M. Murray has scared the pants off me

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

I have just attended the first day of M. Murray's Advanced Fetal Monitoring class and I am scared to return to work. I am nauseated and unable to sleep tonight. I am new to L&D and have been on my own since August. Practices that I thought were scary; she has confirmed my suspicions. I work in a hospital that does 120 deliveries per month and that number has been rising. We are responsible for triage, antepartum, c-sections, recovery and sometimes pp if our pp floor is full. We have a room that we put PTL and PIH pt's on MgSO4 that doesn't have central monitoring. Then we are expected to manage them and a second pt who may be actively laboring or second stage. I have had these pt's and sometimes not been able to go into the room for 1 or more hours to view the strip!

Our Docs don't stay in house and live 30 or more minutes away. We run pit on people at night without a doc immediately available. Docs miss deliveries and then tell us to deliver the placenta and write pp orders, and don't come to see the patient until the next day. Docs don't come to fetal demise deliveries unless fetus is term. We are the baby nurse and the mom nurse at delivery; sometimes we have a tech at delivery. The other day I had a mom hemorrhaging and a baby not crying and me and the secretary. The secretary can't hang my pit in the bag of LR or resus the baby so what good is she you say? She can dial the phone while I PPV the baby. The doc leaves the room to find help. I call help and don't leave either pt. He should have stayed. Our nurse manager is a pp nurse by training and a WHNP. I feel these docs get away with murder because she hasn't a clue as to how to labor a pt and how much staff is really needed. I work nights and hate the fact that I have to beg and plead for a doc to come in and they still don't.

One night I had a patient who started having early decels at 6 cm, down to the 80's, on pit. Started calling first doc at 2300, care transferred to different doc at 0100. Called him all night and he didn't come. Convinced 16yo pt to get an epidural in prep for c-section. Pt doesn't progress past 7, doc finally comes at 0600 and sections her and then teases me for calling him all night. Doc speculates CPD at delivery.

I called my the person who precepted me and she told me that there are hospitals that are worse then ours. I felt like she was telling me life is tough and then you die. I need to know that there are hospitals that support there nurses and practice within ACOG guidelines.

Thanks for listening! Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Bessie

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I wonder how things are going for the OP now.....

(this thread is several months old)

OP, if you are out there, please check in!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

that sound you hear is your liscense being flushed down the john...get out NOW...if you lose your license you will not be there for someone down the road..i know that you feel that you are needed by these vunerable pts but you have to protect your self...you will be surprised what these nm & mds will testify to if something goes wrong..January is not written in stone...think real hard about your future..

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I wonder how things are going for the OP now.....

(this thread is several months old)

OP, if you are out there, please check in!

Yes, Bessie, if you are there, I too would love to hear how things are going for you. I would like to ask you what the more senior RN's that you work with are doing about this situation. If you all would band together and bring your collective experiences to upper management I am sure that they will see the risks inherent in what you are describing.

I think some of what you are experiencing is typical of the way OB's try to treat newer, less experienced nurses. They see you as easy pickings and they think they can "train" you the way they want.

I recently moved to FL from CT and the doc's on my new L&D unit thought they had a "newbie" on their hands. Because I am not new to L&D and I am confident of my skills they quickly learned that they could not push me around and I actually have garnered much more respect from them as a result of my standing up to them. An example of this is that two of the docs tried to kill time filling out paperwork as the mother was delivering and they thought that I would catch the baby, deliver the placenta etc. I stood my ground and calmly insisted that they come catch their own baby and now they don't ever expect me to do that for them. There are some nurses that they have convinced to do this but, again, they are newer nurses and they will learn when they get hit by their first lawsuit.

You have shown your true colors in recognizing the risks in what is happening and in your desire to do something about them. I would love to work with you anytime!!

Hope all is going well, write in and let us know if you can.....

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Yes, Bessie, if you are there, I too would love to hear how things are going for you. I would like to ask you what the more senior RN's that you work with are doing about this situation. If you all would band together and bring your collective experiences to upper management I am sure that they will see the risks inherent in what you are describing.

I think some of what you are experiencing is typical of the way OB's try to treat newer, less experienced nurses. They see you as easy pickings and they think they can "train" you the way they want.

I recently moved to FL from CT and the doc's on my new L&D unit thought they had a "newbie" on their hands. Because I am not new to L&D and I am confident of my skills they quickly learned that they could not push me around and I actually have garnered much more respect from them as a result of my standing up to them. An example of this is that two of the docs tried to kill time filling out paperwork as the mother was delivering and they thought that I would catch the baby, deliver the placenta etc. I stood my ground and calmly insisted that they come catch their own baby and now they don't ever expect me to do that for them. There are some nurses that they have convinced to do this but, again, they are newer nurses and they will learn when they get hit by their first lawsuit.

You have shown your true colors in recognizing the risks in what is happening and in your desire to do something about them. I would love to work with you anytime!!

Hope all is going well, write in and let us know if you can.....

You sound like me. I moved from one state to another and was treated like a "newbie" too. funny how they do that...well not funny. It's wrong. they know the standards of care and are held to them the same way we are. Whether a nurse is new or not, they need to stick to the standard or risk injury, death or litigation. I am surprised any doctor would do that so blatantly, frankly.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

well as old as this post is I can say that Where I work doing L&D for several years now. The only person that sticks there hands in after a delivery a doctor, for so many reasons. Good luck out there

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Perinatal, Education.
Sounds like a regular community hospital scenario to me....

Mine isn't quite that bad, but I hear ya!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Perinatal, Education.
Mine isn't quite that bad, but I hear ya!!!

OK, I have now read the whole thread and realize it's old. I just worked three nights in an every other night pattern and my head isn't really there. They were also three very hard, busy nights that had me scared here and there. Still, the only reason I haven't jumped ship to a teaching hosptial is that I KNOW I give more patient-centered care where I work now and I know my patients appreciate it because they tell me often.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment