The Patient Experience

Tonight I saw a post from one of favorite my blog posters, http://adventuresofalabornurse.com on the patient experience.  She was talking about a mother who delivered a 22 week fetus in an Emergency Department and how it was so different in the ED than it would have been on an OB unit.

In about two weeks, I am going to be speaking at the AWHONN Convention in New Orleans about Labor Support and basically a how to make it happen on your unit.  Labor support to me is something that every woman who is having a baby no matter what her gestation age is entitled to.  Providing great labor support is providing an exceptional patient experience to the laboring/childbearing woman and her family.  

Do you ever think about how the woman and her partner are greeted at the front of the department when they arrive?  Is someone saying "OMG there is another belly at the desk?" or are they saying "Welcome to xxx Hospital Family Birth Place!  What are you here for today?" with a smile?  To us, she may be number 5, number 10 or number 25 patient who has arrived for that particular shift, but to her, she is about to have one of the most important days of her life.  This is a day she will always remember.  A day she has dreamed about for a long time.  She is excited, she is anxious, she is scared a little bit (or a lot!).  We are there to help her, to orient her, to assess her and to care for her.  We are there to educate her as she makes this life transition.

So where does it begin?  To me, it begins with the environment.  Is the room set up for her when she arrives?   Have you turned the lights down low?  Is the music on and made sure that the room is totally set up so you do not have to run outside and fetch stuff to take care of her?  (Of course, after you get her in bed to assess her, you are going to have to turn the lights up) but, allow her some peace as she enters her birthing space so she can feel that she has privacy for the important work of childbirth.  In our unit we have some signs that we put on the doors of labor rooms.  We are a LDRP unit so there can be delivered mothers right next to laboring mothers and it is important to know which is which!  The picture at the top of this post is one we use on every labor door.  Allow mothers to get into their sacred birthing space when they arrive. 

Know the things to have in your bag of tricks to enhance her experience in labor.  Some are very easy to obtain and to put into practice on your unit. 

 Birth balls, peanut balls, positioning devices, chairs, tea lights for the room and for the tub!

Aromatherapy to enhance her experience!

But most of all, she needs YOU!  To tell her that she is doing a great job; that she is amazing; that she is strong;  that she can do it!!  

All of these things are intentional tools that nurses can bring into their practice to enhance the birthing experience provided to women and families on their units.  These are all a part of the Optimal Healing Environment in Women's Services.  

At the end of the shift, it is all about this... a happy mother with a smile that says it all!   We truly do make a difference in the life of women and it is something they never forget. They may forget our names, but they never forget the experience of that day when they were giving birth no matter what the gestational age.  We .have an awesome responsibility to make it right for her in so many ways.