Student nurse using phone during procedure

[MikeRafone]

On a children’s ward

curtains closed and nurses is taken blood from child, student nurse is standing behind nurse but further down the bed. Student gets phone out and not sure what she is doing - she then sees me looking and quickly puts it away. The phone being out was certainly not to do with the patient

im comforting child during the blood being taken

are nurses allowed phones out whilst working and working around children?

not sure m if there are rules,

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.

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

This

Former nurse here, definitely report.

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.

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.

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.

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. 🙄

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.

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.

I've had this at work today!!! It's not a phone its a handheld tablet to record results or care needs😕

Completely unacceptable for several reasons.

Privacy of patients, distraction from duties plus ALL mobile phones are filthy and dirty and well known for carrying bacteria and the risk of cross contamination is huge.

Report her.

Absolutely agree

Nurses use phones on wards for medical reasons all the time.

The fact she entered or looked at something and quickly out the phone away does not prove she was in the wrong.

No. They do not do this "all the time" although under some very exceptional circumstances they might occasionally, and this is not one of those circumstances.

You are wrong. No further discussion needed.

I’m sure they’d all love to be given a specific work phone in order to help them do their jobs but instead we have to use our own phones for stuff like calculations, Google translate. Students have their epads (placement documentation) on their phones so she could have been looking up a proficiency on it though I agree she shouldn’t have done it at the bedside.

the only thing the hospital provide are special iPhones and iPads which have all functionality removed and special observation software installed. So all patient obs are inputted on these. We have posters up around the ward saying “I’m not on my phone, I’m inputting clinical observations “ as they look just like an iPhone. In our department all notes are now electronic so are inputted either via an iPad or computer. Maybe some places have their ward iPhones also set up for notes as well as observations?

What, apart from the dozens of times per shift I use a ward phone to input patient observations? The software also has different coloured clocks for patients on so she could potentially have been having a quick check to see if observations were due /over due.

ultimately the OP doesn’t know, the thing to do would have been to mention it at the time. Then she could either have been reassured it was legitimate or the students supervisor could have talked to the student about not using her phone for none work reasons at a bedside.

@BoysNameHelpno one gets a locker on my ward! We haven’t got an office or staff room either!

You’re wrong there. To give medication, take bloods, take a swab, do bp and obs I need my work phone as you scan the patient’s qr code and then you can give whatever medication you need. I can’t do my job without an iPhone. It’s a work issued iPhone but it’s still a phone!!

It's funny - there was another thread recently where the strong majority view was that it was unreasonable for a manager to pull a subordinate up for being on their personal phone in a meeting. The consensus was very much that in this day and age it's unreasonable to totally separate work and home life, everybody does it, there should have been more trust, what if it was their kid's school trying to get in touch, and 'if my manager did that I'd walk out and get another job'. Yet here the consensus is totally the other way and I don't really see why. Yes if the nurse whipped out her mobile to start playing online slots at a critical juncture of an operation then fair enough, a bollocking is due. But given we don't know why they were looking at their phone and they weren't doing anything of earth-shattering importance, I'd let it slide - to deliberately get them in trouble just seems mean.

I think there's a few HCPs on this thread who last worked with paper records, or laptop computers on trolleys that they dragged around the wards. It's clear things are changing and smartphones are becoming the new normal.

I have type 1 diabetes and need to check my phone to see my blood sugar numbers - so could just have been something like this?

With this “you are wrong” approach l hope you never serve on a jury.

Beyond the issue that she looked at her phone briefly and put it away again nothing more appears to be known for certain. The wider issue is what harm was caused by this action?

and that is why I said - I don't know what she was doing on the phone, she put it away swiftly when she realised I had looked over, SN was stood behind the nurse doing the procedure and the nurse couldn't see the student nurse as she had her back to her and was concentrating on what she was doing.

Ive been in and out of the hospital to visit this child approximately every other day for around 5/6 hours each day, observed nurses taking photos of the injuries for medical purposes, using their phones for medical reasons, every other time the nurse with the phone has explained what they are doing.

The wider issue is what harm was caused by this action?

apart form making me feel uncomfortable - nothing, as far as I know. I don't know though what the phone was being used for, so I can't know.

This comment made me chuckle.
The answer to that is probably they change in a toilet and hangs their stuff behind a door somewhere. If lucky enough there may be locked staff room / locker to leave belongings in but its not a given considering the limited space issues for staff most hospitals have.