Work from home OB nurse?

Nurses Entrepreneurs

Published

Specializes in OB.

I have done OB nursing for the past 11 years and am now in school to become a Certified Nurse Midwife. I am currently working in a Rehabilitation hospital, which is OK, but I miss taking care of moms and babies. I won't be done with school for another 2 1/2 years....

This is my idea: What about teaching prenatal classes of some kind from my home (I taught them in the hospital for several years), and/or renting/selling breastfeeding supplies and pumps? My other idea is to offer to go into homes and provide assistance with whatever issues arise for a new mom and new baby. I KNOW this is a need, I'm just not sure about the legalities and liabilities. I don't know how to go about figuring out if this is permissable. We got sooo many calls from new parents in the first weeks at home with their new babies, with questions and concerns. I would love to be able to help these types of people.

Any thoughts?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CVSICU, case mgmt., Psych, education.

As long as you are within your scope of practice I think that this is a fine idea. We as nurses do provide education (pre-natal, postpartum, cardiac, nutrition, etc.) and I make home visits to a patient's home to provide some of these services.

You may want to make sure that your insurance on your home/business location will protect you in case something happens. The malpractice policy I carry also covers my home office. You can add additional liability locations if you had a remote office set up somewhere away from your home.

I am finding more and more that current and future patients really appreciate these services. I get a lot of responses of "I didn't even know that this service existed." By providing these types of services we are taking the load off of many of our associates in the hospital/clinic setting and actually cutting costs by freeing up more bandwidth for them to see patients urgently. By providing education and preventative measures within the community we are really cutting the burden on the crippled healthcare system that doesn't have the time or resources to fully provide such services. Just my opinion.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
My other idea is to offer to go into homes and provide assistance with whatever issues arise for a new mom and new baby. I KNOW this is a need, I'm just not sure about the legalities and liabilities. I don't know how to go about figuring out if this is permissable. We got sooo many calls from new parents in the first weeks at home with their new babies, with questions and concerns. I would love to be able to help these types of people.

This sounds like the work of a post-partum doula (as opposed to birth doula) or "baby nurse", which would be wonderful work & legal/ethical as long as you're focused on education and assistance to the new mom and baby & not treating medical conditions. I don't think doulas need any . It's fairly quick, easy, & inexpensive to obtain doula certification, but doula practice isn't regulated by the state & anyone can call themselves a doula. (I think you'd still get clients as an experienced L&D RN with out the "certified" title!) You're hired privately by the mother, so you set the price, amount of home visits, calls, scheulde etc. I don't think you'd make as much as a full-time RN, but it would keep you in touch with the field- doula's and midwives often work together. Check out www.dona.org one of the organizations for certification & I'm sure you can find a doula in your area to talk to.

The other option might be your local health department? I know there are some public health RNs that do mother-baby visits, and I also visited the WIC office that did breastfeeding education & answered Q's from new moms that were having bf problems.

Teaching childbirth classes from the home would be great, too! If you didn't know where to start you could look into a certain approach/organization and become an instructor for their method so you can be listed on their website as a certified instructor. You could also check at the public health dept, or similar places that hold classes to see if they're looking for instructors.

You could add pump rentals to any service, too!

Sorry- could go all day long...one of my passions :nuke:

Good luck- I say go for what you love! Keep us posted!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Perinatal and Nursing Informatics.

I have been looking into starting a OB home health business as well. I'm not interested in the doula thing. I just want to give good professional nursing care. After doing some research for getting established and staying in business, I must say it is going to take a lot of work. Your department of human resources or office of regualtory services should have all the information you are looking for. Here in Georgia, they call it private healthcare providers.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OR, HH.

Just be sure to stay within your scope of practice:yeah:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thought of the same thing after 25 yrs nicu & last couple in well baby catching,

stabilize ect. My thought is phone network info for the newborn, Mom's post-portum concerns as well as & Dad jitters etc.

Would a hospital being willing to offer your service? Would you have to solicit yourself amongst known OB's, Peds etc.

Feeds4

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment