TennRN

What I can't stand just as much is someone who gives me a bunch of useless information in report. For instance, someone telling me where a patient's fundus was....12 freaking hours ago! Hello, I'm gonna be checking her in a few minutes! Unless it was somewhere it shouldn't have been then don't even mention it.

I get babies all the time in the nursery with about 6 inches of cord and I have to reclamp and cut it. It is truly nasty especially when the baby has a huge cord to cut through. That cutting sound gets me every time.

Respiratory secretions and GI bleeds are probably the worst for me. Although running close behind would be having to do foot flushes on diabetics and having to stick the nugauze all the way through a wound and pull it out the other side. And I hate mouth care! Once had to do mouth care on a woman whose mouth hung open constantly and the stuff I was getting out from between her teeth was too large to go up the suction catheter.BLECH!!! ***editted***Just thought of another one...having to empty a colostomy bag of the gas buildup. OMG what a smell!!

Bessie, I'll give you a rundown of what we do at my facility... Baby - received into the transition nursery usually at 1 hour of age. They typically stay with mom in Recovery for the first hour, nursing if mom is wanting to bf, cuddling if not. The first check is a full head to toe assessment including Dubowitz. We check BG and follow our protocol which is >50 no recheck, 40-50 recheck next hour, For mom, we receive her from L&D, check vitals every 30 minutes x 3, also doing a full head to toe assessment upon arrival. This includes fundal height check, lochia, etc. We check fundus and lochia with each of the initial 3 sets of vitals. They are required to have one of the nurses with them the first 2 times they are out of the bed. We measure the first 2 voids to make sure they are emptying. As far as day to day routine, for the babies we keep up with voids/stools, feeds, they are weighed each night and vitals are done q4h. For moms, we check vitals q4h until they are 24 hr post delivery then it is once a shift unless they are PIH or it's otherwise indicated. We monitor lochia, fundus, bowel sounds, flatus, etc. We have a lactation consultant on the floor every day who goes around with all the info on the moms and visits every mother who is bfing. She watches the baby latch on, helps if needed, and gives all the info concerning our lactation center. Most of us all have had alot of experience helping babies get latched on and we have frequent inservices about bfing so we can give the same info to our patients instead of them being told 3 different things by 3 different nurses. Ack, sorry I just realized how long this is.

I'm new to allnurses.com. :) I work Mother/Baby and we typically have 4-5 couplets. I've had as many as 6 and as few as 3 but norm is 4-5.