Labor and delivery vs. Postpartum

TriageNewborn · Mar 12, 2014

You obviously haven't worked in a busy postpartum unit! We have over 68 rooms, run censuses of > 100 patients per day, will admit 20-25 patients per shift, discharge up to 40 patients a day. Our patients have become more and more complicated with major postpartum hemorrhages, obesity, hypertensive crisis, pulmonary embolisms, congestive heart failure, pulmonary edema (cause by L and D overhydrating them and not do a lick of I and O in their charting), not to mention the extra care needed to take care of late pre-termers, babies going through neonatal drug withdrawal, the emotional demands of a NICU mother, or the 52 year old mother who is freaking out having her first baby. Our nurses on average begin with 4-5 couples and have taken up to 9 couples, many of those mothers still on PCAs and triple antibiotics. So before you rant about easy postpartum nurses have it you really need to see that not every hospital is the same. I too have worked in both units, NICU, ICU, ER, Peds, and without a doubt the hardest floor in the world to work is Medical Surg! Your time management skills must be above reproach. I can undoubtly say that yes it may take skills to watch 1-2 laboring patients, you have just that 1-2! And these days at our hospital it is 2 nurses per one room when the actual delivery takes place and then they pass the baby off to yet a third RN who admits the baby. I have done rounds as an administrator to find 19 L and D for 10 laboring patients where I work and find at least 10 of them sitting around at the nurses' station gossiping. None one even pretends to looking at strips. Our postpartum unit runs their own emergency drills, has more nurses certified then L and D, and is depended on to pull the hospital HCAHPS up because of the high volume of our discharges. Having been both a staff nurse, educator, manager, and Director of Nursing there is no area with nurses brighter than another. It is truly the bell curve out there. Nurses need to stop pointing the finger at each other, stop complaining about who has it worse and focus on the patient for a change.

TriageNewborn · Mar 12, 2014

Amen!! It is about the person, not the position, or the unit they work in

TriageNewborn · Mar 12, 2014

At least your an honest person!

TriageNewborn · Mar 12, 2014

Without a doubt the best way to rid the infighting is for them to be one big melting pot. When nurses have to rotate through all of the women's departments you don't have this problem. It doesn't matter which hospitals I have worked in when the units have separate staffs you have issues. That is why I am a firm believer in the true LDRP concept.

klone, MSN, RN · Mar 16, 2014

At least your an honest person!

If you're replying to someone's post, you should quote them, so people know what you're replying to. :)

lopezlily · Dec 13, 2015

What a terribly ignorant statement you've made. I am a new nurse and I pray that I never have the mindset you have. Comparing yourself to other specialties and competing with other nurses is out of question. Regardless of the specialty anyone decides to pursue, their skills should NEVER be undermined.

lopezlily · Dec 13, 2015

It's very difficult to respect the PP nurses in our hospital when they don't seem to be able to handle anything but uncomplicated patients. Even the doctors make comments like "we better not send this patient over because they will probably kill her". I think it's up to the PP nurses to step up and act like the nurses they were trained to be. Panicking when a patient bleeds, or calling frantically over to L&D for help because they can't do a simple IV doesn't make it any better. Also this we need more time to accept a patient is total crap. When a patient delivers you get notice that you will be recieving an admission of mother and baby...so plan for that admission then, don't get all crazy when we call to say the patient is coming over...you knew that already and most times we have them for at least 90 minutes but most of the time for 2-3 hours. It's also hard for us to hear that the nurse went to lunch so we can't bring someone over...we on L&D don't get lunch we often sneak meals in while monitoring our patients...not that that is right but seriously if we can do that then you should be able to have your tech (which we don't have) set up your room for the patient while you finish your lunch.
Before you think I don't know what PP nurses actually do, I've worked both units and let me tell you PP is infinitely less demanding than L&D, so own that and have some understanding and respect for the nurses that are working harder than you and cut them some slack.

What a terribly ignorant statement you've made. I am a new nurse and I pray that I never have the mindset you have. Comparing yourself to other specialties and competing with other nurses is out of question. Regardless of the specialty anyone decides to pursue, their skills should NEVER be undermined.

lopezlily · Dec 13, 2015

Almost *16* years experience & most of it, and currently, in L&D w/ abt 1-2 shifts out of 8 in nursery or dyad care. Other background is ICU, with a little home health & camp for kicks and giggles, and have done travel many different places. I'm sorry for the facility you work in, and I'm grateful that my PP nurses have had my back EVERY SINGLE PLACE I've ever worked.
And, I hope that what you posted here is out of your frustration, and isn't how you come across at work. Because then, I'd just feel sorry for your coworkers. If their skill level is lacking, help them. Work to bring more education, drills, re-orientation, whatever to your unit. But for mercy's sake don't take the suffering martyr position. It'll burn you out of your specialty before you know it, because you'll be the nurse the pts can't stand and the coworkers dread working with.

Very WELL said! I appreciate your mature and eloquent statement :)

Thank you!

busymsybee96 · Dec 14, 2015

I have worked in OB for over 19 years--mostly in mother/baby. No matter where I work the relationship is always the same. It puzzles me as well. It's like one area believes their area is more important than the other. The truth of the matter is, we are all important. We cannot have one without the other. I wish we all got along better. It does help to organize outside the work place activities...movie night, running groups, progressive dinners while at work. These have helped some.

Happie2bRN · Oct 17, 2016

I know that this is an old post, but I felt a need to respond. I come from working postpartum and yes the tension between L&D nurses and postpartum nurses can sometimes be high. At the hospital I worked, the postpartum area was often understaffed and not only did we received delivery patients, but also antepartum and women whom had surgeries in general. With that being said, I often felt frustrated when I was the only RN on the floor with 13 and sometimes as high as 16 patients while the L&D nurses had only 1 patient in their department completely and was so determined to send that 1 patient on to the floor on me. Gosh, if the supervisor would ask them to come and help on postpartum when they had no patients, they would come but rush to do it so they could return back to their department and chill for sometimes the rest of the day. I think nurses in general should have respect for one another regardless of their area of work. I am one of those nurses who will go out to help another nurse when my patient's load wasn't heavy and did not mind floating to other areas during that time. By the way, I do not call the L&D nurses for bleeds I handle my own patient's care and if needed, call the DOCTOR. It sickens me when other nurses believe that postpartum nurses look at lady partss all day and monitor pads. We do more than that- we have patients with multiple comorbidities- seizures, diabetes (insulin drips), hypertension, CVAs, chest pains, DVTs (heparin drips), hyperemesis gravidarum, threatening miscarriages, amputees and asthma. So no darling, we are not just looking at lady partss all day.