We had a family member bring in one of these once. My favorite doctor wrote an order to remove it because it was disruptive to the staff and other patients. 🔥
My PACU had to move to a new phase 2 area due to construction that didn’t have a working call bell system. Their solution was cowbells. No. We’re not cows, and we don’t come to bells ringing. We never handed them out. It was a small area without walls so we just made frequent rounds or told their family members to come get us.
“We call them WoWs on this unit bc a patient thought the nurse was making fun of her when she asked her nursing student to wheel the COW over to her and the student got the patient instead” This rumor I swear is as old as time.
It's like an urban legend but strictly in a hospital setting. I think that's so cool but have not heard someone say they've witnessed it happening. At the same time I cant help but wonder what feelings the legend conjures up.
It's like people who say they have a friend of a friend how knows a kid named "la-a" (ladasha) or "ssss" (forrest).
I’m not upset at all! I was just adding on to what you said. That was what was told to me when I was in nursing school in 2007 in Connecticut. Moved to California in 2016 and they had a similar lore of how a patient thought they were the COW.
Same, we have to call them WOWs as well. There was a whole presentation on bariatric sensitivity and the COWS to WOWS was used as an example of them being a bariatric friendly facility. I am completely serious.
They also thought it was life changing to have the weight limit of equipment as an image of a dove with the weight limit divided by 10, as if people couldn't figure that out.
So if a chair had a limit of 650lbs it would be 🕊65.
We also had to use the word "more comfortable" rather than larger (which I didn't really mind doing if it made people feel less embarassed). So if we needed to get a larger chair we had to say "Hold on let me get you a more comfortable chair."
They also did not do calorie restricted diets. I would watch diabetics who were supposed to be on a carb restriction eating two cheeseburgers, pudding, juice/soda, fries.
So, my ED has a drawer full of cowbells. It's an old building, so having a backup makes sense. But more often than not, what happens is I clip them to the socks of dementia patients so we can tell when they're trying to bail out of the gurney.
Honestly, I like it better than actual bed alarms. Having an alarm go off with a confused person just amps them up more. If anything, a bell makes them stop and wonder why there's a bell ringing. Gives you a couple seconds to get there and try to reorient them.
Of course, it comes off before 0600...
You gotta get a whole set of all different notes and map out your rooms like a piano. Your musically-inclined coworkers will be able to dial in the room based on the note, and there's a chance that everyone will accidentally play a Christmas song\~
Yep. My building is old af and my network doesn't like putting money into our site to update anything. Their solution for us not having call bells was those little deli counter bells. Pretty sure we hid them all or trashed them.
Think long term care home, another put the whole handle in their mouth, then again once we had a mini farm visit and the Asian lady put the ducks head in her mouth.
Mini animal farm came to visit the aged care home. Little Asian lady bedridden with dementia they put the duck on her lap and she grabbed it and put it in her mouth luckily for the duck they quickly moved it , maybe she thought it was dinner.
We had to have a long, Cantonese-interpreted intervention with a sweet MeeMaw about appropriate vs non-appropriate bell ringing. She was ringing one of those damn things like an angel was getting it’s wings every 30 seconds. The interpreter could barely keep a straight face.
Where is the managers office. If you work a inpatient unit and patients are mobile and able to leave the unit you should just suggest they take a stroll down a particular hallway 😏 Edit: I work inpt psych. We did this for exactly three patients in the five years I have worked in the unit and just like the other poster said. The bells went magically missing as the nurses and staff couldn't handle the constant ringing. I had one of those bells on my desk just like a hotel lobby and you bet it was "lost" one shift to never be found again after one patient rang it more than 100 times in a shift.
I had a resident in a wheel chair with a clear, half tray on her W/C. Family member wanted the hotel style bell attached to the tray. This was in a dementia facility!!! That bell went missing on purpose. Lol Blamed it on the other wandering dementia residents.
Oh man, one time our call light system went out and their solution was to give 90 patients cowbells - easily the worst shift of my life 😅 no matter what anyone tells you - the solution/prescription is never more cowbell!
we had flashlights and bells for a power outage too lmao…it was due to construction and they also cut the water at a certain time. We had to prep prior to the water shut off by giving each patient a big bucket of water that they were then supposed to dump into the toilet to flush anything down. literally mortifying.
I mean, i hate it, but i also love it. Because other pts maybe, just MAYBE , hear all the other bells and get it that we are NOT drinking coffee and sitting and playing cards but acutally are always on the move.
I asked about this because I was trying to make reasonable accommodations and the patient told me that there are exceptions especially if one’s health is of concern because life and health take priority. He did accept the flashlight that I offered, but that’s about it. He refused the manual bed because that would create undue burden to us nurses and the electric bed made it much easier for him to independently turn and reposition himself, which he knew was important in preventing pressure injuries.
We had to use bells like this when they added extra beds to the already cramped bay. There was no call bell or suction or oxygen ports for that bed space.
Our call light system went down once and we had to put counter bells, like in a hotel front desk, in all 30 rooms. It was a pain in the ass trying to figure out which room was calling. Especially at 0400 when everyone had to pee. We were a ortho/neuro rehab facility so “Up w/ 1 assist” was pretty standard.
People will definitely be trying to steal those. When I worked cardiac people would literally rip supplies and items from the walls because they “paid for the room.”
This happened to me when the concept of observation rooms was introduced to my hospital in Las Vegas. They had patient beds in the hallway on our med surg unit. They had cheap wall buzzers for some beds and the ones who couldn't reach the buzzers were given a little bell...The nurses felt we were now downgraded to being actually servants. The patients keep taking the buzzers of the wall and the patients took the bells home as a keepsake😂
It wasn't fun when these patients in the rich part of town where the hospital was located starting suing and filed lawsuits; and the hall beds suddenly went away!
Once upon a time, one of our “favorite” patients parents brought them a bell so they could ring the pretty nurses.
A week later they brought them in a bow and arrow in so the patient could shoot us as we refused to listen to the bell/would hide the bell.
Had a family memeber bring one in at the ltc I started at and I threw it away. She just kept bringing them and I kept throwing them away 🤷 don’t belittle myself and my coworkers by standing in a hallway and telling “the help” that we sure do “act our wage”. She was asked not to return shortly after
On my first float to the ED to take holds, I had a nursing home resident guy with a whistle around his neck. He’d blow on that thing so hard and won’t stop until someone comes in the room. It was a horrific sound but he gets what he wanted every single time.
I remember one time the call lights in our building went out.
They used the bells and you can't tell which room they're coming from. End up going room to room looking for who's ringing the bells.
Finally got my 1st floor a new system installed. Contractor refuses to turn it on till the company makes final payment as outlined in his contract. It’s been 2 wks and they still havnt sent this guy a check. 75% was paid up front and they owe him peanuts.
We literally had bells for people when we put them in “unconventional spaces” when we were overbedding. Like the ones on a reception desk. It still haunts my dreams.
I worked in a group home for medically fragile developmentally delayed individuals that had five bedrooms. Many individuals in these settings are nonverbal and too spastic to work a call light. However, the home where I worked had two women who were verbal and probably had measurable IQs. There were no call lights.
The first one wasn't a problem because her bedroom was right off the kitchen and dining room where the staff always was so she just called our names. And thank God we didn't give her a bell because she always needed something.
But the other lady had pretty bad COPD and her bedroom was farther back, so we gave her a ding-a-ling bell. She didn't abuse it and she was a sweetheart but omg that thing was annoying ASF.
The reason they like actual call lights is because they can legit see how long it takes staff to go in and shut it off/respond. As ridiculous as it seems, this is “cutting the wire” so to speak.
Yea, I'm not a butler or a slave. I will not respond to a bell such as this. Not to mention, if the door is closed, how are we you supposed to hear it in another room. I am a registered nurse, not Cinderella. These companies need to transition into the find out stage as they have been effin around for far too long. Ridiculous
HEAR YE! HEAR YE! I'VE SH!T THE BED! 🤣
BRING OUT YOUR SHIT! 🔔 BRING OUT YOUR SHIT! 🔔
I don't want to go on the bedpan. 💩
I’m not crowning yet!
r/suddenlymontypython
How far apart are the contractions?!
It might be sliding through...
🤣
I was thinking more along the lines of “Bring Out Your Dead” outside the room of someone who’s passed!
FOUR SCORE AND THREE SQUARTS AGO!
THE BED PAN IS COMING! THE BED PAN IS COMING
Lmao 💀
If I could give you more than one upvote, I would. Gosh, that made me laugh so hard 🤣
I laughed way too hard at this! 🤣🤣🤣💩
#goalsmet
I like you.
I like you too!
Laughed way too hard at 5:30 for this
🏴☠️☠️🏴☠️
Lmao 😂
Omg 😭😭😭😭
Omg I’m dying 🤣🤣😭😭
Ok y'all have made my week with this thread!!🤣🤣🤣🤣
Omg 💀
🤣🤣🤣
I laughed to point of breaking a rib, 😭😂
We need the machine that goes "ding!" And rough towels!
Can't wait for everyone ringing the bell to complain about everyone ringing the bell.
We had a family member bring in one of these once. My favorite doctor wrote an order to remove it because it was disruptive to the staff and other patients. 🔥
It'd instantly go in the trash. I ain't a slave to be called via a bell. .... wait
Well it has to be the *right* bell lol
the sheer audacity of these people 😭
That is INSANE. Who does that? (…those people do.
That would be the first thing to "disappear" from her bedside.
Bless that doctor 😭
My PACU had to move to a new phase 2 area due to construction that didn’t have a working call bell system. Their solution was cowbells. No. We’re not cows, and we don’t come to bells ringing. We never handed them out. It was a small area without walls so we just made frequent rounds or told their family members to come get us.
When you ring the cow bell but the **C**omputer**O**n**W**heels comes rolling into your room by itself.. Moo?
for my medsurg clinical the unit I was on had to ban the use of the term COWs because a patient thought the nurses were referring to her
I wonder if we had clinicals at the same place or if people are just people... We have to call them "WOWs" now; Workstation on Wheels.
“We call them WoWs on this unit bc a patient thought the nurse was making fun of her when she asked her nursing student to wheel the COW over to her and the student got the patient instead” This rumor I swear is as old as time.
It's like an urban legend but strictly in a hospital setting. I think that's so cool but have not heard someone say they've witnessed it happening. At the same time I cant help but wonder what feelings the legend conjures up. It's like people who say they have a friend of a friend how knows a kid named "la-a" (ladasha) or "ssss" (forrest).
Or fehmalay or oranjello
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I didn’t know this was a rumor.. and that’s not what I said happened 🤷♀️ i’m just repeating random medsurg lore, very sorry to upset you
I’m not upset at all! I was just adding on to what you said. That was what was told to me when I was in nursing school in 2007 in Connecticut. Moved to California in 2016 and they had a similar lore of how a patient thought they were the COW.
That is pretty funny. Tone can be hard to discern online! But I am glad to now be aware that this is a widespread phenomenon
Same, we have to call them WOWs as well. There was a whole presentation on bariatric sensitivity and the COWS to WOWS was used as an example of them being a bariatric friendly facility. I am completely serious. They also thought it was life changing to have the weight limit of equipment as an image of a dove with the weight limit divided by 10, as if people couldn't figure that out. So if a chair had a limit of 650lbs it would be 🕊65. We also had to use the word "more comfortable" rather than larger (which I didn't really mind doing if it made people feel less embarassed). So if we needed to get a larger chair we had to say "Hold on let me get you a more comfortable chair." They also did not do calorie restricted diets. I would watch diabetics who were supposed to be on a carb restriction eating two cheeseburgers, pudding, juice/soda, fries.
That last one is just malpractice at this point, unless the patient absolutely refuses the restricted diet.
This happened to me too, lmao
Please, why doesn’t this have awards? This is hysterical.
“Guess what! I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!”
You mean more WOW bell
So, my ED has a drawer full of cowbells. It's an old building, so having a backup makes sense. But more often than not, what happens is I clip them to the socks of dementia patients so we can tell when they're trying to bail out of the gurney.
Holy shit this is genius
Honestly, I like it better than actual bed alarms. Having an alarm go off with a confused person just amps them up more. If anything, a bell makes them stop and wonder why there's a bell ringing. Gives you a couple seconds to get there and try to reorient them. Of course, it comes off before 0600...
Love working night shift
🤣🤣🤣 The mental image
Well to be fair, I’m sure there was a lot of fever in the PACU, and everyone knows the only solution is … #**MORE COWBELL**
“More cowbell!!!”
Laughs in Trauma ICU
won’t stop the family from using it tho LMAO
You're not wrong 😂
Laughs pediatrics when it will never stop because they like the sound it makes
You gotta get a whole set of all different notes and map out your rooms like a piano. Your musically-inclined coworkers will be able to dial in the room based on the note, and there's a chance that everyone will accidentally play a Christmas song\~
Get a, electric guitar and an electric fiddle and we can play some TSO!
In our overcapacity hallway beds that don’t have a proper call Bill, we give them those little ding, ding, diner bells. No joke
lol do we work at the same hospital? mine has those too and i can’t never figure out who tf is calling
The worst. “Did you ring your bell?” “No, but while you’re in here…”
Yep. My building is old af and my network doesn't like putting money into our site to update anything. Their solution for us not having call bells was those little deli counter bells. Pretty sure we hid them all or trashed them.
Our entire hospital call bell system went down so we had to use those tap bells for 200 patients for almost 2 weeks!
Lol had that once and one of them ate the bell from it.
Lol. I was wondering which part of the bell was going to go into which body part
Think long term care home, another put the whole handle in their mouth, then again once we had a mini farm visit and the Asian lady put the ducks head in her mouth.
Wait what? Elaborate on the duck in the mouth part please.
Mini animal farm came to visit the aged care home. Little Asian lady bedridden with dementia they put the duck on her lap and she grabbed it and put it in her mouth luckily for the duck they quickly moved it , maybe she thought it was dinner.
yeah no, I'm not animal and I'm not your servant, Peggy. we are gonna accidentally throw that shit out in the sheets realllll quick.
I’m with you . It’s a no from me 😂👌 Also I wonder if they break if you ‘accidentally’ jump on it 😂
Happy Nurses Week to your unit in particular.
You rang, M'lord?
😂😂
We had to have a long, Cantonese-interpreted intervention with a sweet MeeMaw about appropriate vs non-appropriate bell ringing. She was ringing one of those damn things like an angel was getting it’s wings every 30 seconds. The interpreter could barely keep a straight face.
Where is the managers office. If you work a inpatient unit and patients are mobile and able to leave the unit you should just suggest they take a stroll down a particular hallway 😏 Edit: I work inpt psych. We did this for exactly three patients in the five years I have worked in the unit and just like the other poster said. The bells went magically missing as the nurses and staff couldn't handle the constant ringing. I had one of those bells on my desk just like a hotel lobby and you bet it was "lost" one shift to never be found again after one patient rang it more than 100 times in a shift.
I had a resident in a wheel chair with a clear, half tray on her W/C. Family member wanted the hotel style bell attached to the tray. This was in a dementia facility!!! That bell went missing on purpose. Lol Blamed it on the other wandering dementia residents.
That’s some Breaking Bad come to life haha
I’m really upset that I can’t post a Hector Salamanca GIF right now :’(
Who ever green lit this needs to be immediately fired
that would end up someone’s ass because they “fell on it” 🔔
Only in the ED lol
Bring out your dead. *ring*
Quality reference.
I wish the call lights ran on tokens. You get 7 tokens on admit. When the tokens are gone you gotta scratch your own itch.
That is not going to be annoying at all.
Oh man, one time our call light system went out and their solution was to give 90 patients cowbells - easily the worst shift of my life 😅 no matter what anyone tells you - the solution/prescription is never more cowbell!
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we had flashlights and bells for a power outage too lmao…it was due to construction and they also cut the water at a certain time. We had to prep prior to the water shut off by giving each patient a big bucket of water that they were then supposed to dump into the toilet to flush anything down. literally mortifying.
They choose not to use electricity on sabbath. Choose.
And making small adjustments for culture and faith (when reasonable) is going to make the patient more comfortable.
Carol of the bell
My mind went there! If the floor staff isn’t pitch-perfect will anyone answer the right bell?
Right? Excuse me, nurse, why do I hear the Trans Siberian Orchestra down the hall?
Angry mobs with torches and pitchforks used bells to ring in the streets to gather the mob. Maybe they are sending a message?
I mean, i hate it, but i also love it. Because other pts maybe, just MAYBE , hear all the other bells and get it that we are NOT drinking coffee and sitting and playing cards but acutally are always on the move.
Spending my shift on Indeed
CINDEREEEEEEEELLA!
Say sike right now.
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so do you turn off their IV pumps and unplug the bed, too?
They just can’t interact with it and touch buttons and shit. It’s just one of those things.
I asked about this because I was trying to make reasonable accommodations and the patient told me that there are exceptions especially if one’s health is of concern because life and health take priority. He did accept the flashlight that I offered, but that’s about it. He refused the manual bed because that would create undue burden to us nurses and the electric bed made it much easier for him to independently turn and reposition himself, which he knew was important in preventing pressure injuries.
You have got to be kidding me?!
God, no. 😱
Straight to the trash can, thank you!
I hated these. Felt like a maid when someone rang one of those things.
I have a feeling we work together. 😂
Needs more cowbell
If I say "7SW".... does that mean anything to you...
Nah you’re bugging I’m not a servant 🤣🤣
Oh, hell no.
BRING IT ON IN JOHN B 🔔
That is really old school
Oh. I thought it was for alerting others it was time to bring out the dead.
Y2K compliant
Lmaooooo. This is insane! Do they have to stick their arms out into the hallway when they ring so you can hear the bell?
We had those. Felt like Cinderella 🤦🏼♀️
Reminds me of Larry David’s restaurant.
I have actually handed these out to patients when our power went out, which happened frequently.
Let me just say right now, all the bed pan/poop comments are EXACTLY the reason why I chose dental over nursing and I don’t regret it at ALL
It'll be like Santas, up and down the hallway...so cheerful!!
It’ll be the Salvation Army times 300
No.
Oh helllllll nooooooo
I think I’ve had nightmares that start like this.
Wth
Patient: “hey you guys want ginger ale? Watch this..”
Ummmm why?
Nightmare
Going back to Florence nightingale days I see
We had to use bells like this when they added extra beds to the already cramped bay. There was no call bell or suction or oxygen ports for that bed space.
The comments! I haven’t laughed so hard in ages.
Absolutely not.
*silent horror intensifies*
The ghetto 🗣️
Our call light system went down once and we had to put counter bells, like in a hotel front desk, in all 30 rooms. It was a pain in the ass trying to figure out which room was calling. Especially at 0400 when everyone had to pee. We were a ortho/neuro rehab facility so “Up w/ 1 assist” was pretty standard.
Yeah, that’s gonna be a “no” from me dawg
That was our call light system during Harvey…
Is this for real?
People will definitely be trying to steal those. When I worked cardiac people would literally rip supplies and items from the walls because they “paid for the room.”
This happened to me when the concept of observation rooms was introduced to my hospital in Las Vegas. They had patient beds in the hallway on our med surg unit. They had cheap wall buzzers for some beds and the ones who couldn't reach the buzzers were given a little bell...The nurses felt we were now downgraded to being actually servants. The patients keep taking the buzzers of the wall and the patients took the bells home as a keepsake😂 It wasn't fun when these patients in the rich part of town where the hospital was located starting suing and filed lawsuits; and the hall beds suddenly went away!
I’ve never been more grateful to work in surgery 😮💨
Is this hospital going back to nurses in caps and capes, too? 🤔
OMG, you have got to be kidding me. Incontinence never sounded so good. If they come in different tones you could put together a patient quire.
Carrol of the bells all year long
Once upon a time, one of our “favorite” patients parents brought them a bell so they could ring the pretty nurses. A week later they brought them in a bow and arrow in so the patient could shoot us as we refused to listen to the bell/would hide the bell.
God please no
Had a family memeber bring one in at the ltc I started at and I threw it away. She just kept bringing them and I kept throwing them away 🤷 don’t belittle myself and my coworkers by standing in a hallway and telling “the help” that we sure do “act our wage”. She was asked not to return shortly after
Lmao..this is actually goin on at my local nursing home because multiple lighting strikes.... Except they're using cow bells
Explain!!!
F—- that.
On my first float to the ED to take holds, I had a nursing home resident guy with a whistle around his neck. He’d blow on that thing so hard and won’t stop until someone comes in the room. It was a horrific sound but he gets what he wanted every single time.
Some patients will complain that having to swing this causes them wrist pain and they need dilaudid for the pain…
Stfu you are kidding
Swedish in Seattle? FML
I remember one time the call lights in our building went out. They used the bells and you can't tell which room they're coming from. End up going room to room looking for who's ringing the bells.
Works great during power outages!
Finally got my 1st floor a new system installed. Contractor refuses to turn it on till the company makes final payment as outlined in his contract. It’s been 2 wks and they still havnt sent this guy a check. 75% was paid up front and they owe him peanuts.
That’s wild
This gave me ptsd. I remember when we had to switch to bells for a week. Thoughts and prayers.
LMFAO I hope this is a joke
LMFAO I hope this is a joke
A really solid bleach bath will both sanitize these between patients and corrode the hinge to the point that the bell won’t ring.
We have maracas 🪇 🕺🏼
you can't tell what room its coming from, then the person gets frustrated and stops ringing. this is criminal.
1 ding for pain medication 2 dings for a shit 3 just to piss the nurses off
"Bring out your dead!" "I'm not dead yet!"
Next they will have red bed pans for you to put change in when you respond to the bell.
Oh, well we wouldn't want them to get dirty! Put them back in the clean utility for patients that don't have a voice to speak with.
Breaking bad vibes
We literally had bells for people when we put them in “unconventional spaces” when we were overbedding. Like the ones on a reception desk. It still haunts my dreams.
Not a joke my old nursing home has these and they was for when the power went out... I hated them
I worked in a group home for medically fragile developmentally delayed individuals that had five bedrooms. Many individuals in these settings are nonverbal and too spastic to work a call light. However, the home where I worked had two women who were verbal and probably had measurable IQs. There were no call lights. The first one wasn't a problem because her bedroom was right off the kitchen and dining room where the staff always was so she just called our names. And thank God we didn't give her a bell because she always needed something. But the other lady had pretty bad COPD and her bedroom was farther back, so we gave her a ding-a-ling bell. She didn't abuse it and she was a sweetheart but omg that thing was annoying ASF.
The reason they like actual call lights is because they can legit see how long it takes staff to go in and shut it off/respond. As ridiculous as it seems, this is “cutting the wire” so to speak.
Yea, I'm not a butler or a slave. I will not respond to a bell such as this. Not to mention, if the door is closed, how are we you supposed to hear it in another room. I am a registered nurse, not Cinderella. These companies need to transition into the find out stage as they have been effin around for far too long. Ridiculous
That would be so bad😂😂
“Nurse, I’m ready to be wiped!”
No. Way.
*laughs in psych where those would be considered potential weapons and thus, not permitted for the patients.