LPN's in OB

[obnurse13]

I am an LPN and have worked in labor and delivery at the same hospital for @ 6 years. Under our hospitals policies I function pretty much independently with an RN charge nurse on the floor (most of which I trained when they were hired as new grads). Recently our Nurse Manager made a statement that our unit will not be hiring any more LPN's due to standards and recommendations. I was just wondering how other hospitals practice and what are common rules about LPN's in labor and delivery.

[Nursechick07]

Well, as an LPN here in Columbus OH, we can't even WORK in the hospitals, let alone L&D! That sucks for me, since L&D has always been a dream of mine. That's the main reason Im pursuing my BSN-Oh yeah, here, the hospitals are starting to "prefer" BSN over ASN/ADN, though they still hire ASN, from what I understand from friends/instructors who work L&D, they tend to hire BSN over ASN on that unit. If there's an OH nurse out there who knows otherwise, please let me know! ANY-HOO, sorry obnurse for the rant! I think that's awesome you work L&D! Im curious as to what your duties are, and your limitations.

[rn/writer, RN]

I work in a large urban hospital with separate L&D and postpartum units. We do not have any LPN/LVNs on any of our Birth Center units. At least not working under that license. I do know that when the decision was made to stop using LPNs, one person who had worked for many years on our postpartum unit had to switch to being a PCA or be out of a job entirely. She's an excellent PCA because she knows far more than the job requires. I wish she'd gone on to get at least her ADN degree but she considers herself too old to go back now.

It does seem that LPNs are more and more being limited to LTC and other non-acute care settings. I doubt that we'll see the end of LPN's any time soon, though. There has been talk of that for decades and it has never come to pass. One reason is that when managed care came in, the cuts were at the top of the food chain. Tasks got delegated downward and the docs at the top found out that they were expendable, too. HMO's did the math and found that getting rid of one doc was the equivalent of axing a bunch of underlings. And you know how HMO's embrace efficiency.

[SmilingBluEyes]

we have no LPNs on our unit, nor do any of the hospitals all around me. Can't use them.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

we have no LPNs on our unit, nor do any of the hospitals all around me. Can't use them.

Same here . . . for L&D. We do have LVNs working med/surg and ours are very good.

steph

[SmilingBluEyes]

Make no mistake ...I respect LPNs. I learned a lot from an LPN years ago who DID work L/D but has since retired., But most places will not hire LPNs into L/D because they just can't use them anymore. Too many things are being done that require RN scope of practice in most L/D units.

[BWSPN]

Well, as an LPN here in Columbus OH, we can't even WORK in the hospitals, let alone L&D!

Nursechick07 you asked and I know thats not true. One of the grads from the lpn program I am in now is working at childrens in the NICU. I know of another lpn working at childrens also. I know of another lpn working in the nursery but not with the mom's at the hospital where we do our clinicals. I do agree that Lpns don't work in L&D.

[kstec, LPN]

Here in the area of Illinois that I work the hospitals will not even hire LPN's in any area. It was sad because I had worked in the pharmacy at one of the hospitals for 14 years making TPN's, epidurals, critical care drips for adults, peds and neonate. When I was in my first semester of LPN school I asked one of the floors if I could work as a CNA while in school to get more hands on experience. They had the nerve to tell me that they would have to terminate my employment after I finished LPN school because I would be over qualified as a CNA and under qualified as a nurse. What a slap in the face. All I can say is if and when I ever get my RN, I will never work in a hospital, if I am not good enough as a LPN than their not good enough for me as a RN. I'll continue to work at my prn clinic and LTC job where I am appreciated and not treated like less of a nurse. Why would I ever work in one if they ever started to bring them back in?

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

I used to be a tech in L&D, and that role was phased out and replaced with the LPN. The role of that job was to take care of the baby. So she would weigh the baby, do the VS, measure, footprint, check the blood sugar, give the Vit K and the E-mycin ointment. We could do all that as techs with the exception of the meds.

[babydoll99_99]

I am an LVN and I work in the mother/baby care in my hospital. I function independently with my own patients, but under the supervision of an RN (ie if blood is given, or anything out of the scope of my practice I have an RN assigned to me). In L&D LVNs work as scrub techs. They assist in c- sections and recovery room.

[HR_LPN]

I work mostly PP and some Nsy. I am currently learning some about L&D. I work in a small community hospital. On one shift, you have 1 ob nurse, 1 nsy nurse, and 1 pp nurse. I can do some L&D, but I cannot work independently. The other 2 nurses on the shift are RN's and can do L&D. So, if say for instance, we are slow for a week (which happens) I usually take some "call time". But if one of the other nurses wants to be at home that night, I will bump up to nursery. Confusing, huh?

[NPinWCH]

We have 1 LPN in our small LDRP unit. She usually does couplet care, but also attends deliveries to do initial newborn care. She can't assign apgars, do initial assessments or gest. age, but does the meds, footprints, banding, weights/measures...She also can set up triage pts by doing vitals, placing them on the monitor and do a SVE if we ask her to. She also helps with admissions, starts IVs, preps pts for c/s and plenty of other things that I can't think of just now.