POSTANESTHESIA RECOVERY CARE ON THE LABOR WARD

We conducted a questionnaire survey amongst midwives working in the la bour wards of two hospitals within the Trent region. The results show that most of these midwives undertake the care of postoperative patien ts infrequently and have received little, if any, training. Also, most had not received any guidelines on which to base their practice. Over 80% observed respiratory rate, pulse rate, colour and manual blood pr essure with approximately half measuring body temperature. In one hosp ital, over 90% used an automated blood pressure monitor and pulse oxim eter. In the second hospital this happened in only 50% of cases. There appears to be some confusion regarding the monitors used postoperativ ely in that 11% of midwives said that they routinely used a capnometer in this situation.