Patient teaching: understanding how to communicate with the nursing staff

 I was thinking about some other things I can do when I become a nurse. One of the things I can do when I come on for my shift change is orient the patient to the communication tools. 

While some patients can certainly become overbearing, I also wonder if fear and anxiety can be relieved if the patients know how to get in touch with me and how to use the communication tools to get what they need? 

For example, we give them a call light and the nurses sometimes wear a phone that looks like a walkie talkie. 

The question I have is this: do they know how and when to use them? 

I don't think it would take more than 10 or 15 seconds to say go ahead and push the call light. Then, I can quickly hit the cancel button and say, "See, that was easy." 

Then I can show them how to get in touch with me on my phone.

 I can explain how each is answered. For example, in general, it is expected that the nurse assistants will respond to call lights before the nurses will. On the other hand, the phone number is directly to the nurse. So, if the patient just needs something like water or a simple comfort measure with their linens, that would be something for the nurse assistant and the call light is a good tool for that. 

On the other hand, if it's something more urgent and the patient is able to, calling the nurse is a better solution so that the nurse can respond more quickly and possibly put in orders or get in touch with a provider from the nurses station without having to first come to the room.

So far, one of the things I've noticed is that the nurses don't do a great job introducing themselves. This could be a great part of that process. I think I would immediately have more confidence in my care.