BayouLPN

RE: What can a LPN do in OB: This is typical of my assignments (not assuming other facilities work the same way) Labor & Delivery: Baby nurse (NRP certified) Set up warmer and equipment (suction, oxygen, scopes) Prepare eye ointment, Vit K shot, have rectal thermometer ready in KY jelly. 2 tolwels under heat well before baby arrives. Set up delivery cart for MD> maintain steril procedure. As baby is born, decide if stable or not...if stable throw towel on mom's abdomen for baby, if not stable...take baby in towel straight to warmer. Begin to stimulate baby by rubbing and drying vigorously. Assess your APGARs at 1 & 5 minutes. Counts heart rate, resp, temp, listen to lung sounds, decide if baby needs suctioning. Admin eye oint, Vit K, RN will do nb assess during this time, weigh baby, wrap baby in warm blankets to be handed to mom. set up monitor for vs, clean up, ect. usually about 45min to 1 hour for mom and family to hold baby. Begin recovery of mom and baby. mom's vs are frequent, baby's is q1hour (place baby back under warmer)fundal massage, initiate NS c Pit by pump, change peri pads. when baby's temp is norm...bath baby, back under warmer while drying, measuring, dressing. Rewrap and hand to mom or family. Clear equipment not needed out of room. This usually takes an hour up to several hours. Assist mom to bathroom, shower is desired, change bed linens, (we put another mattress on our LD beds). There is alot of teaching that goes on and alot of variables. Breastfeeding, lacerations, episiotomy, Natural and epidural births. After baby is transitioned...we take the security picture and set up the security monitor on baby. A transitioned mom/baby is to assess mom & baby during your shift and we weigh babies every night. I can suction a baby at birth but cannot lavage one later. I can decided if it needs lavaging. I help new mom's learn to breastfeed. I can cut a cord that is left too long after birth. I feed lots of babies. I can do everything an RN can do with Mom (really like Med/Surg) except initiate a PCA or do an IV push. Once the PCA is initiated, I monitor it and can d/c it. If my iv push is a narc and I cannot find an RN (we do get that busy) Most of my oders do allow for an IM. I give my pt the option of waiting for the RN or have me pop their behind. I was taught to scrub for c-sections. I set up the OR and assist the surgeon with delivering the baby. This is not a biggy. Alot of LPN's serve as OR Techs because RN's mainly circulate. I go to the NICU. Full assessment on my babies every 4 hours, monitor vitals and chart every 2 hours. Maintain strict feeding schedule. Some are straight gavage, nipple/gavage, or straight nipple. strict I/O/s, weigh the diapers. I monitor vapotherm or oxygen. I have taken IV babies when times were very busy. But, with these, they are stable. I monitor them & call an RN when something needs to be changed. (TPN OR Lipids) Site becomes red. I DO NOT take unstable or critical babies (vents, post surgery, ect). This is not by any means all I do but a general overview. Hope it helps.

I am employed in a Mother/Baby unit of a Family Birth Center as an LPN. I love it. I am, as the previous poster wrote...in a small minority. I have, also, received NRP training and float to the NICU for stable babies (feeder/growers). It is hectic but wonderful. If you have the chance to get on....do so. Good Luck.

As a LPN in a LTC facility, I felt that I made good wages...$17.52/hr. But, I decided that I was not growing as a nurse, losing skills that I had not done since school, not to mention the personal dilemma (not sleeping, too close to my residents) Took a job at a hospital, took a huge pay cut. AND AFTER TONITE....THERE IS NO WAY THEY PAY ME ENOUGH...but that is another thread altogether.

My first job, and still prn, has a small dog in residence. A min-pin that showed up one day several years ago, hurt and sick. Some of the residents took a shine to him. They have him listed as a "therapy dog" with the state but he is really just the facility pet. He seems to know when a resident is dying. You will find in that room on a viligent watch. He, also, does not really like male visitors. Our facility does not have a large number of male residents. He will bark his head off at a man who comes in...but...he does not bark at a new male resident. Don't ask me how he knows the difference. He just does. Like one poster stated...he is very good with the dementia/alzheimer patients. He will sit in their lap for hours. Everybody loves him. We, also, encourge pets to visit. Especially if the new resident's pet is now living with a family member. As an avid pet lover, I think they make wonderful therapy companions and have seen first hand the difference they make in my residents quality of life.

NO!!!! NO!!!! I would not "work". I have worked 2 and sometime 3 jobs at a time for the past 21 years. If I won the lottery I would buy an RV and travel. I would see something of this country besides the hospitals and nursing homes. In between trips, I would do volunteer work at the nursing home I do prn at. But, that would be because I WANT to...Not because the schedule says I have to be there that day.:rotfl: Which does remind me...gonna stop and get a new ticket on my way to work today. hehehe

And I almost forgot...I do work with mom/babies. The area I am at will hire LPN's for LDRP's but we can't Labor/Deliver. We do post-partum couplet care, undelivered's, 23 obs., ect. I can't push IV drugs or start a PCA, although I can monitor it and d/c it. I am much more restricted in this setting and pay shows it. At a LTC facility, I had much more responsibility and pay showed it there. Good Luck with your decision.

I went the LPN route. Financial obligations...how long we could hold out with one income (I'm not one of those people who can work, be a mom and go to school) I gave up nursing school years before when my son was little...I was working full-time, school part-time. I never saw him. So, this time I went the shorter route...and still had plenty of time to be MOM. This worked for me. BUT...I did this after he was older and we moved 600 miles from all family we have. With hindsight being 20/20, I wish I had stuck with school when has little and got the RN then. I had plenty of help from my parents and grandparents then. If it is possible for you to do the RN, that would be my recomendation. You won't regret it years down the road.

I originally posted that YES, I would go to work during a pandemic. I was here in LA for Hurricane Katrina. Alot of evacuees from N'orleans were here at our convention center. Then just a little later we had our own Rita...Wiped out all of the parish below us and nearly destroyed our parish. I was a student then but still did volunteer work with the Red Cross working under licensed nurses. This was no pandemic, but the evaction from Katrina brought a string of virus's and bacteria's here. Then we had to deal with our own...water wasn't drinkable for a couple of months. (for those who had water) Those who were out of Calcasieu parish were kept out for a couple of weeks (all exits closed.) EVERYBODY had damage to homes. I kinda looked at the question from that standpoint. Then I read the scenario. NO PPE...I don't know if I could do it. I would volunteer to relieve someone if I could have PPE. But, as on poster stated...I couldn't take care of many people if I were dying, too. So, in the event of natural or manmade catastrophe, you could count me in. In the event of me committing suicide....nah, I'd just have to seal off the house and wait for the government to come get me.

It really depends. I have worked a 10 (6a-4p) at one facility and gone to another for the 12 (7p-7a). BUT, only if I am off the next day. And twice a month is my max. Got one coming up next Monday. It must be said that I am a bit of an insomniac so it usually just allows me to sleep good when I get in. BUT...I have called out before. When I have been on an insomniac binge (and the benedryl just doesn't work)...no sleep leaves me physically sick. I have not had to do it often but it has happened.

I didn't know it started that long ago. I have worked 6a-6p for a long time. I found it chaotic and grueling. Never enough time to get done what needs to be done. Now I work nights 7p-7a or 11p-7a. I like it so much better. Nights are not less busy. NOT in the least. Staffing is cut and alot of tasks are added because of the perceived "less work". But, it feels less chaotic to me. No back to back scheduled surgeries and sections. No md's buzzing around your head like flies. Fewer family members (esp. those with the darling children who run relays up and down the halls while squealing at the top of their lungs) and emptying the pantry and making request for themselves (you think you could get me bag of chips and a soda?, I have to be up at 5 in the morning, will you make sure I am up?) and let's not forget the students who are asking questions and looking for procedures. Students: Don't take offense, you are doing what you are suppose to do. Just for me personally, more people equals more noise and chaos. I wish I had a few students at night..... I believe each shift has it pros and cons. I, also, believe that EVERYONE should be on a team. Having worked both shifts...I know both are busy. I just find nights are less chaotic.

HI...not a travel nurse here but work in a family birth center. We use traveler's alot. I have enjoyed working with most of them. I don't know much about their pay ect. except what they have told me and of course they did not disclose their actual rate. But, yes, their pay is more than the regular staff. Their housing is included in their contract. They all said they love traveling. The ones with us signed 13 week contracts but I have heard of shorter and some have extended their contracts with us for additional weeks (increments they decided on). I cannot comment for all travelers but I think the cons would be much the same in alot of places. Upon hire, I was given a 2 day hospital orientation. They got a 4 hour. They are expected to know EVERYTHING that the regular employees do "since they travel they should know how to do this blah blah blah" They are often blamed for things that did not get done. The scapegoat, if you will. They most often work nights or the shift that others don't want. Good point ...they get their promised full-time hours, it usually in the contract that they cannot be called off. Bad point, one of our traveler's caught the VERY NASTY stomach virus that was going around and had to be out sick. Made her double sick because she had to pay her company back the day's wages. I am not sure if that meant she just missed a day of pay or if it meant that she missed 2 days pay. I have really enjoyed working with the ladies on the night shift. They are seasoned and have not minded answering questions or helping me out (I am new to this type of nursing) But, the more forceful personalities on the day shift have really given them a hard time. Didn't answer your questions like a real traveler might have...but hope this gives you some kind of perspective. I, too, have considered traveling after my son graduates and I have more experience under my belt. I am so jealous of one our ladies that is headed for Oregon in a couple of weeks!!! Congrats on nursing school and good luck.

OK Blue...I am not going to be hard on you. While I have not had to quit to get a point across (like I said my LTC has a great DON/owner), I have several classmates who have had to do just what you did. My best friend quit her facility three (3) times and threatened to a dozen more. Fortunately and unfortunately that is what it took for them to stop running over her. The last time she quit was for a home health position and they are still calling her for PRN. She told them she would for the same rate they pay agency. They said no, she said kiss my butt. They said come in and we will talk. Don't feel bad about standing up for yourself. My husband & I have talked about how this crazy world seems to operate in the opposite of how our integrity would like for us to. I don't know how I handle the stress. Some days like this morning, I sit on here and read different posts. Almost always I find one that lets me know I am not alone. Sometimes I start a thread, (which I am going to do shortly). Others I read...fiction and take a tylenol pm. Sometimes my hair just stands on end and everybody including the dogs leave me alone. My favorite, which is on a rare occasion, is to bounce over to the local casino, put $5 in a penny machine, get a free bloody mary. Take my $5 out. And enjoy my free drink. hehehe. I don't have those survival skills yet either having only been at this for a year and a half. But, someday. As for difficult co-workers....hmmm. My grandmother, who is my hero, has a saying..."kill 'em with kindness" I usually just don't deal with someone who is difficult anymore than I have to but when necessary...I am so sweet you could use me as a sugar substitute. They end up looking even more the fool when I give them no reason to be difficult or nasty to me. I did lose my cool once with a co-worker who thrives on baiting people. Turns out she could dish it but couldn't take it. She ended up apologizing to me but not until we went several days without speaking. I continued to work with her...we worked side by side when a lady fell face first out of her w/c and was bleeding all over without saying a word to each other. I handled her other pt that decided to vomit everwhere in the middle of that catastophe to include charting & calling the dr, writing the new orders, ordering meds...all of it. In the end...she came back to me and said "thank you, I know I have been an #$*%. I think just sticking it out and not bringing it home with you is the best way to let the time go by. One day, we will be the seasoned nurses, looking at all the new nurses struggling and coping. Here's hoping you have a great day....Bayou

I don't know if you saw my post or not...I did mention him once...I am a female poking around on the guys site by the way. I felt that the character was played to be a "Good male nurse". Esp. when he has to defend himself to the girl's neurotic father about not being a dr. He says he loves what he does as a nurse, has more contact with the pts, ect, ect. It was one of the few "serious" moments in the movie. The movie was by all means one of the funniest comedies I have ever watched. But, I believe he played the character of male nurse well.

I am LPN, but If I had a master's I would Go RN all the way. You probably already have many of the pre-req under your belt. And because nursing involves so much psych and counseling, you would undoubtably make an excellent nurse. I gave up nursing school when my son was little. I thought I was missing too much time from him. I wish I had stuck with it. From a career standpoint, I am just getting started where I should be 14 years down the road with experience, retirement funds, and benefits. Congrats on your baby. And hope you make the choice that makes YOU happy. PS...I was 24 when I quit and 35 when I went back.

If I were younger, I would have gone the RN route. They have much more possibilities in the nursing world and especially in the OB dept. My facility trains almost all nurses on how to scrub just in case of a crash and one of the few LPN's are not there. We have OB techs but they only work during the daytime when most c-sections are scheduled. At the "Big House", our hospital for everything except OB & simple Women's Specialty. The OR Techs are either OR Techs or LPN's who want to do scrub full time. RN's are the circulating nurse...I refer to them as the Director of the movie. They make sure everything going on around the surgery runs smoothly (very detailed). If your daughter is just coming out of high school, wants to go to college for several years, by all means...go for the RN. Esp. if she likes the "baby" side of things. I would love to Labor/Deliver but as an LPN, I cannot. Depending on your state's requirements, she could possible train as a scrub tech while in school. One of our scrub techs graduates nursing school next month and 3 unit techs will all graduate before the end of the year. Guess where they already have jobs? Good Luck