Nurses cautioned against unnecessary use of social media during working hours

The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNA), Mr. Prince Opuni Frimpong, has warned nurses and midwives who use their phones for things that do not concern their work, especially for Whatsapp, Facebook, and Tiktok during work, to put a stop to it.

This follows calls by some residents demanding that nurses and midwives be banned from using mobile phones while on duty.

Some people in the Ejisu Municipality have asked the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to think about making it illegal for nurses to use cell phones at work.

According to them, this will cause nurses to pay close attention while on duty and will also help save the lives of patients who require critical care and attention, particularly in emergency situations.

The residents made the appeal during the annual health performance review meeting organised by the municipal directorate of the GHS at Ejisu.

They cited several instances of nurses on duty playing games on their phones while patients who needed critical attention were left unattended to.

The attitude the residents claimed had led to the loss of many lives in the area and was preventing many people from accessing healthcare in government hospitals in the municipality.

Speaking on Atinka TV‘s morning show, Mr Prince Opuni Frimpong admitted that it was not right for nurses to use their phones unnecessarily while working.

However, he also noted that most of the time, the nurses use their phones to enter data of the patients and send it to the system being used by the hospital so that the doctors and pharmacist can access the patient’s information.

Due to that, he made the public aware that when they see the nurses on their phones, they may not be using their personal stuff that is not related to their work.

“I want all nurses and midwives to know that our main duty is to take care of the patient, and so if there are patients who need to be attended to but you are doing WhatsApp, a call, or Facebook, which will not bring any profit to the work you are doing, or will not bring any profit to your life or the country, but it is just a game that you are playing, we have to be careful,” he said.

He continued, “Health workers are aware that they are not supposed to be WhatsApping, TikToking, or Facebooking when they have to attend to patients, so it will be difficult for a nurse to be on their phone playing when they have to attend to a pregnant woman who is in labour or a sick person. It will be extremely difficult for a nurse to clean a patient while Facebooking or TikToking, or for a nurse to be in the operating room taking instruments for the doctor while whacking, because that is not their training.