I'm just curious about Primary Care Nursing. Our unit used to do it a long time ago and then stopped. Recently with more research showing family-centered care equals better outcomes for babies a few of us nurses have chosen to advocate for it again. Our feeder Level 3 does it all the time now so parents also come expecting it.
I work in a level 2 so having a consistent caregiver is especially important for the chronic babies that need a consistent person to bottle well. I think it's nice for moms too. Lots of nurses don't like it though because they want more variety. I can see their point too. After weeks of the same baby it's also hard not to get overly invested.
Thoughts? Do your units do it? Do you like it or not? Why?
We try to have a team looking after ours sickest or chronic babies, but we struggle with scheduling and continuity as we do 8hr shifts and we roster over all 3 shifts. I look at the literature and wish we could do better.
I'm from a rather small unit, with 8 hour shifts and 3 shifts total. We don't practice primary care nursing officially, but we do try to keep the same RNs with the same babies as often as possible. It usually works out that there's a small core staff for each baby.
Janetnzrn
45 Posts
We try to have a team looking after ours sickest or chronic babies, but we struggle with scheduling and continuity as we do 8hr shifts and we roster over all 3 shifts. I look at the literature and wish we could do better.