Well Baby Nursery Question

[l&drocks]

I am trying to get a feel on other institutions protocals for charting on well babies. Currently at our facility, we are making entries on well babies every hour until discharge which may be 2-3 days after birth. This seems a little bit overboard to me. I would appreciate any input. Thanks.

[SmilingBluEyes]

We have to chart on our babies (and we have no well baby nursery, they are roomed with moms) every 2 hours.

[BethAnnG]

We chart on babies every hour as well, whether they are in room c mom or in the nursery. I think it is more of an infant security issue than anything because we only have to chart on moms every 2 hours.

[fergus51]

I think that's excessive. We have NICU patients that we only have to chart on every 3 hours.

[BethAnnG]

I think it's so that we can say, for security purposes, should something happen, that yes, I saw this baby in room with Mom, he was sleeping and she was holding him. It's not an acuity issue in my mind I don't think it is for our hospital either. But since people do send their babies back and forth between their room and the nursery, and we have had cases where Dad wants to abduct the baby from Mom etc., we have to make sure we lay eyes on the baby at least every hour. Our hospital is pretty tight on infant security.

[fergus51]

Do you not have any sort of monitoring system on your babies? I can see maybe making a check by the time indicating the baby was fine, but a narrative note seems like a little much.

[BethAnnG]

I don't think the rules are quite as tight for our NICU babies, though, fergus51. Most of the babies there (at least in our NICU and I'm guessing for others as well) are not as easily transported what with all the machinery.

[BethAnnG]

We do have the hugs and kisses monitoring system. We don't do narratives, just a couple boxes to fill in where we put our initials, where baby is, and is he sleeping, awake, or fussy. I agree, narratives every hour is too much, esp for a well baby. We don't do narratives unless something is abnormal or something goes wrong.

[SmilingBluEyes]

We use the HUGS system, plus have locked doors. The charting is NOT for security but to assess wellbeing.

[BethAnnG]

Our checks are to assess wellbeing too, of course, but I think having them be hourly as opposed to q2 is for increased safety and security. At least that's what I was told. We have locked doors and security and all that too.

[2curlygirls]

I have to agree with Fergus! That seems excessive! How many babies do you have as an assignment at any one time?

[daisybaby, LPN]

We don't have a guideline for frequency of newborn checks other than the standard ordered assessments. I document a physical observation of the newborn at least q2, however.

Could someone explain the HUGS or hugs and kisses system to me, please? I've not heard of it.