AWHONN Staffing Guidelines Please check this out:

New York. NY health dept reqires one RN for mother and one RN for the baby at the time of delivery.

I beg of you to find this statistic for me somewhere.

NYS title 10 code 405.21 has all of our requirements for perinatal services. There is a lot to slog trough but it is there that RN for mom and RN for baby.
It only makes sense cuz you know when things go wrong they go wrong fast and youneed adequately trained OB staff to handle it. You have a del with a bad shoulder dystocia and baby is compromised and needs close attention if not resusitation and of course because the baby was big (hence stuck shoulders) mom is now trying to bleed out on you. One doc and one nurse is not enough and both can bottom out very quickly in these situations.
Good luck at your meeting. Paying 2 nurses to be present at all times is one heck of a lot cheaper than settling even one law suit for a bad outcome.

Thank you, I'll look up that NY code. We always have two RN's when there's a labor pt, but most times it's a Mother Baby nurse not L&D nurse. We are a small hospital and they are trying to cut costs but at the expense of safety in my view.

We are very small also (less than one delivery/day average). We have 7 beds in the main unit with 4 beds for overflow when disaster strikes and we have a baby boom.
Keep in mind that while they are cutting costs they are risking your licence by not providing safe staffing levels.

Thank you for posting that wonderful information. I live and work in a small town. We are a critical access hospital and have 7 inpatient beds. Normally there is only 1 labor and delivery nurse on duty. I am wondering about the information posted and written. Were those standards written for institutions that have more than one labor and delivery nurse working a shift? We seem to run into the problem of an induction (PIT) and another patient walking in and no other labor and delivery nurse available and so one nurse caring for 2 patients. Most of our patients get epidurals and we all know that prior to 2nd stage of labor that patient will need your assistance and we are told "The standard is 1 nurse to 2 labor patients until the 2nd stage of labor" "Step out of your box" Is that good practice? Sorry I got to rambling a bit. Please send suggestions and they will be greatly appreciated.
CMRRN

cmrrn my place sounds like yours except we are much smaller. We deliver about 50 babies a year. We have only one nurse in the labor and delivery. There is only the doc and the nurse and the doc usually finishes up and its you.

One of our docs now wants the Rt to come to every delivery and be in charge of the baby, after all they have taken NRP. I don't know what standard of practice is elsewhere but I don't think respiratory therapists are trained to assess, APGARs, ect. a newborn.

Makes me want to just quit OB........

Just to add to your little remarks. Our hospital put our Peds area on by-pass from 4/9/09 0700 to 4/11/09. Now most would think from large amt of children. Take a guess? It is becasue there is no staff available to work it. The 1 Peds rn had to help in different area. Now this is professional right? The frustration of nursing carries on. Have a good day!

My concern with the "recommended staffing ratios" is that they were written for large institutions. When you work in a small hospital like ours, it is very frustrating...

I started out in Labor and Delivery 8 months after obtaining my license and working " postpartum for experience" before switching to what I love... L&D. New nurses can do it; but it needs to be a facility where staffing is good and not a skeleton crew. What concerns me the most in regard to the nurse and patient ratio is that I worked in a HUGE hospital where nurses were " running over" -- 6 on day shift.. yes I said that correctly. Now I work in a TINY hospital with 2 RN's and THATS IT my friends... I have been an L&D nurse for almost 13 years and have never seen this type of ludacrisy going on. The MD's want to push the pitocin and it doesnt matter how many patients you already have; they keep sending them over from clinic !!!!!!! Enough is enough... No one should be made to take more that 2 patients on pitocin and I am one included.. I value my license too much and I go by the AWHONN standards. I like one on one patient care because the miracle of childbirth is just that -- a MIRACLE! and you cant enjoy it running from room to room to room... Lets stop the madness !!!