Miscarriages

[jlisle]

As an ER nurse, my heart goes out to the women who present to the ER with symptoms of miscarriage. These women often wait long times to be diagnosed and seen in the ER because they are usually physically stable in comparison to other ER patients. They suffer silently in psychological distress because there is often little time to provide emotional support and are often forced to return to the ER on multiple occations i.e. for U/S, D&C's etc. However, unfortuneately there are few other places they can go for to receive these tests and see specialists promptly.

I recently learned that in the UK and Australia they have attempted to address this issue by developing "miscarriage clinics" where these women can go to receive care, rather then going to the ER. What a great idea. It makes more efficient use of resources and provides better care to these women. Why haven't we adopted something similar here?

I'm interested in your thoughts on whether or not you think the idea of "miscarriage clinics" would work in North America. What barriers do you see to establishing such clinics.

[XB9S, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN, APN]

In the UK this would come under the early pregnancy units. There are a few very good links to NHS sites that explain what they do

http://www.earlypregnancy.org.uk/documents/AEPUGuidelines2007.pdf

http://www.earlypregnancy.org.uk/index.asp