iPink

When I first started as a GN, I worked PCU, which is a step-down ICU unit. I was there for 11 months and moved into Mother/Baby. I’ve now been here for 6 years. My 11 months on PCU prepared me for blood transfusions, electrolyte replacements, Postop surgical checks, cardiac issues such as hypertensive crisis, insulin checks such as sliding scales, knowing the difference between NPH, Humalog and Humilin, and knowing hypoglycemic protocols. I had to learn what to do in a postpartum hemorrhage, the meds and knowing which meds are contraindicated in a HTN patient during a hemorrhage vs an asthmatic patient during a hemorrhage. I went from a high acuity critical care floor to a high risk med-surge where we receive patients other hospitals can’t handle due to patients complications. Most hospitals don’t get patients on Mag sulfate on their mother/baby floor. They usually send those patients to WICU. In my hospital, we get many of those types of patients on our mother/baby floor daily. We have 4 mother/baby units, making us top 3 largest in the country. We have between 15-18k deliveries per year. I am a preceptor and Charge nurse and I’ve seen ICU and Med surge nurses get overwhelmed when they come to my floor. I can’t speak for other hospitals but my hospital is not where nurses come to die. Many feel like their going to die due to the amount of work taking care of four couplets (8 patients) with many of our patients being high acuity.

My hospital is "Baby Friendly" that means we don't offer supplementation unless mom brings it up and we've educated. We do encourage skin-to-skin, hand expression, and pumping and if mom is still having difficulties, we make sure we bring in lactation. If baby has no void or stool, close to losing 10% birth weight, or blood glucose levels become unstable, we then discuss supplementation.

I left PCU for M/B. I have been in M/B for almost 4 years and don't plan to ever go back to a critical care unit again. I honestly would be lost if I did. If you like the fast pace of an ER, then L&D would be your cup of tea. If you are interested in giving out a lot of education on both mom and infant, then M/B would bit your fit. I work with plenty of nurses who came from ICU, Pediatrics, M/S, Neuro, PCU, Oncology, etc. The one pediatric nurse we had ended up going back to Peds because she was no longer interested in taking care of adults. Nothing is greener on the other side; you'll have to experience it yourself and make the decision to stay or leave.

Never envious of my patients. In fact, I get to wake up whenever I want, lounge around all day and bing watch tv/movies the four days that I'm off from work. It's my family members who are envious when I tell them I'm off 4-5 days in a row and plan to have a staycation during that time.

It doesn't sound like hospital is an LRDP. How about transferring to PP and then when you think you're ready, maybe when the baby is older, you can go back to L&D?

When I decided to change my career about 6 years ago, I wanted to be an FNP and I was excited. After going through an Accelerated BSN program, I was starting to rethink that idea and about 90% of my classmates were discussing NP school in the near future. With many wanting to be CRNAs. Reality hit when we started working as nurses and paying back those student loans. For me those loans included my first degree (B.A.) and now the BSN. I'm done with school. Decision final. I graduated in 2012 and heard only 2 of my former classmates actually continued to either the MSN or DNP.

We do 4 couplets and people are leaving my unit. If I break down what we do for both mom and baby, for example chasing newborn blood sugars all night on top of PKUs/O2s, IV meds, Q4 vitals for pretermers, it is a LOT. And that's just focusing on the newborns. We are fighting hard to get the postpartum units at my hospital to take a max of 3 couplets and I work at one of the top 3 largest Women's hospitals in the country, in terms of deliveries.

Job stability and opportunity to move around in the field.

I have about 32 years before I can officially retire. The thought of spending that long in my current job as a mother/baby nurse makes me break out in hives, rocking back and forth on the floor in a corner - I would go insane. A lot of students come to my unit too wanting to be in postpartum, but they only get a glipse of what it entails. I internally roll my eyes when my patients' family think all we do is "play with babies all day." If they only knew. I'm a career changer and happy with the stability and lifestyle nursing has provided for me, but I'm hoping to hang up my scrubs for good and go into business for myself. In the meantime, if an opportunity for case management comes up at my hospital I would make the move and spend a considerable amount of time there before I could move on to my dream opportunity.

I am a Postpartum nurse and my c/s moms take Toradol or Ofirmev prn with either their Dilaudid PCA or Fentanyl PCE for 24hrs postop. From POD 1-3 when their pumps are already d/c'd, they are switched to Percocet and Motrin. And they will take that for the remaining of their stay and will go home on that rx. I know every facility is different, that's what happens on mine.

A knife with the company logo on it I assume.

I have been MIA from allnurses for a long time so I decided to start a topic...I just received my "nurses week" gift from my management team at the hospital were I work. Last year we got a pen and this year we got one of those tall aluminum bottles that keeps your drinks cold/hot, with the hospital logo on it!! Yay! *sacrasm over* At least we got a useable gift. Curious on what other facilities have done or currently doing for their staff for nurses week. Please share.

Congrats! I was a transfer from PCU to Postpartum and have been on my Postpartum unit for more than 3 years. I think your med/surg background will come in handy when having c/s patients. I don't have a book in mind to recommend. I just happen to have all my OB/GYN books from nursing school as reference such as fundal checks and newborn assessments. But the best way to learn is on the job training. Good luck on your new job.

My facility started delayed bathing about a year ago and I would say there was some push back from nurses, not suprising with any change comes the initial lack of support and complaints. We delay baths from 6-24hrs, depending on parent's preference. A small few have actually decided to have their baby's first bath at home. A few reasons we tell our parents why we delay the bath are: 1. promotes bonding and 2. helps regulate temperature. Our babies are bathed at the bedside when mom have decided on time they would like their baby bathed. We promote rooming-in, so we don't give mom's the option of having baby bathed in the nursery. The only babies that are bathed immediately are Zika exposed, HIV, and Hep B/C positive babies. We identify the babies who aren't bathed yet by placing an identification marker in their bassinet. We just make sure we are gloved up and if there's a spitty/choking baby to be saved, we especially scrub down even more in case we couldn't put on gloves fast enough. We made it work and it's no longer a big deal or at the top of converstion since the rollout has long passed.

I work for a Women's Hospital, working on a Mother/Baby unit and it's not forbidden at all. A few of my visitors have friends or family visit them in their scrubs. I don't see an issue because employee entrances require the use of our badge. We badge-in using the elevators and upon entering the nurseries. Now say a parent wants entrance into the nursery (via showing their wrist band) and their friend tries to slip in behind them with scrubs on, our Mother/Baby unit badges have a special color on them that identifies those nurses who can have access to the nursery.