First of 3, after 1 off...gotta love the extra on the paycheck, right? When I showed up for work, I had 2 recoveries...and then I hear the wonderful news that the new plan to cover all the short staffing is...to float more labor nurses to postpartum!!! Now isn't that just a way to solve all our problems? So all us new nurses get to be the first ones "cross-trained" to mom/baby. I will do it, because I have to, but let me just say this:
#1 I became a LABOR nurse
#2 The biggest downfall of a delivery is the 2hr recovery period
#3 Since I do those 2hr recoveries...isn't that postpartum?
#4 Why is it L&D's job to cover the short staffing of Mom/Baby?
Ok, I'm done complaining :)
So, as I'm walking over to PP after moving my recoveries I'm hard-core praying for a triage. And one shows up! :) ROL who was scheduled for an AM induction, her cervix didn't change in an hr and a half, but then she had 2 nice little variables so I tucked her in for the night.
Then as I'm tucking her in I got the sweetest couple down the hallway. Mom was going all natural for the second time around, she did great! I felt bad for her that she didn't get her doctor, but she was a rockstar. Very vocal, but hey, if that's what it takes that's what it takes!!
She bled a little in recovery so I kept her for an extra hour or so. Meanwhile I got another 37wk triage. Put the baby on the monitor and it was flat with a heart rate in the 210's! Just a little high. Mom had a fever, so after we got that calmed down, gave some tylenol and some antibiotics she was looking much better when I left.
I got the C/S ready for this morning too. 6 patients in a night...that will teach them to float me to mom/baby! Well...at least until my next shift. I'm afraid I'd rather just do it then to worry and stress about it every time I come in. So I'll bite the bullet and push on some fundus' for 12 hrs...
Babies today: 1f
Babies total: 48M/50F = 98
Vag:36M/39F = 75
C/S: 12M11F = 23
Babies 'caught' = 1f1/2m
Yeah, don't understand their thinking either but I'm glad you got to stay put and do your ACTUAL job (labor, not PP).
ReplyDeleteI'm playing devil's advocate here and delurking, but one, be thankful you for the most part get to do what you love most days, but two, your job is to be a nurse and sometimes it's not your ideal job, but it's what the patients need. Doing a little PP now and then can help you be a better L&D nurse if you let it, but it won't if you walk into it with a crappy attitude.
ReplyDeleteJen ~ I toally agree with you about nursing being about what the patients need, and I also agree that doing M/B could make me a labor nurse. I was having a grouchy moment after a grouchy runin with the charge nurse last night and probably got a little out of control venting! I admire the M/B nurses for what they do, because it's definitly not a job that I could do every shift!! The one thing that frusturates me (or maybe doesn't-make-sense-to-me is a better phrase for it) is how we as labor nurses are the 1st ones to get pulled to anywhere that's short staffed, but if we're ever short staffed...there's nothing anyone can do about it except call in our extra labor nurses. We're floated anywhere in a pinch, but they would never pull a M/B or a nursery nurse to come do labor. But...I can't change it, and it WILL be good for me to some orientation time on M/B.
ReplyDeleteI hear your pain. I'm a NICU nurse, we could float anywhere, but no one could float to us. And to be honest, that was probably for the best, can you see a PP nurse laboring a mom without a significant orientation period? No, it's not safe. It does suck, and the suckage spills over. Just make the best of it. That's the best you can do.
ReplyDelete