Is this a common practice? My hospital calls itself "family centered" and practices couplet care. As such it claims to support "rooming in." However there is a long standing culture of kowtowing to the patients every wish and customer satisfaction is the golden rule. In this population of well off older professional women, it is a great "dissatisfier" if we say we cannot watch your baby because we have no nursery nurse. We are not allowed to do this- this comes from above our manager who has been trying to change things since she got here.
I have found myself with a bassinett at the nurses station, the other nurse admitting a patient, the CA on her lunch break (as she has a right to do) the secretary answering the phone and door ( and not allowed to watch babies- due to policy/ no NRP) and myself trying to figure out how to answer 3 call lights -
Me;
Dragging the bassinet down the hall and opening the door: "can I help you"
" yes, I was wondering if you could give my baby a bath"
( explained about newborn skin care, not bathing daily etc)
Next room: needed pain medicine so I drag the bassinet to the pyxis etc
And so on.
It's torture and cannot be a safe practice. What can I do?
All this with 4-5 couplets. Usually five with 6-7 counting admissions and discharges.
What recourse do we have when the staffing recommendations of our professional organizations hold little weight and the joint commission which claims to want patient safety turns a blind eye to the biggest problem of all, staffing practices???
What happens when you have that bassinett in tow and a mom cries out that her baby is blue?! Do you abandon healthy baby to work on blue baby?
What about the teenage moms who are fresh sections with no support person spending the night?
This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Word is going to get out about your hospital's policies and people will start having their babies in other hospitals leading to a constant low census resulting in inevitable job loss. Your manager needs to wake up before it's too late.
First of all, I think the whole "forcing moms to room in" thing is ridiculous. I work in a facility with a nursery, and 95% of our moms send their babies to the nursery for some portion of the day or night so they can rest. Why should they be made to feel guilty about it? They just gave birth (and in some cases had major surgery). They need rest, too!
I think what the administrator is doing is dangerous. Are you supposed to drag the baby into patient rooms if you have to go in?? That's not good. I wouldn't want my baby dragged into some stranger's room. Maybe they need to relook at staffing and policy before they start making rules you can't possibly follow.
Everything is about customer service these days. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to say no when you don't have the means to do it. Maybe if enough moms complain, policy--and staffing--will change.
I can't imagine having 4-5 couplets and dragging one to two of the babies around everywhere because mom wants to rest and there is no nursery, and noone to help me periodically throughout the shift. Unsafe.
My sister had a C/S after 34 hours of labor, and had her baby at a hospital where they still had semi private rooms and NO NURSERY. Her blood pressure was high, the lady in the next bed had 400 visitors all day and into the night, and the nursery nurses refused to take my nephew, even for a few minutes because they only had a sick nursery, and he wasn't sick. She was in the hospital for a week because of this.
I guess you could say, I personally think couplet care sucks. LOL
im a nursery staff, but here's what i think, i think rooming in is better, because some mothers especially in night shift because they breastfeed for a 10 minutes and send back the baby to nursery, and the poor baby will be crying although the diapers is not solied. And then we have to send back to the mommy for longer breastfeeding and its like disturbing their sleep(going in and coming out of the room)..At least if the baby is in the room they can practice taking care of baby and if they need help in breastfeeding i would be happy to come in anytime and help you with breastfeeding..but of course pros and cons are there...the cons are: mothers will be calling you every 5 minutes...so what you guys think?
gonzo1224
47 Posts
What happens when you have that bassinett in tow and a mom cries out that her baby is blue?! Do you abandon healthy baby to work on blue baby?
What about the teenage moms who are fresh sections with no support person spending the night?
This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Word is going to get out about your hospital's policies and people will start having their babies in other hospitals leading to a constant low census resulting in inevitable job loss. Your manager needs to wake up before it's too late.