L&D charge nurses required to have patients

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Just wondering...I work in a hospital where we do approximatly 300 deliveries a month. Our new manager is requiring the night charge RN to take a patient load. I have tried finding info regarding this as to whether or not it is safe or appropriate but no luck. If anyone can help that would be great. Thanks!!

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At my former facility the charge nurse took patients (about 100 deliveries a month). My current facility (about 100 deliveries a month, different part of the country) they do not take pts unless very busy. I don't know if AWHONN has an opinion on it or not.

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Specializes in Med Surg; OB.

Not at my facility. Only if it is crazy busy will she "help out" but does not take a pt. assignment of her own.

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Specializes in L&D.

Where I work, the charge nurse will take a couple of post-partum patients. Really, sometimes they would just be sitting around...I don't see what the problem is...

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Specializes in L&D,Wound Care, SNC.

We do anywhere from 60-100 deliveries a month and our charge nurse takes patients. My former job 350-400 deliveries a month the charge nurse did not.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Where I am, L/D is a separate unit from PP, and the L/D charge doesn't take patients. She assigns pts, makes the shift assignments, and helps out wherever needed - at deliveries, with epidural insertion, bringing babies to the nursery for bath etc.

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Specializes in ob high risk, labor and delivery, postp.

my job..when i was in charge i was usually more busy with patients than other nurses..(300 del month) when it was busy..which was always..charge nurse would need to take the triage area..which basically was everyone coming up from the ECU for pregnancy problems including r/o labor, preterm labor, car accidents, physical abuse, etc...could be the worst assignment of anyone on the unit at times..and docs calling about scheduling issues would get upset that you couldn't solve their problems just because you were preparing for an emergency c section on a MVA person who was abrupting and latex allergic! stuff like that happened all the time,..sometimes i had patients overflowing into other rooms but still all mine..like 7 pts all myself plus in charge...and nurse manager asking why you didn't get replacement for sick call out for that night or go talk to postpartum pt who was unhappy that her lunch tray was late..which is why i stopped doing charge nurse..although it took a while and nurse manager was unhappy and felt it was like i was refusing an assignment since i was more qualified than others to keep being in charge..it was just too stressful...although the new charge nurses still continued to overburden me..like trying to have me have 3 labor pts when other nurses had only one..saying "you can handle it better", and then they wonder why one nurse has more "letters praising her care"--its because she is only ever given one pt at a time! so worst nurses get more thankyous from pts (at least at times)

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

As charge nurses, we take patient loads.

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Where I work we do about 80-90 deliveries a month. Charge always has a pt load. Espcially because they usually only schedule 2 RNs at night.

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Specializes in L&D/postpartum.

We do about 150 deliveries/month. Our charge nurses always take assignments, but they are always the last to get an assignment, or they take something like a stable antepartum patient.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

Up until a couple months ago, our charge nurses were always expected to take a patient load. We do about 120 births/month.

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