[QTBabyNurse]

I've been working OB for 9 years---Labor & Delivery, Newborn Nursery and Couplet Care but lately I feel that I just want to work couplets....is there anyone out there that has done the same thing? Are you sorry you gave up doing the other areas?

[Elvish]

I know that those people exist - but I'm perfectly happy switching between nursery, couplets, and highrisk antepartums.

[RealNurseWitch]

I've worked in two different medium sized, community hospitals and in both those hospitals, ob-gyn nurses were pretty much obligated to switch around between nursery, labor/delivery, and post partum. Now, I'm not totally sure whether "couplet care" is done or not in the hospital that i work now, but at my old hospital you had nurses for the moms and nurses for the babies. No "couplet" or "mother/baby" care.

I'd be interested in knowing whether or not it is possible in some larger hospitals, to work in one area and not the other two or three. Because I would love to do either post-partum care or well baby nursery, but I would rather not have anything to do with L&D or high risk nursery/NICU, if I can help it.

[wildchipmunk]

My sister's SIL works Mother/Baby at a hospital in the Denver Metro area. It's exactly what you're talking about, RealNurseWitch: JUST mother/baby no rotating into the other areas. Hope this helps!

[cherokeesummer]

Where I work we do couplet care. L and D is staffed by their own nurses and they have Antepartum responsibility however they can pull us to ante. Mother/Baby has mother/Baby and admissions nursery duty and can be pulled to pediatrics, NICU or Ante.

[cc_nurse]

The hospital I work at has separate units for Mother-baby, L & D and NICU-and of course the separate staff to work them.

[mom2michael]

The facility I am interested in there are 5 areas. WB, PP, NICU, L&D, Peds. You pick the 2 you are interested in and every 6 months you can add another one to the list but you are not required to. The only stipulation, unless you have previous L&D experience somewhere else, you can not do L&D until you have been there 16-18 months.

My friend does Peds and WB and loves every min. of her job.

[adeboer1977]

Does anyone know of research regarding couplet care that looks at patient satisfaction or outcomes (i.e., does having one nurse for baby/mother improve or harm outcomes compared to having one nurse for baby and one for mother)?

Any help is appreciated.

[Elvish]

Originally Posted by adeboer1977

Does anyone know of research regarding couplet care that looks at patient satisfaction or outcomes (i.e., does having one nurse for baby/mother improve or harm outcomes compared to having one nurse for baby and one for mother)?

Dr. Celeste Phillips has done a massive amount of reseach on this very subject. Her website: http://www.pandf.com/website/philosophy/philosophy.html

Her book 'Family Centered Maternity Care' is also very good.

[LKG6]

Originally Posted by cc_nurse

The hospital I work at has separate units for Mother-baby, L & D and NICU-and of course the separate staff to work them.

The same here. Our NICU and L&D nurses have long interships to complete before they can work on their own. Nursery has its own nurses, too. We support early rooming-in so most of our postpartum nurses are doing couplet care. I work on a low risk postpartum unit but I can also be pulled to high risk postpartum and high risk antepartum as needed. I work at a large teaching hospital. Katie