What Happens When you Press the Nurse Call Button?

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The nurse call button is one of the most important components of any functioning nurse call system – it serves as the main gateway for a hospital patient or a care home resident in acquiring the high-quality care they need. But what actually happens when the nurse call button in these systems is pressed? What does the technology involved actually do to bring carers and nurses to their patient’s sides; and how exactly does a nurse call system work? Read on and we’ll explore all of these questions and more in our latest blog article.

What is a Nurse Call Button?

A nurse call button, quite simply, is the name given to the interactive feature of a nurse call system, that allows patients and residents to quickly and easily summon their nurses to their sides – when they’re in need of additional care or support. Think of them almost as the modern, more technologically-advanced counterpart to the original, manual call bell system used in earlier years.

In older times, the equivalent of the nurse call button was a literal bell; to be rung by patients to grab the attention of nearby nurses and doctors. The modern solution is, thankfully, a quieter one! Depending on the style and type of the nurse call system being used, a nurse call button will have slightly different applications, but this function remains the exact same. In the labelled infographic below, you can see an example of what a call button looks like on one of our Connect nurse call systems for care homes.

How does a Nurse Call System work?

As briefly alluded to in the previous paragraph, different nurse call systems will have slightly different applications – with variable nurse call button designs and interfaces, too. To explain one example of how a nurse call system works, we’ll take a look at the Altra Health Nurse Call System; a solution built especially for hospital environments, and one of the many nurse call solutions available to you as a Courtney Thorne customer.

The Altra Health nurse call system consists of several key component parts and interfaces. From the patient’s side, they will be seeing the Altra Call Health system, which contains an assistance button, a staff emergency switch button, a reset switch (to reset an initiated call from a patient) and the main patient call button. This device is generally fitted in its bracket on the side of the patient’s bed nearest the door, in reach of the patient for ease of access. This system also includes pullcord room units for use in bathrooms and toilets.

The Altra Call Health system will then be paired with a nominated Altra Touch device; the Altra Touch is the master control unit for this system, designed to oversee and capture all nurse call events. For example, the type of call event, where the call originated from, the name of the patient that made the call, and the date and time of the call are all recorded by the Altra Touch system. As well as this, your system can also include several Altra Mini Touch devices; smaller versions of the main device that can be dotted around the ward for nurses to have easier access to the control hub of the system.

And finally, the Altra Health nurse call system includes wearable tech that can be worn by both patients and nurses alike. These devices allow patients to call nurses even easier than before, while also allowing nurses to respond to their patient’s calls from wherever they are in the ward.

So with the example of our own Altra Health nurse call system, a nurse call system works by providing patients or residents with an intuitive, easy-to-use call button device that instantly alerts the nurse or caregiver of their need for assistance. To see more examples of how other types of nurse call systems work, you can browse through our list of options on our nurse call systems page, and for even more detailed information on how the technology in these systems works and links together, you can have a look at our User Guides on our Support page.

So, what happens when you press a nurse call button?

Now that we have a clear idea as to how certain examples of nurse call systems work in principle, what actually happens when a patient or a care home resident presses the nurse call button on one of these systems? Once the nurse call button has been pressed, an alert is sent immediately to a receiving station that is monitored by nurses or carers. Depending on the type of nurse call system installed, this alert will either be sent via wireless, Category 1 radio technology, or through a hard-wired series of cables to a dedicated terminal.

This station in question can be anything from a wearable piece of technology, a dedicated station like the previously described Altra Touch or Altra Mini Touch screens, or a mobile application. Once alerted by a patient, the nurse then simply has to check where the call has come from by checking their station of choice, identify the nature of the call, before then proceeding to meet the patient or resident’s request. The speed and efficiency of communicating all of this information at the simple press of a button, is what makes nurse call systems such an important piece of technology for healthcare environments.

If you would like to enquire more about installing a nurse call system in your care home or hospital, then we can be reached easily on our Contact page. Our knowledgeable team of engineers and industry experts can talk you through everything there is to know about nurse call systems. You can also have a look at all of the resources listed in our Support hub, to help you understand the fundamentals of our nurse call systems.