cell phones versus pagers on the wards

[Smurfette]

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I am just curious as to what thoughts are about med students using cell phones as pagers in the hospital.

I'm a med-4, and I've noticed that this year, many of the med-3's are using their cell phones instead of pagers. All med students are assigned a pager ID (for within the hospital's paging system), but it is the student's responsibility to actually obtain the pager and obtain pager service. Some residents use cell phones in the hospital, but from what I have seen, it is rare for them to receive any personal calls on the cell phone--it's usually the senior residents receiving updates from the more junior residents and other work-related stuff. For whatever reason, (some of) the med-3s here seem to think that since the residents carry and answer cell phones, it is ok for them to. Keep in mind that often the med3s receive personal calls and still will answer the phone to say "i'll call you back" despite seeing the caller ID. They'll answer the phone on rounds (when the whole team is present) or whenever it goes off. I personally think this is unprofessional, but I am curious as to what some other people think about this. I personally find it annoying to have to dial outside the hospital to try and page someone, and have to leave a voicemail with my call back number if they are in a location where their phone doesn't work (OR, radiology suite, etc.). ALso, since they don't have a pager, their pager ID as given by the hospital switchboard doesn't work for them, and I may or may not have access to their cell phone number.

Am I being unreasonable in thinking that the med students should carry a pager? At the very least, I think they should be very conservative in cell phone use at the hospital.

😕 smurfette

 

[Mumpu]

Cell phones in the ICU. Hmm....

Yes, it is egotistical and unprofessional and generally *****ed.

 

[carol ann]

Wow - that would not go over to well at my school! I've personally seen 1 person getting chewed out for trying to use a cell phone instead of a pager given the whole telemetry thing...now, granted, digital phones aren't supposed to interfere with tele. The other big thing here is that the cell phones given to the upper levels and nurses have been specificially tested.

Plus, isn't it kind of unprofessional to have a cell phone ring while talking to a family?

 

[fourthyearmed]

I personally find it annoying to have to dial outside the hospital to try and page someone

At my school's hospital everyone's pager is an "outside the hospital system" number including residents so that's not really an issue for us. Students have to buy their own pager. I personally carry my cell phone everywhere as do most students and residents but I keep mine on vibrate and usually don't answer it as I carry it for safety more than anything else. The residents all have text pagers which I think is great but I do think things may trend towards cell phones. I've heard that it is only the old cell phones that affect the hospital equipment and the signs are more just to keep visitors from talking on cell phones than housestaff.

 

[Jaded Soul]

Of the 4-5 big cell phone carriers here, none of them has signal all throughout the hospital where I work, so it's not an option. Every attending and resident carriers an pager supplied by the hospital with an outside number, as there is no in-house pager system. Students are expected to get their own pagers, though a handful have managed to get by without having one.

 

[ericdamiansean]

No phones, no pagers switched on for medical students in wards..it's a general rule 😉

 

[edmadison]

Wow, our hospital has banned any cell phones on inpatient wards. Look at the medical literature. There are a number of reported cases of them interfering with various medical equipment including, in one very scary case, causing the adminstration of narcs from a PCA.

Ed

 

[fourthyearmed]

No phones, no pagers switched on for medical students in wards..it's a general rule 😉

How do your residents find you if they can't page you?

 

[roja]

It is poor form for ms3's to not have a pager. Cell phones are INAPPROPRIATE in the hospital. period. They also can interfere with monitored equipment.

Exception? sure, you get a page and you can't find a phone.

Phones should be OFF during rounds. wihtout a doubt. I would have a serious discussion with ANY med student if thier phone rang during rounds.

Having said that, in my program, we don't have to carry pagers, much... but thats the beauty of EM. 😀

 

[ericdamiansean]

How do your residents find you if they can't page you?

They give us a designated task, time to complete it, and report back to him at a designated place later.
We have to look for him/her, but if we can't, we'll call the hospital directory and they'll ring him/her up

 

[ItsGavinC]

Look at the medical literature.

What I've seen only mentions older cell phones that operate on TDMA frequencies. GSM phones ought to be just fine.

As far as the professionalism issue, that's another story.