Couplet care/family centered care

[samsauntrn]

Is anyone out there doing couplet/family centered care? How many couplets do you have? We are starting this on our unit in a totally half baked manor, with no answers as to staffing, equipment etc. We are supposed to have four couplets, which while AWHONN says that's ok, that's still 8 patients per RN, not exactly safe staffing. I'm finding this to be more of a money driven issue than a patient driven issue. That the goal is to work with less RN staff than in our previous model. Plus the nursery is going to be discontinued all together. If our unit was halfway physically funtional, it might be more workable but we are set up like a track with nothing centrally located or nurse friendly. We have voiced our concerns to management but they send the OB medical director to try to "calm us down", since when does a doctor know how a nurse functions and why should he be sent to tell us how to do our jobs? Plus this new model will only be offered to c/section patients "when convienient" as we use PACU staff to recover OB patients right alongside gyn surgical patients, so they are not allowed to have their babies in PACU if an OB nurse is unable to stay with them because of staffing. What is the sense in that? Offering for some but not all patients and only when staffing allows? Plus we have antenatal patients on our unit as well as the gyn surgicals and nothing has been answered regarding staffing for these patients. In addition to that med/surg nurses are often pulled up to us who have no idea how to take care of the mom's let alone the babies. I'm seeing this as a disaster waiting to happen the way it is being done. And on top of this this hospital is trying to obtain Magnet status, what a joke! THe staff nurses on the committes were waved off dismissively after voicing their concerns, now that is magnet worthy isn't it? Any suggestions would be helpful.

[sarakahn]

Welcome to the site.

[JS_nurse]

Just found this site... its great!

[smbluthing99]

AWHONN newest guidelines say one nurse to three couplets. We started doing this where I work and I can't tell you the difference in the quality of care I can give. I don't have any ancillary help, but it is so much better with just 6 patients!!! Good luck.

[ziesha001]

The Thing important in Couplet care/family centered care are :-

Dignity and Respect-To Listen to and honor patient and family ideas and choices and to use patient and family knowledge, values, beliefs and cultural backgrounds to improve care planning and delivery.
Information Sharing-To communicate and share complete and unbiased information with patients and families in useful ways. Patients and families receive timely, complete and accurate details so they can take part in care and decision making.
Involvement-To encourage and support patients and families in care and decision making at the level they choose.
Collaboration-To invite patients and family members to work together with health care staff to develop and evaluate policies and programs.

[TammyMTomlinson]

I think that it comes down to the basic question here. Do you feel that you are able to give these patients effective care? Do you feel that the environment is as such that you are not able to fulfill SAFE care? If you question any of this, I would make arrangements to discuss this problem with your Board of Nursing and ask for advise.

[smbluthing99]

New perinatal guidelines suggest one nurse to 3 couplets. Since my unit has done this my level of patient care and job satisfaction has sky rocketed.