wobble

for the past two years i have worked in a small community hospital in the birth center. we deal with low-risk cases and average 20-40 deliveries a month. the management have recently hired a neonatal co-ordinator to primarily update our skills with sick babies who need transferred to NICU's in larger hospitals. this is great but this lady is now changing our normal newborn polices so that EVERY newborn regardless of apgars and absence of predisposing factors gets a rectal temp and a blood sugar as part of our routine care. the staff here are not NICU trained so we may be in the dark ages as to new standards/ research etc, but we feel this is a little over the top for a birth center that deals with "normal "babies. We would be very grateful for any opinions or advice anyone has about this matter and if anyone could suggest research for or against then we would welcome it. A big thank-you to all who help:)

Worked for past two years in a small community hospital birth center in northern CA. Deal with low - risk cases and usually do about 25-40 deliveries per month. Recently the management have hired a NICU nurse from a larger hospital to be a neonatal co-ordinator here with the primary goal of educating the staff about sick babies, should the need ever arise to treat before transfer. This is fine, but now this lady wants to change our policies and have EVERY normal newborn regardless of apgars to have a rectal temp and a blood sugar done as part of the routine care. Is this the norm in other places? I feel like it is a bit extreme and have requested the evidence to back up this change - still waiting. Am I wrong in thinking this is unecessary for normal newborns in a community birth center? Can anyone suggest any research to argue against this or am i behind the times? Any help or opinons would be gratefully received.:)

i am a rn working in california with ogp as it was basically the only way we could figure to get a green card. ogp have from the word go been unsupportive and after a recent car accident i discovered just how bad they were. no-one rang to ask how i was or offer us advice or help. we were faced with huge ER bills and the insurance they provide is useless. when i asked them if they had some sort of policy in place to help nurses and their families in these kinds of situations they said no. i would advise you to look at other nurse agencies before considering ogp as they seem to abandon families once here. as long as you are making them money then that is what counts. i hope you get some positive feedback from others but this is my tale of warning. Last year when I first started the long form filling to live and work in Florida I contacted O`Gradt peyton spoke to a man regarding getting me out there I was dissapointed at his reply I qualified 8 yrs ago since then have worked on acute medical, orthopaedics, ICU/HDU and am presently working on a Ear Nose and Throat unit, his advice was that I leave my present job and go back to an acute area He never asked what do I do on a daily basis we deal with very acute pts including full neck disections larengectomys and always have at least 2-3 trachys on the ward we also are an admissions unit for all ENT emergencys stabbings, throat slashings anaphylaxis etc as well as all the other ENT procedures tonsils epistaxis foreign bodies etc. So I didn`t feel it apprpiate to leave my present job. but since then I get almost daily leters phone calls regarding going to one of their seminars on working in the US needless to say I have had little contact with OGP since, but I would like to hear from nurses who went to the US with them and also like yourself has anyone else had contact with them. Bettyboop PS by the way went to another company US british nurses who welcomed me with open arms and have been very helpful