Hello all you OB experts! I have a quick question about nurse-patient staffing ratios. First let me explain my situation:
I am a prior critical care nurse (7 years experience) who started working on an L&D/PP floor just 3 months ago. After a very brief and not very thorough 6 week orientation, I was set loose to fend for myself. Today, I worked a 12 hour shift. I was assigned 3 laboring patients all on Pitocin drips (one was an oligo induction admitted the day before and 2 were primip SROMS who were being augmented). This is a fairly common assignment on our floor and I was wondering if this is typical of the places you work for?
If so, I'm thinking OB may not be for me after all. I run myself ragged in this place and have no time to do anything but go back and forth between patients all day, charting, charting, and charting. I haven't had more than a 20 minute break since the day I got there. Forget bonding over the birth experience--it was all I could do to keep from drowning.
So I guess what I'm wondering is...do I just need to suck it up and get used to it b/c that's what most OB units are like? Or do I need to seek employment elsewhere? I was thrilled about finally transferring to OB, but not sure I can keep up with that sort of pace every day.
Any advice you may have to keep me going would be much appreciated!
We are a tertiary care center and do sometimes end up with three patients each, but only if they are stable and not doing much, i.e. cervidil or low-dose pit, or early labor where pt has UCs but not feeling them, or stable antepartums. Once pt. gets active or unstable we give up the other patient(s). Usually. Once or twice a year I end up with an antepartum who is sleeping through the night on continuous monitoring (e.g. preterm labor, no UCs tonight) and my other patient is suddenly complete and delivers--then I keep both patients but usually there is someone to lend a hand here and there when I need it. I guess what I am trying to say is, three patients on the rare occasion when there is no other choice is one thing; three patients on a daily basis is something else altogether.
beepers40
16 Posts
We are a tertiary care center and do sometimes end up with three patients each, but only if they are stable and not doing much, i.e. cervidil or low-dose pit, or early labor where pt has UCs but not feeling them, or stable antepartums. Once pt. gets active or unstable we give up the other patient(s). Usually. Once or twice a year I end up with an antepartum who is sleeping through the night on continuous monitoring (e.g. preterm labor, no UCs tonight) and my other patient is suddenly complete and delivers--then I keep both patients but usually there is someone to lend a hand here and there when I need it. I guess what I am trying to say is, three patients on the rare occasion when there is no other choice is one thing; three patients on a daily basis is something else altogether.