Labor and delivery vs. Postpartum - page 4

This has been an interesting read.... I see very little of this at my facility, but it's there. You RN's think it's bad - Try being the PP LVN - Red. Headed. Step. Child. Even the RNs on my own floor sometimes treat me like a total moron. Just because I have three letters behind my name instead of two doesn't make me any less inferior. I can give insulin just like you. I can start an IV or program a pump, I can even read and chart a PCA. And don't even get me started on how the L&D RNs act....

I have a suspicion that some of the posters in here are the very ones that I speak of. I seriously don't understand why nursing has to be such a ******* contest.

I work in postpartum couplet care, also antepartum/ob gyn, also intermediate nursery. Thankfully our L&D unit and us get along for the most part. I have great respect for them, it's not really my thing to carefully watch a moniter, run in a room to intervene and then prepare for a crash c/s. They do their job well. My job is just so different. I have seen c/s pts develop an illeus because L&D thought it was ok to give food so soon. Rarely is it reported to me that the fluid was mec stained. I sometimes see complications that develop hours sometimes days later when the baby codes or requires o2, etc. I get report that mom has GDM but that it was very well diet controlled therefore there was no glucose done on baby, only to have to put him on a D10 drip later for sugars in the 20-30s. Or when L&D wants to bring a patient an hour or more early because she wants to see her baby whom we are resuscitating, only to have her hemmorhage in the nursery. Just some things that will help me do my job better. Some complications that you dont see within 2 hrs after birth.

I work both...we are a LDRP unit. I wouldnt want to work in any other setting. I like the fact that one shift I can do labor, and the next PP. Things never get boring that way and everyone works as a true team.

but I agree with others, if transitioning to LDRP isnt an option, then crosstrain as many as you can.

I used to work in postpartum but I requested for a transfer to L&D and fortunately, I got the transfer. Both units have their own challenges but I'd have to say that so far I feel better working in L&D because it's what I've always wanted. It wouldn't be fair to compare both areas though since the work is so different. There will always be friction among units that work closely together like PP and L&D but I think this is normal and healthy. The important thing is to do each our jobs the best way possible and think of our patients first.

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Always worked at places where we worked all areas. No prob at all!

I am a newer L&D nurse and had to rotate through a PP unit as part of my orientation. The nurse I was with kept telling me "THIS IS SUCH A BUSY DAY" and it was the slowest day of my life! L&D is MUCH faster paced. The PP nurses had time to sit down and chit-chat with each other, love on their patients and newborns, have a snack in the break room. A day on L&D- I NEVER have a chance to sit down, managing two labor patients. The L&D units see the PP nurses as having an "easy job- just giving pain meds" There is definitely tension between the two units- Like previous posters said- it would be good to float between the two.