Professional Experience Placement

I have previously blogged about the use of mobile or portable device use at point of care by clinical supervisors and students. Nair and Bhaskaran (2014) discussed the use of mobile devices in healthcare settings. The authors explored the interconnectedness between mobile phone services and access to healthcare and the potential for improving the outreach of health based service facilities. These authors attest that mobile devices have acquired the status of basic need rather than luxury gadget. They discuss the proliferation of ownership to the falling price and increase of choice available to consumers. Competing service providers also offer cheaper data access plans that facilitate encouragement of mobile devices, especially wireless use. Nair and Bhaskaran (2014) discuss governance associated with mobile device use. They focus on its usefulness for participatory care.

McBride et al (2015) reports on the results of a study undertaken in the United States of America and examined the extent of hospital registered nurses awareness of their mobile phone associated performance decrements. The authors note the demographics of respondents were not representative of the U.S. Nursing workforce and may not be generalisable. However, the sample size was large enough to gain insights that may have implications for policy development of mobile or portable devices in healthcare settings. These authors found that nurses express high confidence levels in their ability to manage the use of their mobile phones in the workplace, however, they may not be able to assess when it is appropriate to use these devices within this setting.

The nexus of these papers is the need for clinical supervisors to have a good understanding of the appropriate use of mobile or portable devices within healthcare settings. The ubiquity of access to mobile technology and health information indicates there is an expectation clinical supervisors have the ability to guide students and patients in appropriate use. They also need to be aware of organisational policy regarding access to information using a mobile device. Clinical supervisors are also well placed to model appropriate behaviour and McBride et al (2015) demonstrate that currently, there is a gap between perceived and actual performance, regarding mobile phone use that needs further investigation.

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