Question for Maternal/Child Nurses

[Nurse4Moms]

Greetings, everyone.

I am an AWHONN Certified Inpatient OB nurse working in a small hospital in the south. At the time I was hired, I was told that our service does involve care of pediatric patients. Then I was told that "you probably won't do much peds care as we have plenty of nurses with newborn & peds experience, and we really need your OB/L&D experience here."

Now, our department head has put out an email to all the RN's & LPN's in our unit that "everyone will have to become comfortable with peds nursing." Well, that just isn't satisfactory to me - especially as we have absolutely NO pediatric nursing orientation program available.

I've been an RN for 23 years, and have done L&D since 1985. I have brought up the fact to my supervisors that I've never, ever done peds nursing. The only answer I get is that "everyone will have to become comfortable with" peds. That is like a politician telling me that "we need lower taxes" - we never quite find out HOW! I've been here for a little over a year. I worked with another RN who's been here for 8 years for my first 2 weeks to learn the peds patient admission paperwork & how to "safe dose" meds. I'm thinking that doesn't make me a pediatric nurse!

So, I am now looking up articles about the pediatric nursing specialty and peds nursing orientation. I would very much appreciate hearing about how nurses at other small facilities with a maternal/child service have received pediatric nursing training. Also, anyone who has tips and URL's with information on how to implement such a program - please speak up!

Thank you all so much for your time & responses,

K. Cline

RN, BSN, RNC-OB

[BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN]

i really don't have much to offer, except my sympathy. i don't mean about going to peds (i'm a peds nurse), but going to an area that you are not experienced in. once again, it goes to show that 'a nurse is a nurse' theory is alive and well!! tell the ob/gyns that they need to cover the peds floor and examine and write orders for those patients!! :chuckle

is this going to work both ways (peds nurses coming to yor floor as well?) if it is, you guys can work together to get through this crisis. whether it is or not, maybe the staff can speak to the nm on peds (or if they have their own educator) and see if they can implement a mini-orientation. i'm sure you won't get the training you need (and deserve), but even a day of lecture, highlighting the key points of pediatric nursing, and maybe (at the very least), a shift of shadowing a peds nurse. i certainly don't think that would be unreasonable, but then again, i am not a suit at your hospital :chuckle .

when nurses float off service, everyone suffers. the float nurses, the floor nurses (who often have to help them), the next nurse (who often has to pick up the pieces), and most of all, the patients!! i know where i work, the docs don't even like it. we have a good relationship w/ our attendings, and they can trust us to give the best care for our kids. getting through a 12 hr shift (as a float) is not enough (stepping off my soapbox now).

[Nurse4Moms]

i really don't have much to offer, except my sympathy. i don't mean about going to peds (i'm a peds nurse), but going to an area that you are not experienced in. once again, it goes to show that 'a nurse is a nurse' theory is alive and well!! tell the ob/gyns that they need to cover the peds floor and examine and write orders for those patients!! :chuckle

is this going to work both ways (peds nurses coming to yor floor as well?) if it is, you guys can work together to get through this crisis. whether it is or not, maybe the staff can speak to the nm on peds (or if they have their own educator) and see if they can implement a mini-orientation. i'm sure you won't get the training you need (and deserve), but even a day of lecture, highlighting the key points of pediatric nursing, and maybe (at the very least), a shift of shadowing a peds nurse. i certainly don't think that would be unreasonable, but then again, i am not a suit at your hospital :chuckle .

when nurses float off service, everyone suffers. the float nurses, the floor nurses (who often have to help them), the next nurse (who often has to pick up the pieces), and most of all, the patients!! i know where i work, the docs don't even like it. we have a good relationship w/ our attendings, and they can trust us to give the best care for our kids. getting through a 12 hr shift (as a float) is not enough (stepping off my soapbox now).

it would be a hoot to tell the powers that be that ob docs have to see/tend to peds patients! i was hired here as an l&d nurse specialist; nothin' to do with peds.

we do not even have a pediatric rn here. we have the "women's & children's care section" of which ob is a part. unfortunately, our peds admissions are sporadic and there isn't one truly pediatric trained rn in our unit at this time. right now, we are being told that we will get a whole 5 days on the peds unit at a large civilian hospital in town - oh, yeah, now that'll make me a peds nurse! not!

we have 7th & 8th floors now; with peds going to 7th. soon, i hear, they will be put into rooms on the med/surg floors but one of our staff will have to go care for them. can you imagine not being expected to also take other patients on med/surg rather than just 1 or 2 peds? i can see exactly where this is going, and i will not ever do med/surg again. i've spent the last 20 years becoming an expert ob nurse - and that doesn't include med/surg!

thanks so much for your comments. i don't even know that our pediatricians here know that there are not really any specific peds nurses to care for these little guys!

the input is great - i am saving comments (sans names!) to compile for my supervisors.

live long & prosper!

kc in fl