RN Mamas - Page 3

[Peony]

Originally Posted by ocelotmom 

And how do you deal with night shifts when you have kids who are on day shift?

Sitter seriously. You need sleep. The vast majority of night shift mamas I know have a sitter or their kids go to daycare/school during the day so they can sleep. I knew a couple that did it without but it is very, very taxing on you and not to mention dangerous to your patients if you are trying to function off of a couple hours of broken sleep. Night shift is hard on your body anyway, please don't make it worse by trying to sleep while caring for the kids. 

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by Peony 

Sitter seriously. You need sleep. The vast majority of night shift mamas I know have a sitter or their kids go to daycare/school during the day so they can sleep. I knew a couple that did it without but it is very, very taxing on you and not to mention dangerous to your patients if you are trying to function off of a couple hours of broken sleep. Night shift is hard on your body anyway, please don't make it worse by trying to sleep while caring for the kids. 

Thankfully, the actual supervision isn't a huge issue. DH is self-employed and works from home, plus we have a housemate.

But that's still an idea. We homeschool, and some sort of after-school program a few days a week might be an option for some quieter time, as well as getting them some activity.

[activistamamacita]

Hi RN mamas!

I'm a year away from graduating with my BSN and while I don't necessarily want to work L&D, I plan on starting midwifery school as soon as I have my requisite one year experience, and I have been told L&D would be best.  My question is actually about circumcisions...can a nurse refuse to assist in them?  I think that I could handle most of working in labor and delivery, but circumcisions make me really uncomfortable.  Will I just need to suck it up?

Thanks!~

[foxynursejo]

I work nights, there's no way I could do it if I didn't have someone to watch my kids the next day.  Either my mom watches them (at my house) or it's on a weekend when DH is home.  It wouldn't be safe for me at home if I had to be responsible for them after working all night.

We have a lactation room we can use for pumping, but it's on a different floor, and it's hard to take the extra time to go down there.  So I use our report room, it's not locked but I put a sign on the door and everyone is respectful.  I've never had any problem.  When I first came back to work when the twins were 4 months old I pumped every three hours, on the dot.  I'd save my charting for when I pumped.  When they were about 15-16 months old I cut down to three pumpings per 12 hour shift.  I could probably stop pumping altogether, as it is a pain and I hate washing bottles and the pieces, but I donate 75% of the milk I pump and I enjoy donating.  I don't pump at home so the milk I pump at work is all the expressed milk I have. 

Good luck!

[Peony]

Originally Posted by activistamamacita 

Hi RN mamas!

I'm a year away from graduating with my BSN and while I don't necessarily want to work L&D, I plan on starting midwifery school as soon as I have my requisite one year experience, and I have been told L&D would be best.  My question is actually about circumcisions...can a nurse refuse to assist in them?  I think that I could handle most of working in labor and delivery, but circumcisions make me really uncomfortable.  Will I just need to suck it up?

Thanks!~

I seem to remember a recent thread in the case against circ forum about this very thing. It isn't always easy to get out of, the two RNs that were posting had been threatened with their jobs. 
 

[mammamo]

whats the census looking like in your area? I got a low census day today. Unexpected  but I got a lot done with the kids at the sitters. Although, I may have to take most of my maternity leave unpaid at this rate!