Every room is full, you empty one room and two patients come in..you know the kind of day...then, a doc calls and tells you that he has a patient that's scheduled for a c-section in three days but she's in labor now...and here's where the real fun begins.
This "laboring" patient (with contractions every 20 min and a thick, closed cervix) arrives with her entire extended family. I ask them to step out while I admit the patient and prepare her for her c-section. A few of them leave but then trickle back in within a few seconds. I ask the patient who her support person will be in the OR-since it's not obvious from the numerous people in the room. She begins naming off people and I stop her at five (she has eight people in the room and so far she's been pointing them out in a clockwise manner) and tell her that for safety and infection control reasons (if not pure lack of space) she can only take one person into the OR with her. She and the entire family now jumps all over me because "the doctor said we can take whoever we want in." I have to politely explain to them that the doctor does not have any say over visitors in the OR-it's a hosptial issue. The CRNA comes in and agrees to allow two people in. Now the entire family is fighting over who will be the second person (would have been easier to limit it to one.) Now, the mother comes out and informs me that she and the husband will be going in, but "we will need a nurse to film it because Aunt Betty was going to but now you won't let her in." I tell her that the nurses in the room have duties related to the surgery that they must fulfill and that they are welcome to take a video camera in but they will have to video tape it. She then says that there is no way they can film because they want to watch so we need an extra nurse to come in. I explain to her that we are very busy today and do not have an extra nurse to go in and again tell her that she is welcome to film it.
OK so they finally go back and we have to virtually physically restrain the family members who continually attempt to "wander" into the OR and refuse to wait in the waiting room-they must be in the hall the entire time.
This whole time I am also the charge nurse and have another labor patient. Every nurse on the floor has a huge patient load. We run around all day long.
So, a half hour before the end of my shift I finally have time to sit down and chart and one of the babies will not stop crying and mom is trying to take a nap and refuses to have the (breastfeeding) baby returned to her room. I am able to soothe the baby a little by holding her. So, I am holding a baby and charting and a visitor walks by and says "what a great job you have, you just get to sit around and hold babies all day.":banghead:
She is LUCKY I didn't rip her face off!!!
OK, go ahead and vent here-we all need it now and then!
Specializes in Rehab, CICU, ICU Pulmonary, ER, OB.
[color=#483d8b]having a baby is personal, i think. i agree with the "if you weren't there for the conception" thing. kind of like, if you wouldn't be present for a general gyn exam, then you don't need to be there! come visit after mom and baby are cleaned up and rested a bit. i also don't understand how people can want their young children in the room to "watch their baby brother/sister being born". wouldn't that traumatize the child? do many people do this?
i am not a nurse yet, but plan on doing ob/nicu (it is my passion) lol. i just wanted to chime in that kids, well at least my kids weren't phased a bit by seeing me deliver their little sister. they were 6 and 4 at the time, the only thing they said was that "i knew that was gonna hurt mommy" and "i think you need a band-aid!" lmao they tell my baby who is now 1, "we seen you be born and i think you hurt mommy!"
i also had a room full of people, i had 5 adults with my first delivery, 2 with my second and 4 adults and my 2 girls with me for my 3rd delivery. the one thing i can say is that they stayed out of the way, i warned them going into it that if they got in the way for 1 second they would be banished to the waiting room! so the ones who weren't holding my legs stood back in the carpeted area and waited for the nurse to say is was safe to come over!
I have been one of those family members who wants to be with their family member even though the hospital says you can't. I am still a student at this time but I am curious as to why that rule applys to immediate family? I guess I always thought that if someone was in critical condition the best thing for the patient was for the family to be by their side. Maybe you can help clarify for me? Thanks,
Because, with very few exceptions, a woman giving birth is no where near critical condition. She's having a baby, not actively dying. And if that changes (hemorrhage or what have you) she goes to ICU, where she also doesn't need a circus in the room. Just like the post-op CABG nurse posted earlier... the really sick folks need to be left alone. They are using every bit of energy trying to stay alive.
Hoping2beRN, BSN, RN
105 Posts
i am not a nurse yet, but plan on doing ob/nicu (it is my passion) lol. i just wanted to chime in that kids, well at least my kids weren't phased a bit by seeing me deliver their little sister. they were 6 and 4 at the time, the only thing they said was that "i knew that was gonna hurt mommy" and "i think you need a band-aid!" lmao they tell my baby who is now 1, "we seen you be born and i think you hurt mommy!"
i also had a room full of people, i had 5 adults with my first delivery, 2 with my second and 4 adults and my 2 girls with me for my 3rd delivery. the one thing i can say is that they stayed out of the way, i warned them going into it that if they got in the way for 1 second they would be banished to the waiting room! so the ones who weren't holding my legs stood back in the carpeted area and waited for the nurse to say is was safe to come over!