Kudos

Thank you for your observations! I hope you find nursing in general as rewarding!

I know this is gonna sound bad, and I don't mean for it to, but I was under the understanding that OB nurses didn't do c-sections? There was always one or two there to take care of baby when the section was over, but when I was in the OR, it was the OR crew that did all the work because it's an operation. Is this not the way it is everywhere?

I agree, OB nurses are great. I could never do it! Never had the desire to do it. The c-sections as an OR nurse were bad enough if you ask me! OB nurses can have 'em at the beginning of life, I much prefer them at the end of life (geriatrics).

I know this is gonna sound bad, and I don't mean for it to, but I was under the understanding that OB nurses didn't do c-sections? There was always one or two there to take care of baby when the section was over, but when I was in the OR, it was the OR crew that did all the work because it's an operation. Is this not the way it is everywhere?

I agree, OB nurses are great. I could never do it! Never had the desire to do it. The c-sections as an OR nurse were bad enough if you ask me! OB nurses can have 'em at the beginning of life, I much prefer them at the end of life (geriatrics).

Where I was the patient's labor and delivery nurse was sort of the scrub tech and NICU came and got the baby after it was taken out. In the room was the OB dr and about 3 of the L&D nurses from the floor. The nurses were the ones that cleaned up the patient and counted the instruments and then we took the patient to recovery.

At our hospital when we have a stat C/S, the L&D nurses get the consent signed, do the preop checklist, give the Bicitra and antibiotic, deal with family, ,deal with mom's pain, monitor baby and contractions, go to the OR with the mom, help the OR crew set up the mom on the OR bed, stay in the OR during the surgery and take care of the baby afterwards. If baby is doing poorly a ped is present. The OB doctor calls the OR crew, who does the anesthesia and helps with the actual surgery. The PACU nurse recovers the mom for about an hour after surgery. Then we get her back.

So, no, we don't do the C/S, but we certainly help a lot!

At my hospital (and the one I worked at previously 10 years ago) the L&D nurses do it all from pre-op until transfer to postpartum. This includes pre medication, shaving, pre-op checklist, dealing with patient and family, getting consents, calling everyone (EVERYONE!), transporting to OR, helping anesthesia, setting up warmer for baby, circulating case, recovery and transfer. Oh and somewhere in there we have to chart on all that, it's INSANE!! Heaven forbid you have to do some extra task such as pushing up a head or irrigating a bladder!

At the previous hospital we even had to care for baby once the initial "ok it's breathing and HR is good" assessment was over. At least at the current hospital there's a NICU team that comes and cares for baby, all we have to do is note the vitals and weight on the delivery record. I'm pretty sure the previous hospital is STILL requiring one circulator be responsible for Mom and baby.....I can't believe I did that!! Ignorance is bliss.....

Oh geez, now I really feel behind. In our hospital, the OB nurse is the neonatal nurse. Another RN comes from the med/surg floor to assist with babe in a vag delivery, and our csections are like a previous nurse described-we do everything but scrub and clip. I've never thought it strange because this is the only place I've ever worked.