Couplet care - how do you handle float pool nurses?

[klone]

Our unit switched to couplet care on February 1. Prior to that, we had one nurse who took a team of postpartum moms, and another nurse who took a team of newborns. We would often have nurses float into our department from med/surg or ICU, and we would always assign them a team of moms. However, now that we've switched to couplets, it has caused quite a bit of trouble, and nobody is really certain how to handle it. Because these float nurses are not NRP certified or trained in caring for newborns, we have to split up the couplets and give the moms to the float nurse. It's kind of thrown a wrench into the works and makes it really troublesome when trying to make assignments.

So how do other facilities handle this?

[kemper1974]

Well, our unit has thrown ortho/neuro elective suregerues in to our pp/gyne mix....

[babyktchr, BSN, RN]

Part of the contract of having the closed unit is that the staff will cover the call outs or need for extra staff or deal with being short. We had a couple of rough bumps last summer and I threatened to open the unit because the thought was that I (as the manager) should come and cover the holes. Nada. You wanted the unit closed, YOU cover the holes. Haven't had an issue since. You have to have written policy on closed unit with eveyone's buy in or it just doesn't work. We have policy and guidelines and everyone signed the agreement and it is in their files. They get extra kudos on their eval for covering and bonus pay also.