Pagers

[Amy]

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Do residency programs usually provide their residents with pagers, or are they expected to buy their own? I've gotten this far through 3rd year w/o one... I've always been given one if it was required (though I've very rarely been paged). Now I'm starting to think it would be useful for me to have one, so people can get in touch with me during the day if necessary. I'm also not sure how important it is to have my own for 4th year. Basically, I'm thinking maybe I should get one now if I'll need it for residency anyway. If my residency program will provide me with one however, why bother to buy one now?

Anyone have any advice about the importance of a pager as a med student?

 

[Bobblehead]

If they require you to carry a pager they'll provide one. You do NOT want a pager anyway. You certainly do not need one as a medical student. Spend the money elsewhere. If you absolutely feel the need to be connected buy a cell phone. That way you can at least talk to friends on it as well.

 

[Blade28]

Our med school gave them out at the beginning of third year. We get to keep them for free until graduation, then we can opt to pay for them and keep them, or just return them.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by Amy
Do residency programs usually provide their residents with pagers, or are they expected to buy their own? I've gotten this far through 3rd year w/o one... I've always been given one if it was required (though I've very rarely been paged). Now I'm starting to think it would be useful for me to have one, so people can get in touch with me during the day if necessary. I'm also not sure how important it is to have my own for 4th year. Basically, I'm thinking maybe I should get one now if I'll need it for residency anyway. If my residency program will provide me with one however, why bother to buy one now?

Anyone have any advice about the importance of a pager as a med student?

You will receive a pager.

The valentine I don't want!

 

[Yosh]

I think it varies by hospital....In NY I didn't have to carry one...but here in Detroit, they give them to us...and its great. After I see my pts, I can wander and do what I need...and they will page me when we need to round...

It gives us alot more breathing room and freedom...and yeah well makes us more accessable...but I can get intouch with any of the othe rmed students, interns, residents and attendings..


I am a BIG fan.....

 

[Blade28]

Originally posted by Yosh
I think it varies by hospital....In NY I didn't have to carry one...but here in Detroit, they give them to us...and its great. After I see my pts, I can wander and do what I need...and they will page me when we need to round...

Wish we were that lucky...we only get paged by the residents when we're late for some meeting. Otherwise, we need to be aware of what's going on at all times. 🙂

 

[Kalel]

If you got by third year without a pager, you will probably be fine in waiting until residency when your program will provide you with a pager. You may encounter some difficulty during your sub-i's, but you can always try to borrow someone's pager in that situation or just stay close to the hospital floor or your team room if you need to. The biggest advantage of having a pager during med school is that it gives you the flexibility to leave the hospital/floor and tell someone to page you if you are needed.

 

[shag]

This year, our medical school instituted a policy that requires medical students to rent hospital pagers. The negatives are that the cost is about twice the cost of service from a private company and hospital pagers have a much more limited range. The benefit is that we are on the hospital system, so we can be paged by calling the operator or receive a text page from the internet. After 6 months of this, I feel that it is well worth the extra $$ because of the increased efficiency and convenience of communication.

Last year, I carried my cell phone which worked as well as any numerical pager.

 

[rrreagan]

I've always wondered what exactly is the point of a pager?

Why not just have everyone---students, residents and attendings---carry a cell phone?

 

[Kalel]

Originally posted by rrreagan
I've always wondered what exactly is the point of a pager?

Why not just have everyone---students, residents and attendings---carry a cell phone?

Supposedly, cell phones can cause some sensitive medical equipment to malfunction. They have looked into things like complex infra-red walky-talkies for physicians at my school. These are expensive, and they currently require physicians to be in the same room as these infra-red lights when making calls. It is annoying to have to find a phone to use your pager, but they are nice in that if you recognize a call isn't urgent, you can keep doing whatever you are doing and call the person back at your convenience.

 

[Yosh]

I still don't understand the whole "cell phone" thing...apparently it has more to do with the older "analog" phones, and since they are digital now...it has no bearing...

I have never really been able to get a straight answer...

Anyone out there know about this??

 

[shag]

Originally posted by Kalel
Supposedly, cell phones can cause some sensitive medical equipment to malfunction.

I think I saw that happen on an episode of Providence 🙂

I've never seen a cell phone interact with medical equipment nor have I heard a 1st person account of any event of this sort. People (nurses, pct's, etc.) have said that they've heard of phones interacting with equipment from a friend of a friend of a friend, etc., but couldn't be specific as to what actually happened.

My understanding is that analog phones can theoretically interact with equipment. Digital phones, which the vast majority of us who aren't still using bag phones have, supposedly operate at a different frequency and should not bother equipment.

The idea that cell phones are dangerous is prevalent to the point of being hospital policy at most institutions. One local group of private surgeons in my area recently negotiated an exception to the cell phone ban at a private hospital when writing their contract.

I use my phone without guilt everywhere in the hospital that I get signal. Some ancient nurses give me a hard time, so I walk into a conference room when they are on duty.

The only benefits of having a pager, in my opinion, is when the institution has a paging operator so people don't have to memorize everyone?s cell phone number or if the pagers have text capability accessible from the web.

 

[RuralMedicine]

I think all residency programs provide their residents with at least one pager. Additionally all of our hospitals their own code pager systems which we pass back and forth and most of the hospitals in our system now provide us with phones (not cellular--more like small cordless phones and I think that is actually how they work) for use on call. Phones can be useful:
-My intern was directed to a code in a remote part of the attached outpatient clinic of our hospital via phone by the operator who directed him as he ran.
-No need to find a phone to return pages, or leave the patients bedside to do so.
-You too can advise your intern not to start Dobutamine on a patient with severe sepsis and a MAP of 50 while threading the wire on a central line (ok with some phone holding assistance from the nurse---and not really something I'd want to do but I suppose better than the other alternative).

*And yes text paging is a useful invention.

 

[Jaded Soul]

One of the hospitals I worked at had cordless phones for the nursing staff (but not for the doctors). It seemed very convinient. Every phone had its own extension as part of the hospital system, which meant you could get a hold of any nurse for any patient at any time. There main drawback I saw was that the batteries drained pretty quickly.