NR 361 Week 7 Discussion: Use of Personal Communication Devices in Patient Care Settings (graded)
Week 7 Discussion Post:
Nurses using their cell phone at work can both positively and negatively affect patient care. A nurse using their cell phone for personal reasons can be a distraction, therefore leading to delay in patient care. On the other hand, I have used my cell phone for work-related reasons and it has positively affected patient care. Many of times as an ER nurse have I done home medication histories from patients using their pills in unmarked containers (such as a pill organizer). I have an app on my cell phone from “Drugs.com” that has a helpful function called “Pill Identifier”.
The ethical and legal implications of the use of personal devices are all centered around preserving patient confidentiality. The debate is, can a nurse use their personal device without interfering with patient confidentiality. I do believe that if a nurse violates a patient’s rights, they should face legal repercussions.
The article, Calling on smartphones to enhance patient care, states that the greatest benefit of nurses using their personal devices at work was improved communication by members of the healthcare team (VanDusen, 2017). At my hospital, we use an Android mobile device as our work phone. We are able to send physicians text messages of the situation or the patient’s needs, and they call us and give us verbal orders. I believe our messages are being conveyed more efficiently since the physician can read our message and call to clarify and give orders.
Reference
VanDusen, Krista A. BSN, RN Calling on smartphones to enhance patient care, Nursing: November 2017 – Volume 47 – Issue 11 – p 1-2 doi: 10.1097/01.NURSE.0000525993.44109.f9
Hello Professor Graham and Classmates,
The use of personal communication devices can impact the nursing practice in positive and negative ways. Distraction can be a negative impact of nurse’s personal communication device. When a nurse is distracted it can cause errors and mistakes. Distractions also decrease the quality of care that a nurse gives the patients. On the positive side nurse’s personal communication devices can help get important patient information to the correct people in a timely manner and it is an easy way to look up something you are not familiar with quickly. Using the device in this matter will improve quality care and decrease delays in treatment. “Bedside technologies continue to grow; they interface with smart phones and other devices to improve communication and, ultimately, patient care” (Hebda, Hunter, & Czar, 2019 p.218).
The patient is the nurse’s first prior. The use of personal devices can cause challenges ethically and legally. “These challenges are personal (distraction), negative patient perception (interference), and potential delays (disruption) in providing care” (Conant, et al., 2020). We as nurses have ethical guidelines that we are supposed to follow. One of the nursing ethical guiding principles is “nonmaleficence: the obligation for doing no intentional harm” (Hebda, Hunter, & Czar, 2019). If the nurse was distracted by a personal communication device and the patient experiences a negative outcome, the nurse did not follow ethical guidelines which may result in legal consequences.
There are several generations of nurses. Older nurses tend to not need to use personal communication devices as much as younger nurses. Nurses have personal communication devices at work is now normal. There is a time and a place for everything. Nurses have a life outside of work should still have access to it while at work but not allow it to cause a distraction. It is important that all nurses be mindful of their agency policy in reference to these devices. “ Policies concerning the use of personal communication devices need to provide the ability for the nurse to remain connected to his/her personal life yet not inhibit the provision of care” (Conant, et al., 2020). If these devices are being used it important to have clear and concise guidelines to follow to ensure patient’s safety as well as the patient’s rights.
References
Conant, J., Elmore, R., Moore, A., Blake, S., Peacock, A., & Ward-Smith, P. (2020). Use of Personal Communication Devices in Clinical Settings. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 50(4), 192-197. doi:10.1097/nna.0000000000000867 https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=142534847&site=eds-live&scope=siteLinks to an external site.
Hebda, T., Hunter, K., & Czar, P. (2019). Handbook of informatics for nurses & healthcare professionals (6th ed.). Pearson.
You provided good information in your post. My only concern is the work-home life balance and utilization of personal devicesduring work hours. My experience with fellow employees has been the personal device does take precedence. Shift report the personel device is pulled out to speak to fellow employees with home life and placing the patient care second and is not our position to care for the patient? Policy within the organization tells employees to keep cell phone in lockers and may be utilized on breaks. This does not happen. I will admit to pulling my cell phone to show family pictures but i do try to complete this during downtimes. As presented by Gill et al, (2012), logo labeled organizational provided devices have preinstalled job-specific functions and apps work better than personal devices. The organizational device would have all the security hardware, blocks websites with low security and regulates the use of apps, keeping the safety of patient information. This would minimize the distractions that occur with own personal devices.
Reference: Gill, P. S., Kamath, A., & Gill, T. S. (2012). Distraction: an assessment of smartphone usage in health care work settings. Risk management and healthcare policy, 5, 105–114. https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S34813, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3437811/Links to an external site.