Mobiles and Hospitals
March 20th 2009 18:57
Things have been pretty quiet in my corner of Orble of late, mostly because a good deal of my home time on the computer has been spent working on the Varsity paper I'm doing (online, of course!)
Anyway, it's Saturday morning, and it's a long weekend, with Otago Anniversary Day on Monday, and I can't get back to sleep, so here I am on Webitz, my somewhat-neglected blog.
While I was in hospital four weeks ago, I found the usual inconsistency in regard to the use of cellphones or mobiles. (I always have to remember that they don't get called cellphones much these days; on the other hand, mobiles in my head are those tinkly things that hang from the ceiling and revolve, such
as the more involved fish mobile in the picture by Jeremy Burgin).
Whereas in some places in the hospital, patients and visitors weren't supposed to use mobiles, the staff called each other on mobiles regularly! And even though there was a variety of electrical equipment in the four-bed room I was in, no one said a word about me using the mobile in there. So I often rang or texted people, because it's a great way to keep in touch with the outside world when you're in hospital.
(Interestingly enough, you never hear any quibbles about MP3 players. Okay, they don't use the cellphone system, but you'd think they'd have some propensity to interfere as well.)
What I started out to say, in all this, is that I came across an article in the NetGuide magazine online, in which it talks about a study done with health workers in relation to the use of cellphones/mobiles. It's entitled, Beware of your dirty phone, and points out that no one thinks of cleaning mobiles in hospital, even though like every other piece of equipment, they can harbour germs and other bugs.
The more progress we make, the more steps backwards we take!
Anyway, it's Saturday morning, and it's a long weekend, with Otago Anniversary Day on Monday, and I can't get back to sleep, so here I am on Webitz, my somewhat-neglected blog.
While I was in hospital four weeks ago, I found the usual inconsistency in regard to the use of cellphones or mobiles. (I always have to remember that they don't get called cellphones much these days; on the other hand, mobiles in my head are those tinkly things that hang from the ceiling and revolve, such
Whereas in some places in the hospital, patients and visitors weren't supposed to use mobiles, the staff called each other on mobiles regularly! And even though there was a variety of electrical equipment in the four-bed room I was in, no one said a word about me using the mobile in there. So I often rang or texted people, because it's a great way to keep in touch with the outside world when you're in hospital.
(Interestingly enough, you never hear any quibbles about MP3 players. Okay, they don't use the cellphone system, but you'd think they'd have some propensity to interfere as well.)
What I started out to say, in all this, is that I came across an article in the NetGuide magazine online, in which it talks about a study done with health workers in relation to the use of cellphones/mobiles. It's entitled, Beware of your dirty phone, and points out that no one thinks of cleaning mobiles in hospital, even though like every other piece of equipment, they can harbour germs and other bugs.
The more progress we make, the more steps backwards we take!
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