I was just wondering what other hospitals do about this. Where I work, when the OB is ready to do the circ, that's when it happens.
This morning, an OB wanted to circ a baby at five minutes to seven, and all I wanted to do was finally, finally, finally crawl home and go to bed. However, I know that it needs to get done sometime, so off we went. The same OB wanted to circ another baby who was in the special care nursery, and he got upset that the nurse was not available since she was alone with three babies in the nursery and could not leave the room. He proceeded to tell me that change of shift is ridiculous, he needs to be at his office by eight, and there should always be someone available to assist him with circs. I understand that he has to get to his office, and I know that I get frustrated when I want to do things and the timing isn't right, but I don't think it's ridiculous that I want to go home after twelve and half hours of work instead of staying late.
This sort of turned into a mini-rant, but my tired, pregnant brain needed to vent. Anyways, I would like to know if other places always have a dedicated circ nurse (our night nursery nurse usually does this, but we only had a handful of pts last night, and only one baby in the nursery, so the nursery nurse got cancelled), or if circs are done at a certain time, or if there are any other solutions out there.
Our management has asked the OB docs NOT to do circs at shift change. It interferes with report, causes OT, and is a huge safety risk. When a circ is done at shift change, the nurse who is doing the circ checks is also trying to start her shift, get report, take care of leftover issues, fix new issues that she finds...all sorts of things. We do checks for the first hour. I think that audits would show that circs done at shift change don't get the checks done which leads to a risk for the infant. The OB docs still do it--and probably will until something bad happens.
I think that this elective procedure can wait until the L&D or postpartum staff has time, after they address the priorities. If the MD has to be in his office at a certain time, then come in earlier or after hours. Ever hear of this concept called time management, doc?
After a couple of years experience as a labor and delivery tech, I grew a backbone and I kindly but firmly told a physician who stopped me to ask me to get her baby ready for circ, although she saw me heading to a delivery with my scale and warm towels, that I had to go to a delivery and I will be happy to help her when I am finished if she has not already made alternative arrangements when that time comes.
DonnaH123
8 Posts
Our management has asked the OB docs NOT to do circs at shift change. It interferes with report, causes OT, and is a huge safety risk. When a circ is done at shift change, the nurse who is doing the circ checks is also trying to start her shift, get report, take care of leftover issues, fix new issues that she finds...all sorts of things. We do checks for the first hour. I think that audits would show that circs done at shift change don't get the checks done which leads to a risk for the infant. The OB docs still do it--and probably will until something bad happens.