H1N1 and floating to other departments

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

In my small rural hospital our OB nurses float to Med/surg when med/surg is short. If our nurses are needed we come back to the unit. Currently we made a new rule that no sick women are allowed in the unit. Before, when a pregnant woman showed up in the E.R. the immediately sent them down to us, even though the illnesses had nothing to do with being pregnant. Now, we are going to the E.R. to triage these patients and if they are sick and have to be admitted we are placing them in a room just outside of our unit. I was just wondering how other hospitals that float their OB nurses to the general med/surg floor are dealing with this N1H1 situation.

In my opinion we should not be floating to the med/surg unit at all during the flu season, especially since AWHONN sent out a notice saying that pregnant woman have four times the hospitalizations for N1H1 than the general public.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

You shouldn't float since apparently you don't know the name of the flu is H1N1.:cool:

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.
You shouldn't float since apparently you don't know the name of the flu is H1N1.:cool:[/QUOT

Got my eyes dilated today. Maybe I should have waited until after my eyes undilated lol.

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

I fixed the title for ya, Hearts!!

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

I work with SEVERELY immunocompromised (think BMT) pts, probably as endangered by H1N1 as pregnant pts. While we do prevent pregnant nurses from caring for those patients, I have cared for those patients as well for nonH1N1 patients, obviously in the separate rooms, in the same pt assignment on the same day. And given the rep of where I work, they are very strict on infection control.

With patients that are at high risk, you wash your hands/wear a mask/obey the CDC recommended precautions. I doubt seriously whether one will be able to bar nurses floating between units, because of a risk of there being an H1N1 somewhere on the floor. And it is more than likely that given the age group most affected by H1N1, there will be plenty of H1N1 on the OB floor, whether staff are aware of it at the time or not (visitors/family/patients/etc.).

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Specializes in OB.

I work in a busy ob unit and while our nurses don't float to med/surg areas, we have our own pregnant H1N1 patients on our unit.

It is a bit scary, but as the above poster stated, wear a mask, gown as necessary and wash your hands. I think we will see more and more of this during the season.

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Specializes in L&D.

CDC guidelines state that a nurse may care for patients with and without the flu using droplet precautions. So far my major problem this flu season has been trying to get the ER (after 8PM all OB patients come to us from the ER) to only send us pregnant patients with labor or other pregnancy related symptoms. Just because a woman is over 20 weeks pregnant does not mean she must be seen in L&D. If she's been in a car accident, clear her cervical spine; if she's having chest pain, rule out a heart attack; if she has a fever, cough and sore throat, take care of her there. If she is also having contractions, at least put a mask on her when you send her to us.

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Specializes in L&D,Wound Care, SNC.
Just because a woman is over 20 weeks pregnant does not mean she must be seen in L&D. If she's been in a car accident, clear her cervical spine; if she's having chest pain, rule out a heart attack; if she has a fever, cough and sore throat, take care of her there. If she is also having contractions, at least put a mask on her when you send her to us.

Amen! Our ED has the same mentality. If they are over 20 weeks they tend to get tunnel vision and immediately send them up to us without examining them. (9 times out of 10 without calling, no less). Not calling can cause problems since we only have 7 beds 6 of them being labor beds. If we are full and/or on divert (where we send patients to local hospitals on the economy) this puts us in a sticky situation. They let a post partum patient with BPs 170s/90s ambulate up to L&D with her baby in her arms! :nono: I could go on and on. I swear if a visibly pregnant woman came to the ED with a broken foot they'd try to send her up to L&D first.

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