Improvement Ideas

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Hi everyone :)

During a staff meeting last week, we were all asked to think of ideas on how we could improve the experience for our mothers and fathers especially. Right now we are pretty typical and don't have many "extras". One of the examples was a candlelight dinner for mom and dad before discharge, but what else? I wondered if any of you could offer some suggestions on how we could make our moms and dads stay more satisfying. What do you do at your hospital? Also, how do you include Dad and make him feel special? Labor is usually centered around Mom, but as our Director pointed out, he is also going through one of the biggest moments of his life and should also feel special. Thank you in advance for any ideas that you may share. :) I am new to the OB Unit and am excited to help make the experience better for my patients. :redpinkhe

Specializes in L&D/Postpartum/Newborn, Home Health.
Is the baby not good enough anymore? You have to throw in extras to sweeten the deal!?!

A baby is not a gift from the hospital-it's the couple's child-they made it, the mother grew it and then gave birth to the baby. We should be honored that they allow us to take part in this wonderful experience. Birth is not an illness-it's more of a celebration so I think it is very much in order to treat it as such.

From my experience, the dinner is a nice idea on paper but the logistics of it don't always work out-the dad is not there (for various reasons) when the dinner is delivered. Almost on a daily basis we had patients requesting "extra" dinners be brought in for family/friends and then would often complain when we couldn't accomodate them. It has also been my experience that hospital nutrition services usually don't have the facility or ability to cook a really nice steak dinner so the food is often not that great. You can order from a restaurant but that gets pricey and someone has to go pick it up...etc.

We gave "snack packs" to the dads for awhile-a bag of all kinds of goodies that we didn't already have in the nutrition area on the floor, ie. candy, crackers, soda, etc. They usually loved it but again there were downsides. The staff was always really excited to give the daddy his gift and we went through about 30-40% more gift packs than we had births because the dads were given their goodie bags before it was determined that mom was in labor and then she'd go home...it doesn't sound like it would be a huge deal but the cost adds up fast.

For awhile we offered one "guest meal" during the stay-similar concept to the dinner but it was a bit more flexible in that they just needed to let us know a few hours before the meal they wanted a tray for-breakfast after a long night of labor was very popular. From what I saw, this was the most successful but because I work in a small hospital it became too much for the kitchen staff to add that many extra trays every day.

The parents are now given two cupcakes from a fancy-smancy bakery in town, they are really, yummy and the parents seem to like it-it comes in a gift wrapped box with a nice note on the outside congratulating them on their new addition.

Given all of that-the best thing that we do is give good patient care-the other stuff doesn't matter. In fact, I found that patients that got poor care often complained about the extra things we did too!! There is no substitute but parents feel special when there are also little perks!

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Specializes in OB, Surgical, ER.

In order to make my patient's experiences "extra special", I give them the best care I can give. I ensure my care is competent and safe and always try to treat them with respect. I would not babysit on my own time because that is when I need to recharge myself and look after myself and my own family so that I can return the next shift a whole person in order to provide excellent patient care (not babysitting services).

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Given all of that-the best thing that we do is give good patient care-the other stuff doesn't matter. In fact, I found that patients that got poor care often complained about the extra things we did too!! There is no substitute but parents feel special when there are also little perks!

Oh, wow is that ever brilliant. It's unfortunate that "out there" hospitals are competing for birthing business on stuff that is completely dumb and has nothing to do with evidence based, safe, compassionate care, isn't it? Our 3 local hospitals have gone at it over the years with the wood floors (all the better for puking on??), flat screen tvs, tempeurpedic beds, you name it. I have worked as a doula in all 3, and the one that is thought of as low rent actually has the best providers and nurses in town. The fancy pants one is a csection factory but no one wants to hear that because it looks so nice on the outside. Especially because like someone said, the labor rooms are beautiful and ginormous, and then the postpartum ones, where folks are actually going to try to get some rest are teeny tiny and uncomfortable.

However...since I know it's important and the reality is these perks sell, I will tell you the things I have seen that I think are great and work. The tempeurpedic beds at the one hospital I mentioned...they are in the postpartum suites where I had my last baby and they are COMFY. Like seriously awesome. I think they were ungodly expensive though. But compared to a regular hospital bed? My goodness. I still think it's kind of crummy that our patients who are in for far longer for less joyful reasons are given such crap beds, but I digress.

The snack packs. At around 3pm dietary would bring snacks to the postpartum rooms. I was so starving from birth, breastfeeding, etc, that I wanted to kiss that lady. It was those tuna snack packs, some peanut M&Ms and a soda. Not the healthiest, but seriously, I still remember how great those M&Ms tasted!

We had the massage, and I bet you could do this on the cheap if you are letting the masseuses distribute their cards for future private business.

I am realizing all of these things are postpartum stuff. I do think including dad is just all the little things nurses can do. Also, I know this isn't under our control, but a lot of the midwives here encourage dad to help catch the baby if he's interested. Those are some very, very special births.:redbeathe

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