Is this considered safe practice?

Awhonn standards clearly state that there should be 1 person in the delivery room who's sole responsibility is the care of the newborn. Where I work the OR staff is responsible for circulating and scrubbing in and 1 or sometimes even 2 (if it is an emergency c/s) OB RNs are present to care for the baby.

The OR has refused to do a c/s until someone with NRP certification is available to do baby care(non emergent cases), of course all the OR staff is NRP certified as well, and during the day they often do baby care for routine c/s. In an emergency we call anyone available to assist. Our house supervisors and respiratory therapist/techs are also NRP certified and will respond in that case.

It's not only unsafe,but unwise as well. If something were to happen you and the hospital don't have a legal leg to stand on...bring it up with your risk manager. I've found that once they know what the standard is they can usually get things changed, after all it's their job to keep the hospital as safe from lawsuits as possible.

rninwch summed it up very well.

I just have one more question. Do you have a second staff member present to provide baby care during lady partsl deliveries? That is an AWHONN and AAP standard as well. There need to be 2 persons present at ANY delivery who are capable of carrying out neonatal resuscitation, at least one of whom is skilled in intubation. In some facilities, RT provides baby care, which is fine, as long as they are NRP certified. But one RN attending both mother and baby alone is NEVER acceptable.

As states above, you are violating standard of care here. Make sure you and your manager are aware of this and do what you can to change. it.

Where I work, one RN goes back to circulate, which we always have the foley and the shave already done in the room. When we go back there is always a CRNA and anesthesia doc at the pt's head giving meds, documenting times, etc. We (the circulator) listens for fht and then preps the abdomen, straps the legs down, connects suction, etc. The two LPN's we have on the floor go back to scrub and we ALWAYS have an RN and a Respitory Therapists go back for the baby in a C-Section.