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- GTP_Duke
Teenager sends 14,500 SMS's in a month!
- Thread starter mcsqueegy
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boiltheocean
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- old-guy64
I spend 10-15 hours a day in a hospital setting.
Most units, particularly ICU's, prefer that you don't use your mobile phone.
There is a belief that cell phones affect the monitors, pumps, etc.
That is generally true of analog phones but in actual practice digital phones are in everyone's pocket these days, and most of the machines on an ICU's will obliterate your cell signal unless you happen to be right next to a window.
As I do dialysis at bedside in ICU's (There are 4 ICU's in the hospital I work in) I usually have signal long enough to send and recieve texts.
If a dialysis treatment goes well, it is generally 4 hours of me sitting, watching a heavily sedated ICU pt. Checking vitals every 15 minutes, and charting them. Leaves a lot of time with nothing going on.
So I reach out and touch people via text, read books, do crosswords, etc to maintain my sanity.
Most units, particularly ICU's, prefer that you don't use your mobile phone.
There is a belief that cell phones affect the monitors, pumps, etc.
That is generally true of analog phones but in actual practice digital phones are in everyone's pocket these days, and most of the machines on an ICU's will obliterate your cell signal unless you happen to be right next to a window.
As I do dialysis at bedside in ICU's (There are 4 ICU's in the hospital I work in) I usually have signal long enough to send and recieve texts.
If a dialysis treatment goes well, it is generally 4 hours of me sitting, watching a heavily sedated ICU pt. Checking vitals every 15 minutes, and charting them. Leaves a lot of time with nothing going on.
So I reach out and touch people via text, read books, do crosswords, etc to maintain my sanity.
- 6,977
- old-guy64
Docs use beepers for 3 reasons:
1. So that they are easy to get in touch with.
Most docs will call nurses back inside of 30 minutes, some will call even if they are in surgery.
2. They can call you back as soon as they are ready.
It gives them the freedom to finish whatever they are doing so they can devote their "full" attention to the nurse that paged.
3. So they can, in theory, keep their cell numbers private.
Some nurses could conceivably be a pain in the ass if they had the doc's cell number.
1. So that they are easy to get in touch with.
Most docs will call nurses back inside of 30 minutes, some will call even if they are in surgery.
2. They can call you back as soon as they are ready.
It gives them the freedom to finish whatever they are doing so they can devote their "full" attention to the nurse that paged.
3. So they can, in theory, keep their cell numbers private.
Some nurses could conceivably be a pain in the ass if they had the doc's cell number.
- 35,426
- Downtown North Dakota
- Cy-Fi
Is it wrong that my wife enjoys calling some doctors (who are on call, no less) at 3am to tell them they need to come into the ER and then they get pissed off at her?
As for the use of cells and texting, in the last 9 months I have made and received 49 calls totaling 52 and a half minutes and sent and received 2 text messages. Needless to say, the 800 minutes I have a year on my Tracfone suits me just fine.
ExigeEvan
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- 17,192
Haven't they abolished the whole unlimited thing in the US yet? Practically every unlimited deal I see now usually limits it to ~3000-7000 texts.
I rarely exceed my 300 texts a month, usually my friends and I come to the conclusion it would be much, much easier just to phone and talk for 2 mins. Plus, several now know how unreliable my signal is in and around the uni campus.
I rarely exceed my 300 texts a month, usually my friends and I come to the conclusion it would be much, much easier just to phone and talk for 2 mins. Plus, several now know how unreliable my signal is in and around the uni campus.
- 7,666
I absolutely cannot stand voice mails. It is so much easier to open the phone and press OK and to read a text than it is to open the phone, push a bunch of buttons, listen to the voicemail and try to remember everything it said. I only check my voice mails every other month or so, unless I know somebody important called. But that usually turns out to be every other month so yeah.
- 6,977
- old-guy64
An unreliable signal is a prime reason to use text messaging.
You need 2 full minutes of signal for a 2 minute phone call.
You need about 12-20 secs of signal to send/receive a 240 character text.
And TB, it's not wrong in your wife's case.
If a patient comes into the ER, with serious issues, the ER needs someone privy to the pt's health background on the other end of a phone at the very least to insure "continuity" of care.
If they come in with the sniffles, then I'm not adverse to waiting to call the doc till a "near reasonable" time.
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I never check my voicemail. Between people saying "Just call me back" and it using my minutes during the day, I tend to not bother. Texting is just a quick look at my phone, I know what is up, and viola.
My brother sends between 7,000 and 20,000 a month. I probably send around 4,000 a month. And getting an unlimited texting plan is cheaper than minutes, so yeah...
- 15,494
- UK
Last text was before Christmas. I use it, but probably in the 30 texts a month and under region. Probably due to me hating to text. I'm more likely to ring someone on my mobile than text them, of course that depends on what they're doing, or what I think they're doing.
- 35,426
- Downtown North Dakota
- Cy-Fi
There are plenty of green nurses that would call docs far too often, but that's why they don't work charge. My wife has been in the ER for over 10 years now so she knows when and when not to call.
My wife still brings up a dude who came into the ER to be seen for his itchy mosquito bites and then complained when she let traumas and the like go in front of him. How dare she!
But now I'm completely off topic, like usual...
Danoff
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- 34,043
- Mile High City
That's fine if the person didn't have much of a purpose for calling ("where you at?"). But if they did have a purpose for calling then that purpose probably won't fit nicely into a quick text message.
Besides, if someone want to leave you a message like "I just wanted to chat". You expect them to hang up on your voice mail and type (using their crappy phone keyboard) "I just wanted to chat" instead of staying on the line and saying it into your voicemail - all so that you don't have to go through the "hassle" of listening to your voicemail?
And what do you expect a nurse to do in the situation discussed earlier? Text the doctor with something like:
"Plz cm to ER, 3mrgncy!"
The doctor probably wants more information to determine whether he needs to get in his car at 3 am than "plz come in". He's going to want to know the situation - the kind of thing that could be done on voicemail.
OZZYGT
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- 3,716
- NYC
- OZZYGT
I used to send a lot of text messages as well, but now that I have a Blackberry, I usually use the BBmessenger instead.
It should be pointed out that most of my friends and co-workers have Blackberries too; thus the $20/month for unlimited txts is no longer needed.
It should be pointed out that most of my friends and co-workers have Blackberries too; thus the $20/month for unlimited txts is no longer needed.
- 7,666
Is it bad for guys to be texting a lot? We have friends that we can't always be seeing and need to stay in touch with too...
It's understandable for somebody on official business to leave a voicemail, but it would be a lot easier if somebody with something important to say just sent a text saying "gimme a call" or something. They'll get the information just as quickly that way.
If they "just wanted to chat," then they could just as well just hang up the phone and leave it because they didn't have anything really important to say or just start texting in the first place.
- 8,480
- P_Balance
- 7,666
Why wouldn't it be a great option? The phone rings, the phone stops ringing, you don't need to do anything more. When I see I have a missed call, I'll look at my phone and go "hmm, I wonder what they wanted" and usually call them back. I don't too particularly want to have to make another call to my voice mail to listen to somebody rambling on about something or another.
Chatting over text? Just like IM. Just go about business as usual, but with a phone in one hand sending a message every now and then. It's a lot easier than having to hold a phone up to your face to talk, or not being able to do anything else because your brain is already at the limit trying to hold a conversation over the phone.
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T9 makes composing messages rather easy. And then QWERTY phones are fairly common place these days. My phone has both a normal num-pad key face and then a QWERTY keyboard inside... I compose 80% of my messages on the front face using only T9. At this point, I can just walk around and not look at the phone and put together full sentences, punctuation and all. I never use "txtspk" and that crap annoys me to no end. And then you have smart phones and iPhones, with threaded texting and auto completion. I've put together large e-mails and forum replies on my iPod touch, and I've seen people do much the same with their iPhones.
In general, if the number calling is an important one, I just call back before bothering to check my voicemail, because normally that is what the voicemail asks anyhow. Now, if I was more likely to get official business like voicemails, I'd be more inclined to check them, but I do not.
Texting is also amazingly handy for talking to people when you are at a club and yelling is required for people a foot away. Or when you are in class - I actually have a quick touch command to ignore calls and send a text saying "Can't talk, text me."
As for those of you that just use land lines... I haven't had a land line for 5 years. My cell phone is my phone, and between it and my iPod, my appointment book, address book, e-mail, and so on. It is odd to me when people don't have a cell phone they use as their primary line.
- 5,768
- Anoka, MN
Well everyone in my family uses a land line as their primary line. My grandparents would have a hard time using a cell phone much less holding one. My parents don't get a very good cell signal where they're at, so they have a land line. Most everybody else either doesn't have a cell or only uses it when they aren't at home. The only person I can think of with the cell as primary is my uncle, but that's because he's always traveling.
boiltheocean
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boiltheocean
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