Sole personnel and late evening checks

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

Minnie — Sun, 11 Aug 2019 21:40:36 GMT

if you live in an area where it will take the police a little while to attend it is a good idea to have somebody connected to the practice that can get there fairly quickly. I used to live above the shop and when you have people taking the place apart with just a door barricaded by a sofa, a table and anything else you can push against it between you and them and the police on the phone telling you to stay calm and keep talking to them 26 minutes is a very long time. It took me years to get over it.

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

Tricia Goulden — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 16:09:34 GMT

It was for your personal development dearest !

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

Anthony Dennison — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 13:12:19 GMT

[quote user="Tricia Goulden"]

Simple measures

- allocate a safe place within the practice.Somewhere a lone person can flee to. It must be lockable from the inside & have telephone access to call for help. Nowhere I have worked has provided this simple safety measure & I have been in isolated premises, on my own with potential nutters over many years of on call.

- I spent 20 years in a practice where the vets took the phones. The telephone system they adopted did not log the number of the caller on my device. If I was called out to a home visit in the early hours to a nutter and was never seen again apart from not turning up for work no one would have any clue that I had been out on work business. I tried to introduce a system where people who lived alone messaged a colleague when they left with details of the destination & messaged when they got back. Fairly simple but ignored

[/quote]

That explains why you used to take me out on calls with you as a teenager.

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

Jill Butterworth — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 11:54:43 GMT

I made it a rule that everyone had to have their phone on them in the practice when alone and at night. It's a cheap reliable tracking device and will enable you to call out. I've known a nurse accidentally lock herself in a walk in kennel, and once, pre mobile phone days, I locked myself in the loo at 3 am after a caesarian, and could hear the nurse driving off home...I had to kick the door down.

It is possible to join phones to cctv and alarms so monitoring is easier than it used to be.

Amalgamating the telemedicine thread, OOH is surely this is the time to start to use it more routinely, for cases which aren't clear, including for home visit requests. Not perfect, but would be possible to more effectively allow assessment of the situation, the neighbourhood, the animal, the risk from the client, the need for back up very cheaply, given the cost of ubiquitous mobile devices.

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

Tricia Goulden — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 09:49:26 GMT

Simple measures

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

Julie Innes — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 08:40:26 GMT

It's not something we do- the only person who would be alone on our premises at night is me, usually doing DIY or paperwork! On the rare occasion I need to keep an animal overnight I usually just bring it home with me- I've got collapsible kennels at home, and I feel happier I am keeping an eye on it.

To be honest, I would think I am more likely to be burgled at home, as surgery is on a main street, with alarms and CCTV. My house is a little more remote. I have been used to staying alone, so it doesn't worry me much, but noises from the woods at night when my other half is away sometimes make me twitchy!

Still, I wouldn't be happy having nurses come in on their own at night, unless in the situation where they had a flat above the premises. I think it's the moment they have to open/ close the doors that they would be most vulnerable, and I would hate to think I had jeopardised their safety.

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

Alison Clare Hickman — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 07:14:46 GMT

https://www.staysafeapp.com/guide-lone-working/risk-assessments-tips/

Above, as an example, might help guide you...

Also check out HSE and UNISON sole working (Google them and you'll find PDF docs to download).

Might help?

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

Michael Woodhouse — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 00:01:37 GMT

Maybe I'm one of the blasé vets?

With these things I think it makes sense to make some concessions if you think things could be better. Could you create a work Watsapp group and have everyone in it, so people could check in with that? Someone likely to be about and see the message?

Do you have good lighting? Panic alarm?

Have you got CCTV cameras that may reduce the need to go back and check on things?

To an extent you do have to put some context on this - I'm sure they are statistically much more likely to come to harm driving back to the surgery in their car (or walking down the stairs at home, or having a shower) than they are coming to any harm whilst checking a patient at your surgery (unless you practice somewhere really rough).

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

janine redman — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 23:29:09 GMT

It is the nursing staff who have expressed more concern than the vets. As I have been used to sole visits for 30 years and initially farm visits to who knows where in the middle of the night I think I have become blasé about the risk. However I understand how scary it can be opening up the practice on your own in the dark . And I don’t think the vets wish to accompany the nurses for each check , nor do they all have partners . Trying to solve Their concerns in The most effective way

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 21:29:24 GMT

I said recently we have panic alarms linked with a phone dialler so I would get a call (as would my wife and the vet on duty). I can see the online diary from my phone and view the kennels CCTV from anywhere. If something dodgy then I will happy accompany staff or be available by message etc. Handily I go to bed late and my wife gets up early so most of the night and early AM can be a remote chaperone.

I don't see going to do an inpatient check or staying at the surgery a particular risk, just lock the door behind you. The risk is seeing clients you don't know at night when on call.

Dragging a nurse in to hold your hand is not fair on the nurse. As long as an occasional thing then I really don't see a reason not to drag your partner along. It's company, I want to look after my wife, not going to keep watching the film or have tea until she gets back anyway......

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

Jill Butterworth — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 19:00:40 GMT

It's worth thinking this through properly and creating a 'Lone Worker Policy' for the practice. Ideally nurse and vet should go to the practice together but this is isn't always practical, and to be fair, males are usually less worried. Random musings:

Partners often accompany staff, but this isn't really a fair solution.

Things which can help: PIR lights at the entry/exit points.

Really, having a very good alarm system is by far the best solution, but not the cheapest, but a modification may be possible

Alarm which can be part armed

Alarm with panic and duress mode (will alarm at the Police/call centre but not out loud)

Call and check in and out with someone who will follow up and raise the alarm if you don't check in by a specified time. Believe there are companies which offer this service.

If your boss can't or won't help, you could get a rape alarm or some kind of service with an alarm button, similar to that used by old folk. I'm sure there must now be an app available.

On occasions where I have been a little scared, I have primed my phone to call someone and if really scared, have had them on the line until I was done.

Once had a night call to a chap who answered the door in his underpants... I glanced at the dog thru his legs to make sure it wasn't distressed, gave it a quick injection and exited as fast as poss...personal safety and the RCVS obligations running thru my mind. And no, I didn't send a bill, as I could claim to have performed a proper clinical examination!

If extremely worried in a dangerous neighbourhood, you can ask for a Police drive by (but not every night!)

RE: Sole personnel and late evening checks

Andreia Dias — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 18:01:06 GMT

Curious to hear. This has crossed my mind often as when I stayed at the practice I couldn't turn the alarm on. Everything has always been fine but it really worried my family that I would be working completely alone in the middle of the night...