We have had a lot of discussion lately in our unit regarding patient assignments for pregnant nurses.

Do your units have policies with regard to assigning or not assigning Isolation patients or ventilated patients receiving NO to your pregnant nurses.

Thank you in advance for your input.

(I am a brand new member and this is my first post... hope I did it right)

Deena

Hadassah Hospital

Jerusalem,Israel

Hi Deena

In our unit , I have found nurses working during the entire pregnancy period . There are no restrictions , unless the nurse co ordinator feels that the nurse is not able to discharge her duties appropriately . However , nurses working in retrieval scenario is different . Once they are past 30 weeks or so , they are allocated to ground co ordination duties , and are exempted from on road or flight retrievals .

Hence , basically this is upto the nurse to make a responsible decision . If she feels that her duties cant be performed optimally in her situation , she should abstain from it ( rather than someone else pointing that she is not doing it right ) . However , she would not look after a highly infectious baby .. taking into consideration the risks associated with it . I am not quite sure about looking after babies on NO .. theoretically I feel it shouldnt matter , as there is a good inbuilt NO scavenging system . But shall get back after clarification

Regards

Gopan

I think the point to be considered here is the safety of the work environment. Safety with regards to:

-Infectious diseases

-Radiation Safety

-Chemical hazards (including Nitric Oxide)

-Physical stress

-Working hours

-Ergonomics of working conditions (including chairs/desks/etc)

A NICU should ensure that all personnel (doctors and nurses) working in it are safe from all of these risks at all times. If the work environment is safe then it doesn't matter much whether the nurse is pregnant or not.

The two circumstances where pregnant nurses are given special considerations are:

- Exemption from interfacility transfers

- Sometimes as per personal request exemption from night shift

Other than these two "special treatment" , I believe the NICU environment and work conditions should be so safe that it does not make a difference whether you are pregnant or not. The environment and working conditions are so safe, that you are never at risk.

@Deena - thanks for posting, you did it just right!

I now work in a large level-2 NICU, so the question of NO is not an issue for us.

Our policy is much like the one described by @gopan2596, pregnant nurses (and doctors) work as long as they feel comfortable.

We take some special considerations. What comes in my mind is infants infected by CMV (or rather, that we know are infected with CMV) - we do not assign these babies to pregnant staff.

Thank You to everyone for your replies. A colleague and I are doing extensive research on the subject and wanted to include policy from Nicus around the world.

Again thank you and stay safe.

Deena

Please report your conclusions from your research.

The topic is highly relevant!