Why do other floors think OB isn't real work?

LDRNMOMMY, BSN, RN · Jan 7, 2007

AARGH, we suffer from the same sterotype at our hospital. We have been referred to as the "campfire girls" since sometimes when our census is low and our patients aren't doing anything we all sit at the nurses station. We also had one of our docs quoted on one occasion as saying all the nurses ever do is sit on our @sses and don't do anything.:angryfire

33-weeker · Jan 7, 2007

I think you may have hit the nail on the head. L&D has to staff for the what-ifs - esp. if the unit is in an area of town prone to drop-ins. This can lead to nurses 'sitting around' at least temporarily (occasionally for a while on the rare nights when it's slow all night).

Usually though, the 'board' lights up like a Christmas tree starting at around midnight with the usual - the no PNC 28 weeker that comes in 8 cm :wakeneo: , a few babydaddydrama-queens, the NSTs post MVA, the sched. breech C/S that comes in contracting 3 days early (wake up anesthesia), along with the long parade of ? labor, the spotting/contracting after sex moms (how'd you like to do THAT vag exam), and a few who actually are the real thing.

Whatever you are unfamiliar with is scary and hard, but being familiar with a specialty doesn't make it easy either. OB/NSY is supposed to be normal/healthy for the most part, but that doesn't mean it WILL be. Last night we bagged a term baby after shoulders got stuck, then we transferred another out with multiple anomalies tonight. It's like Forest Gump's box of chocolates... you never know what you're going to get.

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Jan 9, 2007

. It's like Forest Gump's box of chocolates... you never know what you're going to get.

That is exactly how I would describe it. I was in charge in the nursery last night...within about 15 minutes all the following happens: 5 newly born babies are brought in for assessment/bath/weight/shots&drops; 1 of those new ones (a 10lb 10oz one) needed blood sugars and (of course) isn't moving his R arm. Another baby, weighing in at 11lb6oz (not newborn) gets brought in because he isn't moving either arm. So I have to call about both these babies and get them Xrayed. Meanwhile, while another baby is eating, she turns desats and turns purple. Proceeds to do this several more times over the course of a couple hours. As she desats, she gets a vacant stare and her eyeballs start twitching. Needless to say, she won herself a ticket to NICU.

I was glad to not have to go back to that the next night.

jewlmrn · Jan 10, 2007

I think that as time goes by and we get away from school. we have selective memory and remember the nice night we enjoyed during that rotation and block out the crazy nights that we didn't. I've been doing OB for 4yrs and PACU and teach OB also. My students routinely mention after the fact remembering the good nights but can rarely recall the bad ones. They however do know by the end of their rotation that we "don't sit around and rock babies" like many uninformed people think but are highly skilled nurse who are often overworked.

jewlmrn · Jan 10, 2007

I meant 24 yrs not 4 yrs, and in a rural area. Rural obstetrics is very different from urban, we have no midwives, interns , residents, or doctors in house so are responsibility is enormous.

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 10, 2007

Rural nursing in Oklahoma was exactly where I learned to be nurse----where I cut my teeth as a new nurse. You are right; it's unique and extremely challenging.

junamoss · Jan 10, 2007

As an l&d nurse from a surgical floor, sometimes I think it's a cush job. But when the sh** hits the fan, it's your issue, you can't just ship them to ICU....I am perturbed by those new grads who have done nothing but L&D. They have no idea what busy means...no idea what having 5-7 pts who all need drugs,blood, pain meds and calls to docs....

cindy

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 10, 2007

Hmmm well I disagree about new grads not knowing what busy is. I have done L/D (and GYN surgical nursing too) since graduating nearly 10 years ago...I learned within short time what busy meant. The poop hit the fan early and often for me. That first year out of school was a literal baptism by fire and I nearly quit. Really, I dont' think any nursing job is "cushy" truly, particularly when you are doing direct patient care.

Abuelita · Jan 11, 2007

I did enough OB in my float-nurse days to know that it was anything but cushy, even though it usually was a welcome break from med/surg. It was also on the OB floor that I experienced my one and only death threat (a young dad, upset that Children's Services would not allow him access to his meth-affected newborn, came up to the nurse's station and told me he was going to start shooting unless we let him see the baby). So much psychodrama.........so little time. I don't envy OB nurses that at all!

Sugar9486 · Jan 11, 2007

Well at least it sounds like at your hospital there is actually an assignment that goes to a nurse who comes from another floor, I used to be a secretary on an OB floor and the nurses would get so frustrated when it was crazy because an extra nurse would come and all they would do was take vitals and play with the baby's, giving them even more reason to think OB is easy, but I'm still confused as to how they didn't see the nurses RUNNING down the hallways through the nursery window, or hearing the call bells ring every two minutes :)

nursecave · Jan 12, 2007

I did one year of Med-Surg prior to going to Mother Baby. In some respects MB is cush. There aren't as many procedures, no sundowner's in the elderly pt's (not yet, anyway, are mom's keep getting older - we've had a 56 yr. old), etc.......the list could go forever. Occasionally we have to put down an NG for a post op ileus in a C/S. Several IV starts. But in OB there is soooo much we do that others just aren't aware of. And being in a hospital that delivers 7000 babies a year and has one of the top NICU's in the country means we get people that noone else will take, presenting some really difficult cases. All that being said, I feel OB is harder in a lot of ways. The psychodrama one poster pointed out is mentally and emotionally exhausting. It is a daily occurence for us. What I would really like to see is a nurse who thinks OB is cushy come handle a post partum hemorrhage. Talk about high adrenaline. And unlike a wound dehisence or other emergent episode on a med surg floor, you can't pack it and wait on the MD or ship them somewhere else. In PPH a pt can bleed to death before your eyes if YOU don't act. It is scary to see so much blood it is running off the bed and leaving puddles in the floor. And we have our share of codes, seizures, diabetic crisis, sickle cell crisis, etc... too. We not only do OB but we have to be able to handle any medical condition the pt may have, and how OB may affect that condition. I have always had the thought that we are all cut out to do something different in nursing. I think it boils down to what appeals to us, and sometimes we don't value what others do. If we were all cut out for Med surg, ED, and nursing home nursing, who would take care of us in the Dr's office, OB, case management, etc.....

mvanz9999, RN · Jan 12, 2007

What I want to know is why nurses must make comments about how XYZ isn't real nursing. Who cares?????

You're ALL licensed nurses, you are "supposed" to be on the same team (ie, providing high quality patient care).

Who cares which department does what? If you think OB/GYN or PACU or ICU or ED or LTC or Mental Health is so much better, why not go work there?????

I think this is a perfect example of why nurses cannot bond together and get better conditions, or higher pay. It seems that a lot of people are busy backstabbing other departments and so on and so on.

Since this has nothing to do with the topic, I apologize. And I'm outta here.