Labor and Delivery Orientation

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

To my fellow labor and delivery nurses:

I need your help! Recently, nurses at my hospital were informed that orientation time to labor and delivery is going to be cut from 10 weeks (which is already too short) to 8 weeks. We were told this is "the standard amount of time used at other hospitals." I've been researching the orientation times used at other hospitals and have found this not to be true.

I'm putting together a presentation to show the orientation lengths used at other hospitals, and what the orientation consists of in an attempt to prevent this cut from happening. This is where I need your help. If you could leave a comment with the following information, it would be incredibly helpful:

1) the hospital or health system you work for

2) the amount of time labor and delivery orientation is for new grads or nurses without previous experience

3) any formal classes given to orientees

4) any conditions for nurses recently off orientation (i.e. no triage for first year, no c-sections for first 6 months, etc).

Please help us provide adequate orientation to our new nurses and promote safety and satisfaction for everyone!

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

You would likely be better reaching out to HR or nurse managers at other facilities- this is an anonymous website where people are not going to want to post their employer, plus I highly doubt your management team will take anything from an anonymous website seriously. Have you looked at recommendations from AWHONN?

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Moved to OB/GYN nursing

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Specializes in LDRP.

1)I'd rather not name my specific hospital on a public forum. I can say I am at a teaching hospital and we do approximately 250-300 births a month. We also train to all areas (L&D, Postpartum, Nursery), and most train to Postpartum before training to labor.

2) Orientation can vary and is tailored to each specific nurse. I would say anywhere from 8-12 weeks of labor, plus 2-4 weeks of straight OR/PACU training (with scheduled sections). Some people are done sooner, some take longer.

3) Orientees take AWHONN's Beginner Fetal Monitoring course, 20ish hours of online baby friendly/breastfeeding education plus 2 hours of in person skills checkoffs for baby friendly/breastfeeding. They have just started a "Support of the woman in labor" class for new orientees--I am not sure what it consists of though. Maybe breathing techniques, positioning ideas, counter pressure, etc.

4) As long as they have oriented and checked off to the areas (we have separate skills checklists for labor, triage, OR/PACU, baby nurse), they can do it. We usually give them a buddy for their first demise if they didn't have one during orientation. Can't do PACU if they haven't taken ACLS yet (new nurses), but they usually try to get them to take it ASAP.

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As an experienced. L/D nurse I have often seen this "cutting down" on L/D

orientation. done by a maybe new Nurse Manager that hasn't been. "on the floor"

for a. long time. Have seen this and ends up causing high anxiety with new and experienced staff. So unnecessary .

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

1) the hospital or health system you work for

2) the amount of time labor and delivery orientation is for new grads or nurses without previous experience

3) any formal classes given to orientees

4) any conditions for nurses recently off orientation (i.e. no triage for first year, no c-sections for first 6 months, etc).

1) I'm not going to list my hospital, but I am the nurse manager of a small community hospital in Oregon. We do around 700 births a year.

2) L&D Orientation is typically 3-6 months - it's completely determined by the individual nurse, how quickly she picks things up, how comfortable she feels, etc. That's why there is such a wide range of time.

3) AWHONN Advanced Fetal Monitoring and STABLE

4) We don't orient to triage, typically, until they've been on their own in L&D for 6-12 months. Part of L&D training is being proficient at C/S (we do not circulate - the OR team takes over and the L&D nurse takes over as the infant recovery nurse)

We have an extensive competency checklist that we use. We also have an annual skills day that all the nurses have to attend. There are stations there, and some of the stations are learning how to respond to things like a PPH, shoulder dystocia, prepping for an emergent C/S.

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Thank you so much!! If you'd be more comfortable emailing me with your specific hospital information so it's not on a public forum, please do so at [email protected] í ½í¸Š

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Thank you so much!! If you'd be more comfortable emailing me with your specific hospital information so it's not on a public forum, please do so at [email protected] í ½í¸Š

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1. Public hospital that does around 200 births/month

2. About 6 months

3. AWHONN Intermediate EFM class, Perinatal Bootcamp which is 6 days learning about complications, EFM, labor support, NRP, breastfeeding, infant behavior, perinatal loss, infant abduction and many other topics.

4. Can't work triage for 2 years.

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Thank you @clarkb33. Would you be able to email me with your hospital name at [email protected]? Thank you!

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Six months was not too long for my own orientation in 2009, and I was a new nurse with only 6 months' work experience. I look back on that now and wonder how I was so lucky to be hired into L&D with so little nursing experience. I think less time might be needed for an experienced nurse, but still, four months minimum. Even after that, I was not required to do triage, circulating or antepartum for the first year or so. Without direct, full-time, recent experience in L&D, even an experienced nurse would have a lot to learn in L&D.

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