Surely this can't be best practice on a ward?

[The13thFairy]

I'm wondering if any nurses can help me here. I visited my DSis in a private ward in hospital yesterday. She couldn't find the remote control for the TV so I went to investigate. A nurse told me the remote wasn't lost; a nurse has taken it while my DSis was asleep, in order to give it to someone else. It transpired that there is only one tv remote on the entire ward, If someone wants to use it, they must call a nurse, who will get it from whoever has it and bring it to them. Apparently it is 'sanitised' between patients. Can this be best practise ~ and best use of the nurses' time?

Unfortunately this is the reality in a lot of wards. We had a patient buy remotes for all the beds in the ward as a gift due to him encountering the same issue but 6 months later we only had 4 remaining. We can only assume they get wrapped up in the sheets or go into patients bags by mistake or from confused patients taking them. It’s a pain but the only other option would be to tether them to something which also isn’t practical.

Where I work, the remotes for the TVs are always going missing. And no, it's not the best use of our time to be searching for a missing remote, but needs must.

It's really not ideal. But I was told when I was in hospital visiting a relative that they all get lost and stolen. The TVs weren't even being used there. Could your Dsis not have an ipad with something like Netflix on?

Of course it’s not a good use of the nurses’ time but the remotes get lost or stolen and the hospital won’t pay to keep replacing them because they’re tight and/or have better things to spend their money on. This also happens with essential equipment like blood pressure machines and monitors, imagine how the nurses feel about having to scrounge around for those.,

It’s definitely not good use of time, and yes if not sanitised a source of infection. But, who pays to replace the remotes when they inevitably get lost?

We no longer have televisions on our ward. If you don’t have access to tablets/phones it’s pretty boring.

TBH, remotes are the least of our problems these days.

Everything is like this because there is no money and people steal things.

Why can't they be tethered?

Because suicidal and confused people strangle themselves with things

Our local hospital no longer has televisions on the wards so missing remotes are no longer a worry!

At my local hospital the remote is attached to the tv

Like this. remote to right phone to the left and if you open the remote its keyboard for internet , all attached to tv. This is nhs

You can download apps on your phone that work as a remote.

Like phone chargers or drip lines and all the other cables and wires you'll find around a hospital bed

If this is on a private ward I find it odd to say the least as patients are paying for the additional facilities and that should include remotes for the tv’s. On an NHS ward you’re lucky to have a tv that works at the bedside.

When I’ve been in hospital in the last 10 years I’ve always made sure to have my iPad and some way of connecting it to internet (phone or wifi access) and used that with headphones as there’s no tvs on wards I’ve been on!

Just so!

I got her one of her own, which has her name on it. She'll leave it behind when she goes home.