Nicu to Medical/Surgical floor

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Ok. . . .this is a weird question, but I had a heated discussion about our Neonatologist moving an infant from Special Care Nursery (SCN) to the med/surg floor for rooming in. During this time of the flu and RSV I felt a safety was a question that needed to be posed. Other RNs that I have spoken with understand the clean infant and the "dirty" med surg unit. My question is has anyone ever had this issue come up and how was it handled. . . .

The other thing is the policy that is in place at this time is that parents cannot room in unless there's room. The policy does not state whether the room is within the Mother-Baby unit or the Hospital. When our moms are in the ICU for anything we do not take the infants in there.

Please for those that have any answers speak up. My job might be hanging in the rafters??!!

:linkme:

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

Are you saying take the baby to

med surg to room in??? Why would you do that? Is this your norm? Our moms room in on antepartum, postpartum or PICU but the baby stays in the NICU. Just gives mom a place to lay her head. We don't even transfer any kids to peds during RSV/flu season. And if the baby is on another unit who takes care of the baby nurse wise?

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I'm med surg, and if I'm taking care of Mom and you wheel that baby onto my floor I'm going to quickly and firmly ask you to wheel them right back off. 1) we have influenza, herpes zoster, and TB on my floor 2) we have C.diff, MRSA and VRE on my floor, 3) if mom is hospitalized on my floor I have serious professional doubts about her ability to care for baby and 4) I know diddly squat about carrying for an infant in the medical setting, it is not in my job description, so that baby is going to need a NICU sitter in the M/S room.

To sum it up: stupid idea. You can quote me to the neonatologist.

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