Introduction
During the 4-day hospital stay for delivering, a patient may interact with different employees of the health care setting. These employees include physicians, nurses, technicians, and others. Effective clinical practice demands accurate communication of critical information among healthcare employees. Team collaboration is an essential factor in quality service delivery.
When there is a lack of effective communication among healthcare professionals, there is a heightened risk of patient safety. Lack of critical information, misinterpretation of information, and overlooked changes in status are some of the issues that may affect the quality of service delivery in any healthcare setting. The risk growth tends to be more in the case of services connected with labor and delivery processes. The complaints raised by the nurse on various issues should be considered from the perspective of a piece of information passed on in a normal communication process (Daniel & Rosenstein). As the charge nurse, it becomes my duty to check the truth behind every complaint of the nurse and to find the solution to solve, if there exists a real problem.
Adequate Training for Labor and Delivery Nurses
Labor and delivery nurses are expected to provide care for pregnant women in a number of different situations. The nursing care in such situations will be in addition to the actual birth process. From the situation of complications during pregnancy until the stage of postpartum care, there are different exciting and frightening situations, in a woman’s life where the nurses have important roles to play (eHow.com). Therefore, there is an absolute necessity that the nurses should be provided adequate training to handle these situations. As the charge nurse, I will personally check the training level of all nurses forming part of my team to verify the statement of the nurse.
No Enough Labor and Delivery Nurses
In the labor and delivery process, there can be a number of emergent situations. In these situations, there is the need for adequate support to the attending physicians from the nurses arises. The allegation by the nurse that there are not enough nurses in the labor and delivery department is a serious one as it may lead to a high risk to patient safety. As an experienced charge nurse, it is my responsibility to ensure that the number of nurses is raised to an adequate level if the allegation turns out to be true. In any case, I cannot ignore the warning of the nurse as misinformation.
Poor Reimbursement to Labor and Delivery Nurses
Labor and delivery registered nurses are expected to have a number of personal traits in addition to their educational training. Physically they are on their feet most of the day and have to work for many hours without any rest. They have to handle many emotionally upsetting situations that may develop with delivery complications (Cohen). Therefore, it is critically important that they be taken care of well financially so that they will become more committed to their work. This needs a correct and fair reimbursement to the nurses. If the allegation that the reimbursement to the nurses is not at a satisfactory level to the existing nurses, as a charge nurse I have to take up this issue with the management to correct it.
Impact of the Shortcomings
Since all the allegations made by the nurse on the issues discussed above are serious and have dangerous repercussions on the lives of pregnant women as well as the babies and mothers after delivery, I have to take the allegations of the nurse seriously and take immediate steps to rectify the issues if there are real issues.
References
- Cohen, S. L. (n.d.). About Labor and Delivery Nurses. Web.
- Daniel, M. O., & Rosenstein, A. H. (n.d.). Chapter 33. Professional Communication and Team Collaboration.
- eHow.com. (n.d.). How to Become a Labor and Delivery Nurse. Web.