L&d, post-partum, Nursery rotation

klone, MSN, RN · Apr 9, 2017

Our unit does couplet care/mother-baby. Not sure what you mean by "rotate staff"? The assignment is created by the charge nurse, and they try to offer continuity to patients.

Krichar4 · Apr 9, 2017

By rotation, I mean we have labor and delivery area, post partum/gyn area, and nursery area. So each day we come in, our assignment (which area) you go to is according to your date in the book. Most people like to work Labor and delivery, very little choose nursery of post partum. So they have us right our date in a book each time we are pulled to one of the other areas. So basically if you worked labor today, tomorrow more than like you'd be pulled to another area. So pretty much if you worked 3 days in a row, you would never be in the same area more than 1 or 2 days. I'm not sure if other labor units do the same, or if they have a team A,B,c and work according to that. For example, team A works labor 1 week, B-post partum, C-nsy. And then rotate the next week. I am honestly just up for suggestions bc what we are doing right now, doesn't work that well.

Lacie1221 · Apr 12, 2017

We rotate between L&D and mother/baby - we have a level 2 nursery but rarely have babies in there. When new nurses start, they are oriented to M/B first and work there for 6 months-1 year before they start labor orientation. Obviously those nurses will do M/B when they work. If everyone on a shift is fully trained then they try to assign according to preferences - like, it's pretty well known that I will always prefer L&D over M/B, so if there's a labor patient I usually go there. And some nurses prefer M/B so they don't take labor patients often. There's not a defined rotation.

klone, MSN, RN · Apr 12, 2017

We rotate between L&D and mother/baby - we have a level 2 nursery but rarely have babies in there. When new nurses start, they are oriented to M/B first and work there for 6 months-1 year before they start labor orientation. Obviously those nurses will do M/B when they work. If everyone on a shift is fully trained then they try to assign according to preferences - like, it's pretty well known that I will always prefer L&D over M/B, so if there's a labor patient I usually go there. And some nurses prefer M/B so they don't take labor patients often. There's not a defined rotation.

Yes, that's kind of how our facility does it, as well. We have a level 2 as well, but it sounds like we may have more special needs kiddos than you, so we are able to offer either L&D or NICU training to nurses after they've completed their M/B training (although NICU training is a lot more haphazard because we don't always have a baby there).

There is no formal rotation - some nurses like to do labor more than others so will be assigned L&D. Alternatively, not all of the nurses on the unit are L&D trained (we have one LPN and a few nurses who are *just* NICU trained) so they would obviously be assigned to couplets if there isn't a NICU baby on the unit.

BSNbeauty, BSN, RN · Apr 12, 2017

We do couplet care but do rotate to the nursery, and are pulled to L and D and NICU at times. We have a book, where your name is written and the place you are pulled and the date. If you are the nursery nurse you will most likely be the nursery nurse the day after as well. However, if you are pulled than you won't be pulled the next day unless you want to. So we just rotate by who turn it is.

ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN · Apr 14, 2017

It's whatever the charge nurse decides. I have a preference for labor and luckily get placed there more often than PP. I am not trained in nursery and don't really want to be. There are some nurses that prefer PP/nursery so they are mostly over there. There are some nurses that are only trained for PP/nursery and never go to labor. There are a few older nurses in labor that don't do PP.

We do couplet care, but have an RN in the nursery for circs, border babies, moms that send their babies to the nursery for a few hours, babies that need monitoring but not sick enough for NICU, etc.

We don't go by a list or anything. The charge looks at the daily sheet, picks out who can do labor/PP/nursery and divvies them up how she sees fit. If someone had a labor pt the night before and she is still in labor, they'll often give that patient back to that nurse for continuity. Same for couplets. If someone has been in couplets for several days in a row and is tired of it, they will say something to the charge and if staffing allows she might throw them in labor or vice versa.