Surgical Procedures in L&D

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Do any of the facilities you work at perform GYN surgical procedures in the L&D ORs other than sections? In our L&D we do C-sections & D&Cs. Does anyone know of any legal/regulatory issues that could come up if regular gyn procedures were done in an L&D OR i.e. Diagnostic Laparoscopy? Thanks for your input!

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

I can't imagine there would be any legal issues. An OR is an OR. If it's cleared to perform major abdominal surgery, surely it's fine to perform laparoscopic procedures and other gyn surgeries.

When I worked in a unit that had a dedicated OR, we also did BTLs there (hysts were done in general surgery because they went to the med/surg floor afterwards).

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
I can't imagine there would be any legal issues. An OR is an OR. If it's cleared to perform major abdominal surgery, surely it's fine to perform laparoscopic procedures and other gyn surgeries.

That is true of ORs that are fully licensed for all surgery, but there are ORs that are licensed for sections only- we have 2 ORs that cannot be used for anything else due to the way they are licensed by the state.

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Our hospitals have 3 ORs on our LDRP unit (main OR is directly downstairs) and we only do surgeries on pt's on our unit. I imagine they COULD do other surgeries but we are a closed unit for LDRP. I think the main issue would be where and who would recover these pt's outside of the OR. As L&D nurses we recover our own sections, BTL, and D&C's with the vast majority being short surgeries with spinal anesthesia. A person who undergoes a more invasive long surgery with general anesthesia could be potentially harmed during recovery by a nurse not trained to do real post-op recovery. I know I wouldn't want to do it and I have both worked in the Main OR, pre-op holding, and as LDRP. Additionally, would these other surgeries put a burden on availability of staffing and/or the OR for a section in the event of an emergency, such as cord prolapse?

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Thank you all for your replies. The L&D ORs are very close to the main OR, separated by 1 set of doors only. As for staffing, the section ORs would be staffed by main OR staff for regular cases and OB staff for deliveries. There would always be a second OR open and available for emergent procedures to take place.

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