Talk & Listen to the Patient

In this article

• Introduction
• Talk
• Talk in Multi-user Environment
• Listen
• Best Practices
• Logged Events

Introduction

One of the most important interventions is verbal communication with the patient. Hovering over any live video block and clicking the microphone icon will enable 2-way audio - you can hear the patient and the patient can hear you. This provides immediate communications access to any patient being monitored.

Talk

Hover over the window and click the “Talk” button to talk to the patient. You will see a red banner to indicate the "MIC IS OPEN". This means:

• You can hear the patient and others in the room
• And they can hear you

Talk in Multi-user Environment

When user A has Talk enabled (Mic Open) for a given live video window, it will show an indicator of this for any other user who happens to also be looking at the same live video on another computer. This is helpful to all users to be able to see that intervention is being provided when needed.

Listen

Hover over the window and click the “Listen” button to just listen to the patient. You will see a green banner to indicate the "LISTEN" mode is active.

• You can hear the patient and others in the room
• However, they can not hear you

Best Practices

• If the patient is initiating unsafe actions, the virtual monitor must immediately initiate verbal intervention
• This communication must be clear, calm and direct yet friendly. We are here to help the patient stay safe.
• At the same time, we must use a tone that is not aggressive, threatening or condescending.
• In general, start with the patient’s name (preferred name if known) and mix in a balance of polite gestures: please and thank you’s

Examples of appropriate communications

• "Hi Mr Smith, I need to ask you to stay in the bed. Do you need something?"
• "Mrs Jennings, please do not pull on your IV. Are you ok?"
• "Hi Jack, you seem a bit agitated. Is there anything we can do / do you need the Nurse?"
• "Ms Lewis, let’s not take off your oxygen line. If you don’t think you need it anymore, I’ll call the nurse to assist you."
• "Hi Mrs Belka, i understand you are confused but you are safe in the hospital and we are taking good care of you. I will get the Nurse, please stay calm."

Communication styles to avoid

• "Hey man, stop doing that please."
• "Mr. Lewis, I’m not going to keep asking you stop throwing your things off the bed."
• "Timothy, I’m disappointed in you."
• "Ms Jasckson, you are driving me nuts."
• "If you don’t stop, I’m going to hit the Alarm."

Logged Events

See: Monitoring > Logs

• When the users clicks the Talk button on a live video block
• Essentially Talk_Clicked is what you think of as opening the talk function.

• Only triggered when the user actually clicks the Talk button while it is active.
• These actions will NOT result in a Talk_Closed :
  • By leaving Central Monitoring with a talk active
  • Clicking another patient's Talk or Listen button
• Essentially, you will always see a Talk_Clicked event but you may not see a corresponding Talk_Closed event per the above conditions.