Its not always perfect......someone told me that their niece hurt last night. Their niece wasnt there.....but then by pointing I worked out what did hurt and sorted out analgesia.

The calculator we have on the ward I work on 50% of the time keeps switching itself off. The boss knows, no budget to replace it. No budget for staples either appparantly. Or thermometers. I use a £5 Tesco one which says "for home use only" on the box.

But yes, I'll stop taking my phone to work.

And yes I'd totally agree that other stuff is a much worse infection control risk. I don't use a lanyard but I bet most nurses never wash theirs. The fact I was my blood stained uniform at home at 40degrees because it falls apart and shrinks if I wash it any hotter.

That's interesting LadySibyl. We're specifically told not to do mental calculations even if we feel confident doing them. I also had to do a mental maths drug calculations test in training with a pass rate of 100%. I can happily do long division without a calculator.

I could do it without a calculator, probably not now though (it's been a while). The nurses on the ward used calculators and their figures were all double checked by someone else, but we were told not to by the uni.

Yes, we have two people do the calculations separately of each other and then see if they're the same answer. I think it would be n likely both would press the same wrong key.

Decimal points are always a concern, but that could happen mentally as well and if you're familiar with the drugs you're giving you'd know if you'd x10 the usual dose.

Absolutely. It's happened a few times in the trust That's why everything's double checked by someone else now.

I think she sounds like a frustrated sergeant major. Or ex-head of some ghastly boarding school from the 1930s.

Ask HR?

Well, I am pleased that phones are being banned (don't agree with being searched though)! OP, you may well be above reproach when carrying/ using your mobile at work, but not everyone is and I guess measures have to be in place for everyone.
At my last post cancer treatment consultation I was trying to tell the Oncologists locum and accompanying nurse something very personal and important to me. The locum was reading her mobile during the whole consultation, never made eye contact with me once and obviously had not been listening properly to what I was trying to say. I gradually dried up as I realised that she was not listening and with a breezy 'excellent, see you in 3 months' she left.
The door was left open and I could see her at the nurses station handing around her mobile and everyone having a giggle at what was on it.
I on the other hand, cried all the way to the car and have never been brave enough to broach the subject again.

If you need to move around the hospital, is there not a safe place (locked drawer at the nurses station, for example) that a mobile could be left?

Oh no, Tooold You can speak to PALS about this < for you. Not all NHS staff are this rude x

That is awful tooold !!!!! Agree you should contact PALS....no matter how long ago this was. Unfortunately that Dr sounds like a t**t and would probably behave in some other appallingly unprofessional way even without a phone present....so a 'feedback comment' (doesn't have to be a 'complaint' if you don't feel comfortable with that) to be passed onto the Dr in question would do them some good to stop and reflect on their behaviour!!!

TooOld, that's awful. I would tell anyone off, including a dr if I saw someone do that.

This crack down is only for nursing staff. So where I work Drs will still be able to use their phones.

I've honestly never seen anyone check their phone in a patient area. Never.

I must say I can appreciate why your boss is keen to stop the use of mobile phones if it is against hospital policy. People managed without mobiles for a very long time. But you should raise the fact that you need a number at work where you can be contacted. There must be some rules which your boss is trying to enforce. Hospitals are bad enough without half the staff texting away on mobiles. Not suggesting you'd do this.

LadySybil and Abso thanks

I was too worn down at the time to take it any further and too emotional.

I totally agree that not all NHS staff are like this - had some super ones during treatment, so can't really moan. I think this just sticks in my mind because I am a very private person and it took a lot for me to try and ask for help that day. I never did get the help I needed - but that is my fault, not theirs!

I think many of the posters haven't worked in a hospital or for the NHS. The switchboard at the trust I worked at as a miwife wouldn't have known where individual members of staff are. It doesn't work that way, only wards and managers etc have direct lines.

You will be moved about or moving about and its virtually impossible to find a member of staff when a call comes through. So I fully understand the op's concerns. I only found out my son was in a&e with a split head after my sister came to the wards looking for me. my mum was with him in a&e, they had rung my ward and was told I wasn't in work! I was but I had been moved from post natal to delivery suite to cover shortages. I would not have been able to leave immediately as was wih several labouring women, but would have at least known he was in safe hands.

Often there aren't enough lockers or lockers don't actually have keys in them, and told not to leave valuables. I used to take a £5 note tucked in my bra just in case I ever got a break.

I left and found an alternative career as unfortunately midwifery at the trust I worked in was the least flexible, most understaffed and least caring ever.

tooold- its of no consolation to you, but that's precisely what used to happen at the trust I worked in midwives and nurses and care assistants following the rules with no mobiles etc but the dr's consultants tc constantly playing on phones and texting, not for work use either as they had beepers for work contact.

HelpMe, any suggestions for an alternative career? I keep looking at jobs section of local paper in desperation.

Scary, it sounds like a power play really. She's brought in a no mobiles rule. OK. So she can ask you if you have your mobile with you. Fine. But coming up to you and asking you to empty your pockets to show whether or not you have it comes across all wrong.

I am not especially tolerant of mobile phone use, but if I were on a ward and saw a nurse being made to do that I would think it was humiliating and no way to treat an adult. Unless there has been some horrendous problem that requires a sudden zero tolerance policy, what your boss is doing is quite odd.

I work within the nhs. Not as a doctor or nurse but a bit lower down the chain. We are not allowed our mobiles on us when working.

I thought it was more to do with confidentiality. I was at a hospital visiting the other week and was told that I wasn't allowed to use my phone in a ward because of confidential reasons as there were other patients around.

Why is using a shared calculator on the ward better for germ control than using a phone? presumably infection can be spread via people with un washed hands pressing the buttons- this will be worse on a shared calculator than a personal phone? I'm all for rules where they are necessary but this seems inconsistent.

Check with your union? Seems reasonable for medical staff not to have mobiles on them for the same reason nursery staff aren't allowed them nor teachers. They have access to vulnerable people who they could photograph in inappropriate circumstances.

Your manager could definitely handle this better by being clear about rules and expectations rather than searching you. Our contracts have right of search in and we don't work with vulnerable people, it is quite normal.

Your boss sounds as though she takes her job very seriously. I am impressed by her. It takes a lot of courage to be in charge of people and have very high standards. She is accountable for the actions of all of her team and she is doing her best to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible. If I was on her ward as a patient I would be pleased.