Postpartum assessments

[Babycatcher87]

Postpartum nurses-

I feel like my hospital is assessing patients more than other hospital...which isn't the problem, it's the amount of charting we have to do!

What is your hospital's requirements for assessing postpartum (lady partsl and CS) moms? And how often do you do vitals until discharge?

Thank you!

[klone, MSN, RN]

What kind of assessment are you referring to? Assessing lochia and fundus, or head to toe, or...? How often are you required to do it?

[Babycatcher87]

Head to toe...On cesarean deliveries we do frequent vitals after delivery (necessary), and then go to every four hours until they are discharged even if they stay for four days. I was looking at policies of some of our affiliates and they do every 4 hour head to toe for all deliveries for 24 hours and then go to every 12 hours for head to toe unless their condition requires more(and whenever another nurse assumes care). Some throw in a focused assessment every 8.

[AZBlueBell]

We do head to toe 2x per shift regardless. Our section mama’s also get a head to toe immediately in PACU along with frequent vitals until the 4 hour mark. Then it’s q4hr til they hit 24 hrs PP, then goes to Q6hr vitals which is also standard for our lady partsl deliveries. Once stable and outside of the necessary frequent vitals right after delivery, all our mamas are on q6hr VS and fundal checks.

[hp131071]

For lady partsl deliveries we do one head to two on admission, one within the next six hours, and then it goes to q8h until discharge. For sections we do a full head to two on admission, then 30 mins after, then an hour after, then q1h x2, then q2h x3, and q4h until 24 hours postop while assessing spo2 and rr q2h. After 24hrs they go to q8h like the vag mom's .

[Nunya, BSN]

On 6/2/2019 at 6:21 PM, hp131071 said:

For lady partsl deliveries we do one head to two on admission, one within the next six hours, and then it goes to q8h until discharge. For sections we do a full head to two on admission, then 30 mins after, then an hour after, then q1h x2, then q2h x3, and q4h until 24 hours postop while assessing spo2 and rr q2h. After 24hrs they go to q8h like the vag mom's .

What exactly is included on your head to toe assessment? Because that seems like an awful lot if you're doing what I think of as head to toe....