L&Dnurse13

It is not in North Carolina. Check your BON. Some states allow it.

We are allowed in NC but have to show competence. Usually we have to be signed off 3 times to do them without someone watching. Mostly nurses at our facility use them to check for pooling and getting a slide for ferning or hsv outbreak. Check with your state Board of Nursing to see if its allowed where you are.

We take the amount of fluid in the suction canister at delivery of infant and subtract the end amount. We weigh all of the laps and towels used during the procedure subtracting the dry weight of the items and add that to the total.

I'm a l&d nurse and had a c/s at the hospital I work at 9 months ago. I refused for my son to go to the nursery or have a bath. There was no religious or cultural reason. Just a personal preference to allow him to transition to this cold, bright, noisy world before giving him a bath. He was with me warm and safe for 38 weeks and I wanted him to transition that way. He was held only briefly by his daddy and big sisters and no one else but me the first day. His first bath was at48 hrs old at home. The nurses just wore gloves when doing an assessment.

Wow. 6 months sounds wonderful. I work in a high risk l&d and only got 12 weeks as a new grad. 2 of those were hospital orientation. 10 weeks after beginning on l&d I was on my own. I did have a resource person assigned to me for the next year. Our resource RN's answer ?'s but do not go into deliveries with you unless something is going on. I felt so lost. I have been in L&D for 4 years now and am comfortable, but that took about 2 years to accomplish. 6 months would be great, but we do an average of 400 deliveries a month, so it is sometimes hard to keep an orientee that long. I know as a preceptor now it is hard to have a new grad ready after 10 weeks. There have been times we have had to let someone go early due to census on the floor.

I work in a high risk labor & delivery unit in NC. I was hired as a new grad. We have a slightly higher turn over rate due to being a military town, but out unit hires new grads almost every year. Most work out well and only leave if hubby gets transfered. I had no interest in med surg and would of hated getting even 6 months experience. I was trained to do the job I do and love every minute of it, but it is not what I thought it was when I first applied. A lot of moms are really sick, you have two patients, one that you cannot visually see. There aren't always happy endings. Its not always easy. This was not where I thought I wanted to be. I figured I would work L&D for a year and transfer to NICU. After 6 months I realized I loved where I was. The whole reason I got my RN was to be a NICU nurse. Now I wouldn't even think of leaving. You may be surprised what area you fall in love with! Good luck!

At our hospital we do around 500 deliveries a month. The pt's RN will circulate during the c/s and recover mom. Nicu does the initial assessment of baby then if stable we weigh baby and let mom see him/her. Then baby is taken to nursery and mom is moved to OBRR. Mom stays an hour and when dc criteria is met is transferred to PP and reunited with baby.

I can relate to this. When I first started L&D (My first RN position also) I hoped for cervidil inductions or a certain groups pts. I really wanted quiet nights. I did not want deliveries at all. I have been an L&D RN now for over 3 years and go in hoping for deliveries. It does pass. It gets better everyday. As you become more confident and your skills get better then things fall into place. There is so much to learn on orientation and it goes by so fast. Very overwhelming. Once orientation is over you may still feel this way, but give yourself time. I used to dream of going to postpartum. I just wanted to get my time in L&D over and move on. Now I would not leave L&D for anything. I love my job and the labor and birth process get better. You learn what needs to be done now and what can wait a bit. Some things become automatic. Hang in there! You sound like you are just overwhelmed. It will get better. If you have any ?'s just ask.

I work 4 12's ,then 6 off, 2 12's and 2 off and it starts over. 1 call day during the month and usually 3 days overtime. I also have to drive an hour to work. It took a little while and I was not a newbie, but I love my schedule now. I have worked 7 in a row and will never do that again. Could not imagine my schedule working if I was new. No way I could handle it.

I work in a hospital setting and I LOVE our midwives!!!!! They are awesome and allow low risk women to move around and some even allow fluids. Makes things easier on the mother. They are very supportive, do not rush a c-section unless necessary, will stay with the pt allowing them to push in whatever position feels best as tolerated by baby of course. That being said they also know when to call the MD in to take over. I also love our doctors. They are also great. But the midwife experience is more personal. They should continue to deliver. I am personally not a huge fan of homebirths as I have seen many times how a stable low risk mother can change in minutes to a high risk one. But to each his own. If you are well educated in the home birth experience and choose one for yourself, I am ok with that. I just don't like it when someone has not educated their selves and blame us when something goes wrong and they are rushed to us to fix it. The midwife here did not do what was right for this pt. You cannot blame all midwives for this.

We do around 400 deliveries a month, although this month we are past 500. We have an attending in house always. We also have at least 1 midwife in house along with anesthesia on L&D 24/7. We are a high risk unit with a level 3 NICU. As fast as things can go wrong on L&D I am not sure I would be comfortable with no one being in house all the time. We have had c-sections called and baby out in 5 minutes from call time and still have to bag baby. Scary to think about waiting 45 minutes.

Med surg or ER....Give me OB ANY day

1. At our facility we wear our own scrubs when circulating. 2. We use J&J baby soap and water. Much milder. 3.Our tables are good for 24 hours if covered, but cannot be moved to another room. We are a high risk unit with a level 3 NICU. Hope this helps.

Our MB unit would love if the pts were just tucked into bed. Really though after the 1 hr recovery in L&D they only have to do fundal checks q 1 hour for 4 hours then q 4 for 24 hours. They help mom up the first time then the pts are walkie talkies. A few times I have worked MB I have seen the MB nurses running around like they are so busy and I am sitting at the desk waiting for my next check or for a pt to need something. May have something to do with the fact that in L&D things can change so rapidly that we have to have everything just right from the moment we receive report. I love our MB nurses. They are awesome, but we also have unit to unit concerns. Our PCM is over the whole birth center. We have also had nights where out triage is full, (Ours is only 5 beds. We have a seperate 4 bed ATU) and we have pts laboring in the OR and waiting rooms. Those times are when we need to send pt out to MB and at times can't due to couplet care even if there are empty beds. It gets so bad at times that we double 2 delivered pts in 1 room. I love my job and could not imagine working in any other hospital though. I work nights and our nurses are like a huge family. Couldn't be happier even with the frustration.

I believe our MB unit is 34 rooms. The nurses there do couplet care so 4 moms and 4 babies. L&D RN's and techs float to MB when needed and as staffing allows. MB nurses do not float at this time. We are one of 2 level 3 NICU's in the state, but we do not do neonatal surgeries. All of those OB pts get transferres out or delivered, baby stabilized and flown out. Love working in a high risk unit, but cannot imagine 2 hour recoveries.