Are you allowed to use your phone on the job? Do you use your phone on the job? If so, you’re not alone.
New research on the digital and social media habits of nurses at work finds that 65 percent of nurses use mobile devices for professional purposes at least 30 minutes on every shift.
The new study from Wolters Kluwer Health looked at the habits of nearly 2,500 nurses and found that two in 10 nurses use mobile devices more than two hours every day.
The study also looked at digital policies of hospitals, finding that 89 percent allow nurses to use search engines at work; 83 percent allow access to public websites and social media to help with patient conditions.
Perhaps unsurprising, however, most respondents—73 percent—say they are strictly prohibited from interacting with patients directly on social media. This may explain why those responding to the survey are twice as likely to use social media away from work.
Half of hospitals block access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and/or Pinterest on company Internet; 64 percent of nurses reported using Wikipedia as a resource during work hours.
The study also found a difference in the online usage of nurse managers versus staff nurses. When broken down between the two groups, 77 percent of nurse managers used mobile devices at work, while 58 percent of staff nurses did.
Let us know if and how you use mobile devices at work in the comments below. Also, what do you think about your workplace’s Internet guidelines?
This article was republished with permission from SCRUBS Magazine.
I use it for google translate when I can’t remember a word in Spanish and to look up meds or medical conditions/terms I’m not familiar with, but I never use social media. Definitely not while I’m “on the floor.” Loads of my colleagues use their phones to troll Facebook, texting, etc. I feel like it’s unprofessional and they know it’s against the rules, but they do it anyway. However, I mind my own business at work. If my colleagues want to break the rules, that’s their choice. It reflects poorly on the hospital and it annoys me, but I’m not going to be the cell phone police. Not the charge nurse, not the boss..my coworkers know that if they get caught, they’ll get written up, so it’s their choice. People have a right to decide whether or not to follow the rules and it’s up to the charge nurse to decide to reinforce it.