Originally Posted by romesrn00
Any OB nurses out there? The hospital that I am currently working at has asked the staff to operate with 2 labor RN's only and have a OB tech on call. The administration has been given the guidelines for core staffing on a labor unit; which is 2 RN's and a tech. Is this legal?
I don't know about legal, but we're worse off than that where I work. The other night I was scheduled with another labor nurse but since we only had a mother who had a fetal demise the day before, and a cytotec induction that night, the plan was that I be there alone with both. The other nurse would be home, "on call" in case something else came up. Well, before the offgoing shift left an additional labor patient came in so she was there with me. It is a rural hospital that does about 30 or 35 babes per month. We routinely have only two RNs scheduled at night and usually only one is a labor nurse and the other a mom/babe nurse who does postpartum couplets. (The labor nurse also does mom/babe if there is no labor patient.) I think it is a poor idea to have a labor nurse in a unit alone with a patient when no one else in the facility knows labor at night. CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP! That is precisely the reason that even though I am newly oriented to labor I have refused to be scheduled as the labor nurse on my shifts. Not enough support or backup. In the event that we have no patients which has become a rare thing as of the last year or two, the unit is closed and the scheduled nurses are home "on call" or some who are willing float to med/surg if needed.
Would you like to comment?
