L&D staffing guidelines

NurseforPreggers · Apr 25, 2005

Wow, I can't imagine this scenario! Must be nice!

In all seriousness though, I don't know how most very small hospitals do it. But I would think it would be important to have atleast 2 L&D RNs on the floor at all times. I mean ... suppose you find a prolapsed cord ... who is going to call the doctor/etc. There are some cases where you just cannot leave the pt.

I don't know about having no pt's on the floor whether having someone in house/at home on call. I would think it would be important to always have someone in house considering the possibility of pt's coming in through the ER needing immediate attention. Maybe this happens at my hospital more than others though. Just my .02 :)

SmilingBluEyes · Apr 25, 2005

Whether or not there is a labor patient in-house, you must have 2 qualified and NRP-trained L/D nurses in- house at all times. Anything less is unsafe and potentially a legal powder keg. You can't ever know what is going to be wheeled in your doors at any given time.

QTBabyNurse, BSN, RN · Apr 25, 2005

i work in a fairly small community hospital...we deliver about 600 babies a year. we always have 2 l&d nurses on each shift, no matter what the census. if supervision floats our staff due to no patients on the floor, there are still 2 l&d nurses left on the unit. anything less would be very dangerous.

maxiebelle · Apr 26, 2005

i work in a fairly small community hospital...we deliver about 600 babies a year. we always have 2 l&d nurses on each shift, no matter what the census. if supervision floats our staff due to no patients on the floor, there are still 2 l&d nurses left on the unit. anything less would be very dangerous.

i agree--there should be at least one l&d nurse in house always. i think of l&d as the er for ob patients. all er nurses would not be at home on call if there happened to be zero patients in the er for any length of time. if we offer ob services to our community, we owe it to them to have a specialty nurse in a specialty area. but i'm not the one who needs to be convinced.....

thanks for your replies. i really need as many viewpoints as possible.

SmilingBluEyes · Apr 26, 2005

Don't do L/D in a place that does not care to staff properly. You only will wind up in hot water at some point.

BETSRN · Apr 27, 2005

How is your L&D unit staffed?? I'm looking at a small hospital with one nurse in L&D each shift. Is there a L&D nurse in-house 24-7? Or, if there are no patients in L&D, is the nurse at home on-call? Thanks for any replies.

That would be a very dangerous situation. I would never consider a unit that staffs with one nurse. That's a lawy suit waiting to happen.

ldnurse7581 · May 1, 2005

where i work, (7p-7a) we have 4 nurses 7-11 and 3 nurses 11-7 but we have 2 scrub tech's (for c-sections and to clean the rooms) all night(7-7). day shift has at least 5 nurses and 2 scrub techs.

BETSRN · May 1, 2005

How is your L&D unit staffed?? I'm looking at a small hospital with one nurse in L&D each shift. Is there a L&D nurse in-house 24-7? Or, if there are no patients in L&D, is the nurse at home on-call? Thanks for any replies.

if there are not two NRP certified people there, then you are not up to standard.