Pregnant while Nursing

[Katinka]

Hi Everyone, I am a new Nurse (second career, was an RRT for 15 years) and I am 19 weeks pregnant working on a medical floor. I was wondering how other Nurses and their department managers have dealt with assignments when a pt has an infection that is potentially dangerous to a pregnant mom. I had a pt last week that was diagnosed with CMV, found out after I worked with him that he was positive, and now have to be tested. I had to specifically request that I not be given this patient again and there is no specific precaution in place other than contact precautions warning pregnant women. So on the night that I had to request to not be assigned this pt, I was assigned a patient with disseminated herpes zoster. When I told the charge nurse that I didn't feel that was an appropriate assignment she basically said oh well, maybe the others nurses can help you. I went to my Director and she was rather unconcerned about it and basically said that while the hospital does not have specific indications regarding my not working with these patients, she felt that out of courtesy my assignment should have been changed. Her solution was for me to call her if this happens again. I think it needs to be addressed with the charge nurses before this happens again, not if it happens again. Most of the charge nurses are young and have never been pregnant and seem to have a rather non-chalant attitude about this.

I am really upset about this and my husband is horrified and livid. I have been in this department for 3 months but am not sure this is where I want to continue to work. Am I overreacting, is this just pregnancy hormones making me upset or do other departments arrange assignment to preserve the safety of their pregnant employees? I don't want special treatment, I just want to keep my baby safe.

As an aside, our assignments are based soley on location, not on patient acuity. There are 21 beds and they are divided into 4 assigments regardless of the patient needs. So one nurse can end up with 5 walkie talkie easy patients while the other has 5 high acuity patients. I know this is part of the reason why the charge nurses have a problem changing assigments but don't I have rights too?

Thanks for any input!

Rebecca

[nurseeB]

Wow I am really sorry this is happening to you. I have worked at quite a few facilities as a travel nurse and it was just an understanding that pregnant nurses weren't assigned to potentially harmful patients. I would speak with the director again and ask her to please address it with the charge nurses so there is not such a big deal at the beginning of a shift to change assignments. It's just common courtesy. Good luck to you and your growing little one.

[ittybittybabynurse]

Well, in our unit, pregnant nurses DO NOT take patients with CMV & most other indications that require isolation precautions. It's not an issue, as long as the charge nurse is aware of the nurse being pregnant.

Think of your baby, get out of there if you can!

[ArborVitae]

I'm not a nurse myself, however, I am a doula and I work with pregnant women. I found some info regarding Herpes Zoster from the CDC http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/gl_isolation_airborne.html

I think it's just common sense (and should go without saying) that the management on your floor should keep you and your baby's best interest in mind.