How long do you typically stay?

[CrunchyLaborRN]

I will graduate in May and I have accepted a job offer in L&D (SOOOO THRILLED). I will work the 7p-7a shift. The only issue I have with taking this job is that my husband has to be at work at 8am and I have three children who need to be taken to school by 8:45. I am sure you see where I am going with this. I really need to be out of there and on my way home by 7:30-7:45...

How long do you typically stay after the end of your shift? This hospital charts by exception (computerized).

Thanks for your input!

[SmilingBluEyes]

Negotiate with your coworkers, if at all possible. This is what saved MY bacon. I did lots of favors for others in return.

[misty1998]

Not sure if your hospital allows this, but ours does. We havent gone to central monitor yet...in a couple months we are!!!! anyway, most of our night nurses have to get kids to school, so they leave around 730ish and come back after they take the kids to school and finish charting. We have an awesome manager so that helps to! Generally we are done and out the door no later than 0745 though!

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

Not sure if your hospital allows this, but ours does. We havent gone to central monitor yet...in a couple months we are!!!! anyway, most of our night nurses have to get kids to school, so they leave around 730ish and come back after they take the kids to school and finish charting. We have an awesome manager so that helps to! Generally we are done and out the door no later than 0745 though!

See, if more employers did things like that, then we'd have a much better workforce experience. Of course, I think every employer in America should provide 24 on site daycares, so I'm a little idealistic, but it would cut down on sick days for kids, and no one would have to miss work unless their child was hospitalized.

[rnin02]

I currently work in the nursery, and we are 99.9% of the time waiting by the time clock at 7:15. The latest I have left there has been 7:30. L&D is usually walking out the door with us. When I worked on tele, most of the time I was out by 7:15, the only time I can remember staying as late as 8am (aside from a couple of times the nurse coming in was running late, and I could have turned my patients over to the charge nurse if I wanted to) was because of a code. Just stay on top of things the best you can, and focus on your time management. I've worked with plenty of nurses who goof off from midnight till 6am then run around like crazy and can't get out on time. And I've also followed nurses who chart every single little thing, so they don't get out on time. Remember, its charting by exception, you don't need to double chart!

[SmilingBluEyes]

Our manager would have a cow if people made a practice of coming back to chart. It's just not allowed unless under dire circumstances. Stinks. THat is why I say, work with your coworkers. If you have inflexible mgt like most of us, at least you can help each other out. And the hint about staying on top of things is a good point. I always chart as I go and have rarely not been able to make it out the door before 0730. If you stay up on things, you will be in a much better position to get out on time.

[misty1998]

The reason alot of our nurses have to come back to chart is, we don't have central monitoring yet so they have to chart their strips. If you are back that night, you can try to chart then, but if its another crazy night, then you'll just get farther behind. We are a rural hospital, and we are labor/delivery/recovery/postpartum/nursery. At night we are usually staffed w/ 1 rn 1 lpn and 1 tech. we can call someone in if we need more help. Not sure what size hospital the original poster is going to work at, but we average 40 deliveries a month. We also take care of all ob/gyn patients including hysters. If you are pregnant and in the hospital more than likely you will be in our dept unless you are contagious.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Central monitoring did not make charting faster for me. I still had to chart q15 (or more often) and the screens are hard to see when there are several pts on the monitors, so you wind up entering the rooms to read strips, anyhow. I came from a place where no central monitoring existed to one that does. I cannot say charting got easier. You still spend lots of time at the bedside and no charting gets done often, when pushing is being done. My manager won't let people come back to chart. They used to but I guess a few abused it to the "nth" degree and she since has disallowed it. I still make it out on time as I keep up on my charting as I go.

I only usually run late if the delivery occurs at change of shift or was somehow a real problem (emergent c/section, etc).

Our hospital sounds a lot like yours. We do about 70-75 del/month, LDRP and we do GYN surgicals, too.

[KellNY, RN]

Central monitoring did not make charting faster for me. I still had to chart q15 (or more often) and the screens are hard to see when there are several pts on the monitors

I agree--I'm not sure who confused 'central monitoring' with not having to chart. You're still responsible for interpreting the strip q15min ar least, you still have to pay the same amt. of attention (if not more....can't tell you how many times I was eyeing my strip when I see someone else's problem "Um, Nurse P., you're lady is decel'ing to 50 here. You wanna flip her over? And your lady in rm 5 has been off the monitor for 10min"...it kinda becomes everyone's job to watch everyone.).

[flytern]

How do you give shift to shift report? How many patients will you have? I too work until 0730 in labor/delivery. Most days, we leave by 0730, but,

if someone comes in active labor at 0650, it's our responsiblity to admit them. We use computer charting (but it takes forever when you're patient can't answer your questions!).

So everyday is different, just don't short change your pt care/charting because you need to rush off.