Pitocin induction-pit rates

[HappyNurse2005]

what rate do you run pit at for induction/augmentation

generally, we start it at 1-2 and go up by 1-2 q15min, with start at 2, up by 2 most common. one doc liked to come in and write to start at 6 and up it by 6 each time. of course, practically none of us would do it that way.....

[HappyNurse2005, RN]

We currently are usually starting our pit inductions/augmentations at 1-2 mu/min and increasing by 1-2mu/min every 15 min . We have to document FHR and uterine activity every 15 minutes along with BP and pulse. The care of the pt is not difficult but the charting is ridiculous -- especially when you have two pit pts ! It is very easy to fall behing on the charting . During my 12 hr shift the pt gets 48 BP's which I think is not evidence based practice. I've never seen blood pressure effected by pitocin, even though I know it could happen. I would like to see 30 min bp's and 30 min fhr and ua documentation. How often do you take bp's with Pitocin? I am going to talk to some of the ob's and hopefully they will approve for this policy to be changed.

We also document fhr and uc pattern q15min while on pit, and the bp policy is technically that the bp has to be taken before increasing the pit. Easy enough just to put the cuff on and set it to take q15min. of course, with epidural in place, the bp's do have to be taken q15min, and most moms on pit end up with epidural.

[nurseob7]

Even though it is time consuming for the nurse to chart frequent assesments, many pts do not like bp's to be taken so frequently. Of course, once they have an epidural, I feel frequent bp's are evidence based, but not with pitocin. Many pts are induced with Pitocin and don't end up with an epidural for many hours. Many times Pitocin all day and a failed induction.