L&D vs postpartum vs newborn nursery

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

I am just curious here, do most hospitals have their perinatal nurses work in all areas, or can you work in just postpartum or newborn nursery?

The one where I did my maternity clinical in NS had their nurses rotate around, but I was just wondering if that was the norm. Thanks!

[pink85]

They rotate at my hospital b/w newborn and post partum. L&D is it's own entity and they don't go anywhere else.

[Barkow]

I work in a small hospital, and L&D, postpartum and nursery are all part of the same unit.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

At my hospital L&D is separate from postpartum and nursery. It depends on where you go...some places cross train everybody, others have everybody separate, and some places are like mine, where some things are combined (postpartum/nursery/stable antepartum) and others are separate (L&D and NICU).

[lamazeteacher]

I haven't worked L&D lately, but the trend was toward interchangeable nurses, that is, cross training. However there was a lot of elitism among the L&D nurses, who wanted to keep their shifts and exclusivity. They generally sabataged those orienting to L&D.

The Nursery nurses loved their work and claimed expertise in newborn care. Since ours was SRMC, they took care of moms and babies, as did Post Partum nurses. That worked out well.

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

Thanks for the replies! I like the idea of L&D being separate and postpartum and nursery being cross trained.

[hoppermom3]

I work in a small hospital and we do all three. While L & D is my first love, I do enjoy coming in and getting to do mom/baby care, especially when I was that patient's labor nurse. I also love breastfeeding support, so I know I would miss mom/baby if I only did L&D.

[RNBelle]

I work in a small hospital where we also cover all 3 areas. We are short on RNs so I tend to spend most of my nights in L&D. But my true love is PP and every now and then I get to hang out on that side of the floor.

[bookscrapper]

It often depends on the hospitals. The smaller ones tend to cross train everyone for all areas: antepartum, L&D, postpartum, and nursery. I work at a large hospital (~10000 deliveries/year) and antepartum is separate from L&D is separate from postpartum/nursery. I will say that we do tend to get our antepartum patients back on that floor after they deliver because they often need to be watched more closely/have more needs than the average postpartum patient.