What..work with NO residents??

[jodyangel]

Ok question. I have only worked in L&D in teaching hospitals..and am not considering taking a position at a small hospital with No residents. No 24hr anesthesia...but an OB in the house.

The RNs do all assessments concerning admissions..verify ruptured membranes ect themselves. No NICU..so if baby comes out bad I will be doing the resusitation..and then shipping that baby Out.

No high risk..but we have all had perfect labors go bad at delivery..

Its alot of responsiblity to Not have that back up..and I'm a little nervous. Should I be?

[MKPRN]

I work at a hospital exactly like the one you describe except no OB in house. I work nights and the only doctor in house is the one in the ER. However, when things are going down we don't call the ER MD. All of our OBs are 5-10 minutes from the hospital and I work with and amazing staff of nurses. I love where I work and have great nursing skills. I feel like I get to use my judgement and experience better here than I would at a big hospital. All the nurses in my department do l&d, postpartum and nursery. We all stabilize infants if they need a transfer to NICU. Many of my doctors have told us in an emergency they would rather have one of us as a nurse with them than at the big hospital nurses with a NICU because we have such versatile skills.

Is it scary as hell? Sometimes. But I don't try to avoid the idea of something bad happening. I just try to make sure we are always prepared for worst case scenarios walking in the door. During down times I am checking and stocking rooms, making sure everything is ready to go. I can go through our infant crash cart in my sleep. I try to keep myself educated and up to date. I always end up doing quadruple if not more than my required CEUs. We also do lots of drills and scenarios.

I firmly believe that God watches over us here at my little hospital. It seems like the worst always happens at shift change so there are extra hands on deck. We have delivered as early as a 29 weeker here. The down side is there are somethings I will never see (and hope never to see) here because those high risk patients are taken to the big city hospital. I have bagged lots of babies and had some pretty serious situations in l&d. In my 10 1/2 years here I still have never delivered a baby, lots of my coworkers have though. But if it happens I will be able to handle it because I am ready.