The Labor & Delivery Nursing Team

kastas, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2006

I've been wondering about something. I would assume that many of you worked in other areas before working in labor and delivery.
Considering that your patient's are female (understood that the SO and family is an important extension), that the process of birthing is largely a natural one (understood that illlnesses, drugs and interventions may alter that), etc., do you find the ambiance and the relationship between the nurses, the nurses and docs, to be different than other experiences you've had in nursing in either a negative or positive way?
I don't think I've articulated this as well I would have liked to, but I am curious to hear your responses. I'm trying to prepare myself as much as possible.

If I understand correctly you are asking if the atmosphere is different. Are the relationships different between staff and MD's on L&D? ... Well, if I'm correct I'd say YES, very different. You work with a few specific doctors and rarely do you have consults to doctors outside of OB/GYN's or Perinatologists (rare consults for surgery/pain/diabetes/etc). You get to know them better and they know you. I work in a good sized hospital and each of the OB's know me by name and seem to respect me. I like that familiarity. As far as the staff goes I think it is somewhat different. I don't know if the difference is a group of females together for 12 hours or that we all seem to be friends or at least friendly. Does that answer your question at all?

heartbeat2 · Sep 23, 2006

I've been wondering about something. I would assume that many of you worked in other areas before working in labor and delivery.
Considering that your patient's are female (understood that the SO and family is an important extension), that the process of birthing is largely a natural one (understood that illlnesses, drugs and interventions may alter that), etc., do you find the ambiance and the relationship between the nurses, the nurses and docs, to be different than other experiences you've had in nursing in either a negative or positive way?
I don't think I've articulated this as well I would have liked to, but I am curious to hear your responses. I'm trying to prepare myself as much as possible.

I worked labor and delivery for 23 years. I hope I'm understanding what you are asking. With the birthing process, it requires the dr. to respond at all times of the day and night. Sometimes dr.s have to hang out and are at the nurses desk a lot more than what you would see medical dr.s You have a much closer relationship with l/d dr.s Some nurses like a very "friendly" relatioinship with the dr.s. I'm not being prudish, but I have worked at one hospital that a relationship between a dr and nurse got to the point that she would leave her patient to join him in his call room. This certainly crossed the line. They both were going through a divorce at the time.

I have always enjoyed and loved working with the OB dr.s The ones I've worked with are very dedicated and are called to be dr.s

You have a closer relationship with these dr.s due to the fact that they are around much more of the time. The only other areas I can foresee that nurses work this close with their drs. would be ER, ICU, maybe OR...

L/d is emotionally charged and a neat place to work most of the time...when it's bad it's bad. It is a highly litigious area so you depend on each other to make sure things go as right as they possibly can.

Good luck with your l/d experience.

Elisheva · Sep 23, 2006

Thanks! You understood my convoluted post perfectly.

I'm thinking (hoping) that working so closely together with the same docs in a labor and delivery unit might result in a closer and more supportive group. I had a very different experience on med-surg, but that might have just been me. It's important to me to feel like I'm part of a team and that we support and help each other and are willing to share information without feeling like we're giving away our "power."

I look forward to working in L&D.

SmilingBluEyes · Sep 24, 2006

It definately depends on the place. Ihave worked places where doctors treated nursing staff as respected, trusted and intelligent colleagues. That was great. I have also had the unfortunte experience of having doctors treat staff like idiots or underlings. This is all-too-common, in many places. I find it's not necessarily that dr/nurse relationships are all that collegial or friendly in OB------I have seen much better ones in say, ICU/CCU for example. It would depend on thenursing staff, the medical staff, and the manager you have, as well. Not all places are created equally, in this area.