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.

We're not allowed mobile phones in work, they have to all go into a locked box in a locked cupboard until lunch or end of shift. If we were caught with a phone we would be sacked. Thankfully in an emergency people could phone the world number and someone would find me.

We also get nails and uniform checks and will get pulled up on it if we aren't wearing the correct uniform or have nail varnish on or hair not tied back.

Are you one of the only hospitals that do not have nurses stations?

Nurses are not allowed their phones on the wards where I work.

If yu have an issue with this you need to speak to a superior to ensure switchboard take calls from schools etc seriously.

I think you have a point, if your contract doesn't say you can't have it on your person then there isn't much you can do, but you say it doesn't.

I'm not allowed my phone on my person at work, but I work on a shop floor and if i'm on shift, I'm in one place and usually the one answering the phone so there is no issue with contacting me at work, if i had to, i'd keep my phone in my bra.

you sound sensible and not as if you'd be checking someone's blood pressure in one hand and updating facebook with the other.

I don't think she should be searching you. Decline politely.

Nurses are professionals with huge responsibilities. They shouldn't be treated like naughty children.

There is no 'hygiene' issue. Mobiles are widely used in hospitals (by Drs and others).

Its getting harder and harder to even get through to a person on the switchboard of a large hospital. The idea that they'd track someone down to a ward is laughable.

At the same time, anyone taking personal calls in patient areas should be disciplined.

On the issue of spot searching
She can't search you. Am not even sure if she can request to see the contents of your pockets regarding your property, but if she does have the right, then I am pretty sure you have the right to refuse

She isn't searching you, she is asking you to show you have not got a phone on you.

You should not have a phone on you. Check it in your breaks, like the rest of us who have no access to a mobile at all times do.

But do make an issue of it... so HR can add a new restriction to everyone's contract!

Life continues when your mobile is somewhere else! Honest!

Yes, in my NHS dept, our manager allows them on your person on silent, not to be used in clinical areas/in view of patients. He accepts most of us are parents and sometimes need to be contacted in an emergency. Also, in one particular largely spread site, we have a work mobile for wards to contact ys

What did ppl do before mobiles? Women stayed at home and didn't work. Being contactable enables everyone to work and still deal with family emergencies, as well as communicate to arrange to get kids picked up etc. They enable equality.

Which seems like a reasonable system fabuLouse. Then the boss could deal with anyone who doesn't adhere to the rules, rather than wasting her time treating all the nurses like school kids.

Mobiles haven't been around that long. I'm sure plenty of women worked in a life before mobiles. Yes, in most families one member has to be contactable but it doesn't need to be mum. And the parent that is contacted doesn't necessarily need to be the person that collects if needed, just to be contacted.

I've been contacted and then made other arrangements by phone because I can't leave work.

Ooh I didn't mean to bold that, but I know how to now!!

I'm amazed at how many people seem happy to accept their employer owns them.

Good employers/managers know and accept that sometimes members of staff need to attend to matters outside of work.

Good employers/managers know and accept that sometimes members of staff need to attend to matters outside of work

I agree, I'm happy for staff to receive calls on any of the 3 telephone lines on the ward. I'm happy to take messages and track down staff who are off the ward. What is not acceptable is what I experienced this morning, a nurse receiving a call at a patient's bedside.

What did we all do before mobile phones? Some areas of hospitals have poor reception. If it's a real emergency someone will get you,

Laughable idea that women did not go out to work before mobiles. I did not get a mobile until I moved to Australia, by which time my child was 10, and I worked full-time in schools since she was 9m old. The switchboard would send someone to find me if needed, and that meant standing in my class if I needed to take such a call.

What were hospitals doing pre-mobiles? Much the same, I imagine.

A call to "switchboard" where I work (NHS) is a central number, covering about 10 hospitals, day units & 1000's of staff. Tracked down by switchboard? Laughable!! I work between about 6 clinical locations, in a wide geographical area.

I keep my mobile phone on silent in my uniform pocket & check it between patients. I am the sole emergency contact as DP often works away during the week. I need to be contactable about my 2 pre-schoolers in nursery.

If my line manager behaved liked OP's, I'd be furious.

Good enough to have patients lives in your hand, but having to turn your pockets out like a child! FFS!!

I'm a single parent, work for the NHS and work off site in schools which also have a no mobile policy. I know its annoying, but its why you have to sign to say schools, childminders can deal with sickness in your absence.

When Dd was little I was often 30 miles away in another county. There's not much you can do about it I'm afraid.

Have to say though I'm glad a senior nurse/manager has the time to be fussing about your nails and what's in your pockets when the rest of the NHS is rushed off their feet

As cheese says mobiles do exist now and lots other technology and systems have changed since their existence.

Yes staff should behave responsibly and there are some jobs where it is not possible to be contactable all the time but it doesn't mean we should artificially make people uncontactable or make it like 'the old days' because we just had to cope without back then.

"What did ppl do before mobiles? Women stayed at home and didn't work."
That has to be one of the funniest things I've read on here in a long time. Mobile phones haven't been around that long, and when they first started to appear in public they were the size of a house brick. So no, what happened before mobiles? Women went to work and dealt with it - as did men.

Women did not stay at home and not work before mobile phones were in general use. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if MN is part of the real world.

Could it be a safe guarding issue?
Lots of places working with the vulnerable have a safe guarding policy. In this usually mentions mobile phones and is a separate thing to the uniform one.

Have you expressed your concerns to her? Perhaps she has worked somewhere previously where people were taking the p messing on phones and just needs assuring this is not the case and an explanation of why you feel you need it. If this causes bother then go above her head. Failing that it would be in my bra, done that many a sneaky time!