L&D pt assignments

[salinarn]

Hello All,

I have a general question. Does your hospital have a float position specifically for the maternal/infant division (L&D, Ante/Post partum, NICU), and if so what patient types do these rn's take when pulled to L&D? I'm trying to get a sense of what the standard is at other hospitals around the country.

Thanks for any help!

[LDRNMOMMY, BSN, RN]

I have worked L&D in 2 different hospitals and nurses were never floated from other units to L&D. At my last job L&D nurses were floated to other units, which was always a point of contention because they would try to float us to ICU to take patient assignments and there was always a good chance that the nurse that floated would get pulled back to L&D when the labor bus showed up. I always find it odd that L&D was considered too specialized to float, but it was totally cool for an L&D nurse to be expected to take a patient assignment in the ICU. We always stood our ground and they either put us to work to enter orders, run labs, etc. or found nurses that were OK with taking the assignment.

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

In our unit we float to L&D and we only do fully stabalized postpartum patients or work the nursery.

[tablefor9, RN]

We don't float nurses into L&D--too specialized, takes too long to orient. This is not a Med Surg area. When we use float staff in the Women's Pavilion, it's for GYN surgery patients or 2nd day postpartum, formula feeding moms.

[salinarn]

Thanks for the info!!! We do have a specialized maternal/infant float pool at our hospital and theorhetically we are to take "normal term laborers" when on L&D. We do also care for preeclamptics and diabetics when needed. But we did not go to the OR with our pts to circulate or scrub. They are wanting to add these jobs to our ever-growing list and we feel very uncomfortable with the idea. I was just trying to get a feel for what goes on at other facilities. I greatly appreciate any input!!!!!

[LDRNMOMMY, BSN, RN]

I also wanted to add at my last job nurses were floated from other units to mother baby. The mother bay unit had strictly stable couplets. When NICU needed help nurses would be floated there to help feeding stable feeder/grower babies. HTH.