Missing prenatal records at a birth center: a communication problem quantified.

Objectives: To quantify the extent of missing prenatal records at the time of patient presentation to a birth center, to document the age of the information in those records, and to discover how quickly missing records were retrieved.

Method: A survey form was completed over a three-month period for each patient presenting for care.

Results: Prenatal records were unavailable 37% of the time at initial presentation.

Role transitions for new clinical leaders in perinatal practice.

New clinical leaders are transitioning to their roles in a demanding and short-staffed profession where change is constant and finances are uncertain. For successful role transition in the specialty of perinatal nursing, both new leaders and their mentors must understand the attributes of potential leaders, the role of mentoring, and the need for clearly articulated expectations. This article discusses these processes in the context of the considerable skill set required for leadership in nursing today.