Intro and question

[bobbysgirlmeri]

Hello,
I have been a pediatric nurse for over 15 years and work in two of the local hospitals in my area. The area I live in is rural, socioeconomically poor, and 15 miles from the Mexico border.
I am currently doing a research paper for my work. It is concerned with separating Pediatrics from the Maternal-Child department. Currently, the Maternal-Child unit consists of Peds, OB, L&D, Nursery, and NICU. The staff in Peds feel that the unit, possibly with Nursery, should become their own department. The leadership, at this point, consists of Director of Maternal-Child with Clinical Coordinators (one per night and one per day, with some shifts not having one). In order to present a selling paper to Administration, I need to come up with reasons and research to support this. Anyone know where I can go in order to research this and/or anyone have any comments?
I would really appreciate some feedback. Thanks in advance.
Meri

[abbafather427]

I know that most hospitals keep pediatrics separate from nursery because most pediatric patients are considered "dirty". One would never want pediatrics near newborn nursery, due to infection control issues. For the same reason, pedi should be set aside from nicu as well. Most hospitals, in my experience, are keeping l&d/nursery/nicu together since they are clean. Pedi and picu can be in the same area, since most picu are dirty. However, pedi/onc should be in a clean area, as their defenses are down during treatments.

Hope that helps. If anyone has corrections, just add in. I've worked in mostly rural hospitals and this is my experience.