Cell Phone Restriction in the Nursing Home
I am writing regarding the continued use of cell phones in the nursing home by CNAs. The current nursing home policy does not restrict the use of cell phones. Consequently CNAs are spending more time on their phone and this is compromising the quality of care we are offering to the patients under our care. Good policies enhance the delivery of quality health care services while bad policies act as hindrances to health care service delivery. The policies should be evaluated frequently to ensure they are in line with institutional vision and enhance service delivery.
A practice CNA raised the problem of using cell phones during work hours after observing that cell phones impede service delivery leaving patients unattended. Geriatric patients in the nursing home require continuous care due to senility and health complications. One of the patients had bowel movement and required immediate cleaning to avoid bed sores. The CNA who was responsible for taking care of the patient ignored the patient because of using a cell phone during working hours. In this situation the patient was left unattended in an uncomfortable situation which can deteriorate health and general well being. If this trend is left unattended, the quality of services offered in the nursing home will reduce due to the increased use of cell phones and nurse’s divided attention.
Cell phones offer various advantages in the delivery of health care services. They are vital tools in community health and during home visits. Cell phones can be used in non clinical areas for communication. On the downside, having cell pones during work hours dives a nurse’s attention and leads to patient neglect as the case above. Cell phones emit radio waves which interfere with medical equipments and can spread diseases due to contamination with pathogens. Based on these disadvantages of using cell phones during work hours a policy change is proposed.
The proposed policy change seeks to restrict the use of cell phones by workers during work hours. This follows the observed negative impact of cell phones which led to patients being neglected and hence lowering the quality of health care service offered. The existing policy does not prevent CNAs from using cell phones in the nursing home during work hours. The proposed institutional policy will make it illegal for CNAs to use cell phones during work hours. The nursing home management will approve the policy change proposed by the concerned CNAs because it is consistent with the institutional vision of providing quality patient centered care. This policy change is expected to increase the nurse’s concentration on the patients needs, enable nurses to provide solutions and patient centered care with undivided attention.
Policy change implementation can determine the long term success of the policy. For a policy to be successful it must be embraced by the CNAs. The policy will be implemented in steps to enhance adoption rather than a one time radical change that might not be embraced by the CNAs. The first step will be educating the CNAs on the negative outcomes which result from using cell phones during work hours. This will make the CNAs understand the problem and the need for policy change. In addition, it will give them a chance to offer their solutions to the problem. The second step will be restricting cell phone use in the most critical places such as near medical equipments and when taking care of patients with additional health complications besides senility. After CNAs adopt and get used to this stage, an institutional wide restriction of cell phone during working hours will be effected. This incremental change in policy is recommended as opposed to a one time radical change due to a high success rate.
The proposed policy change is aimed at improving service delivery by eliminating divided attention of CNAs when they are at work. However, implementing the policy change will face various challenges. The first one is balancing the CNAs privacy and rights to communication with the need to provide quality health care. This will be achieved by providing alternative official channels for communication. For the policy change to be adopted by the CNAs, they will be educated on the benefits to be realized when cell phones are restricted during work hours. The CNAs will also be encouraged to propose their own solutions to the problem and an incremental policy change implementation strategy will ensure that the CNAs are used to a small change before embarking on another small change. The sum total of these small changes will be a complete policy change from the current policy which allows CNAs to use cell phone during work hours to a new policy that restricts use of cell phones at work.
I hope you will consider this matter at length and schedule a workers meeting to deliberate on the implementation of the proposed policy changes.
Best Regards and thank you very much for your time,
Director of Nursing
