Labor Nurses Floating to Med Surg.....

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Our Labor and Delivery Unit is having to float to MS...isn't this against guidelines because of infection issues with the newborns and all? Everywhere else I have ever worked it was against policy for L&D nurses to float to another unit as well as have nurses from other units float in and was considered "cross contaminating"

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? It is a HUGE problem on our unit.

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it is unbeliviable that they are floating L&D nurses,the hospital I work ,in postpartum does not float postpartum or L&D to any other unit.

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I know that labor and delivery is considered a specialty unit, however remember that once upon a time nurses floated to all units within a hospital, and many hosputals reuqire nurses to work med-surg prior to labor and delivery. Years ago in smaller hospitals you would come in to a shift not really knowing where you would be. Also, cross contamination should not be an issue if a nurse is using universal precautions like he/she is supposed to, right? And tell me that l&d and postpartum patients are all healthy without any type of communicable disease or underlying medical issues...hardly the case.

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Specializes in L&D, PP, Nursery.

Our L&D, PP unit floated for about a month. Then we were told we were no longer going to after they check into the infection control issues. Needless to say, we were relieved. At the other hospital I work at, we don't float either.

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I don't understand how/why cross contamination would be an issue. Besides what mimilinda brought up about universal precautions, aren't you showering and washing your clothes before work the next day? Unless you have pts on more than one unit, but that REALLY seems unsafe!

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.
I don't understand how/why cross contamination would be an issue. Besides what mimilinda brought up about universal precautions, aren't you showering and washing your clothes before work the next day? Unless you have pts on more than one unit, but that REALLY seems unsafe!

I don't know the specifics of the OP's question, but the problem we've faced with floating to med-surg from L&D, PP & NICU is that we were expected to be immediately available to return to our home unit when a patient arrives in labor, or an emergency arises, such as a stat C-section or neonatal resuscitation. That makes it impossible to shower and change clothes, and creates a very real possibility of cross contamination. To go immediately from med-surg to the OR for a C-section is asking for infection control problems, but administrators don't get that, or don't care.

I also disagree that a "nurse is a nurse is a nurse". Those days are long gone, with the high degree of specialization that exists now. Med-surg patients deserve nurses who are experts in their care.

For those who believe that maternal-child nurses should be able to step right in and work med-surg, how many of you would accept a laboring mother or a 26-week ventilated preemie as your patient?

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

Seems that Universal Precautions may not be enough to prevent cross contamination:

Aerial Dissemination of Clostridium difficile spores

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/8/7

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I work in a small hospital where we wear many hats. I may start out on the med/surg area but have a laboring mom come in and no other OB nurse available. Also, after delivery, the moms and babes come to the med/surg area in the last two rooms furthest from the nurses' station. We try to keep those rooms only for PP and make assignments effectively so no increased risk of infection happens. Also, I may start out in the ER and have to go to OB also.

I change cover gown, wash up, etc., . . . .

steph

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Specializes in Labor & Delivery.

OB nurses at my hospital occasionally float to med-surg- but if we need to be "retrievable" then we don't take a patient load or work with anyone who is ill. So in essence we're acting as well paid nurse's aides or unit secretaries. :D

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Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, LTC.
I work in a small hospital where we wear many hats. I may start out on the med/surg area but have a laboring mom come in and no other OB nurse available. Also, after delivery, the moms and babes come to the med/surg area in the last two rooms furthest from the nurses' station. We try to keep those rooms only for PP and make assignments effectively so no increased risk of infection happens. Also, I may start out in the ER and have to go to OB also.

I change cover gown, wash up, etc., . . . .

steph

Our local hospital is similar. OB nurses work med/surg when there aren't any OB patients. If OB gets a patient, they leave med/surg to take care of the patient. It's a rural hospital. You can't have 18 med/surg patients with 2 med/surg nurses, and one OB nurse with zero patients twiddling their thumbs all night.

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Specializes in geriatrics, L&D, newborns.

Nurses on our OB unit are not floated to any other unit. Of course, if the census is low, we may be told to stay home. I work med-surg sometimes for extra money but only when I am not scheduled on OB. On OB, we have to change into scrubs at work and wear shoes that have never been anywhere else. I would hate to leave the med-surg floor and go to OB without changing clothes.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

I am still a student but when did a special preceptorship in L&D over the summer they had nurses float to different departments. Pregnant and Laboring women can get sick too, we had a contact precaution mom with previous Dx of MRSA and the nurse had her and additional pts (our antepartum and postpartum is all in the same unit, nurses have laboring and postpartum moms at the same time. If you use proper universal precautions it should not be a problem. Are those that are floating from L&D going to Med/surg and coming back to L&D to work all in the same shift?

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