Duties of OB nurses (and others) Please feel free to add!

[SmilingBluEyes]

For the benefit of new nurses and future/prospective OB/GYN nurses and doulas, midwives, others, thought I would try a sticky that discusses various duties/skills sets and other characteristics that make a "good", well-rounded OB nurse, doula, midwife or other professional dealing with Women's Health Issues. This question seems to come up now and again, so let's help em out.

I will start. Here are skills sets for OB nurses that I found apply in most areas. Again feel free to add to this; I want to learn as well!

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OBSTETRICAL ASSESSMENT SKILLS

Inbound facility tranfer unit

Outbound transfer to other facility

Identify fetal position (Leopold maneuvers)

Fetal heart tones

Severity of contractions

lady partsl exam, dilitation & effacement

lady partsl exam, station & presentation

lady partsl exam, culture collection

CLINICAL SKILLS

Set up tocotransducer

Intrauterine pressure catheter

Auscultate fetal heart tones

Intact/nonintact membranes

Nitrazine test

Internal fetal monitor

Interpreting normal/abnormal fetal heart patterns

Baseline interpretation

Early decelerations

Beat to beat variability

Late decelerations

Prolonged decelerations

Set up OB pack

Set up baby pack

Cord blood collection

Artificial rupture of membranes

COMPLICATIONS/FURTHER DUTIES

Pregnancy Induced Hypertension

Antihypertensives

Clonus

Diabetes

Abruptio placenta

Placenta previa

Prolapsed cord

Preeclampsia

Eclampsia

Malpresentation

Premature rupture of the membranes

Premature labor

Magnesium sulfate

Drug dependent

RH incompatibility

Herpes

HIV

HBV

Hemorrhage

Blood transfusion

Forceps delivery

Vacuum extraction

Precipitous delivery

Gestational Diabetes/Diabetes and its sequalae

Starting IV's

Cesarean section-circulate

Cesarean section-scrub

Central line placement, set up & assist

Epidural, set up & assist

Spinal, set up & assist

Local, set up & assist

Foley catheter placement

Pain control, narcotic

Intrathecal medication delivery

Episiotomy, set up & assist

Uterine massage

Lochia assessment

DVT

Induction of labor

Cytotec

Prostaglandin supp

Oxytocin infusion

PATIENT TEACHING

Relaxation/breathing techniques

Premature labor prevention

Phone triage

Also:

Labor coaching/support for birthing mother/family

Neonatal assessment/resuscitation as needed

Breastfeeding initiation/support/ongoing teaching

Self-care and baby care once you go home

Care of any surgical wounds/therapies

After-care telephone triage (answering questions once a new family has gone home)

[sweetiehrt7985]

Wow you guys do a lot. I am fixing to go into nursing school and this area has interested me.

[RAIZIE]

Ok - OB nurses everywhere-

Are you ACLS certified?

Are you doing cardiac arrythmia monitoring on all post-op patients?

[nursejenrnc]

How about the ever fun Mag Sulfate infusion...

OR, even more enjoyable, management of Malignant Hyperthermia, or even more adrenaline producing... Amniotic Fluid Embolism... not that we manage any of these alone, or often, but we do need well honed skills to deal with all of them...

[danissa, LPN, LVN]

always confused about the difference in the states about OB nurses /Midwives. I am a midwife in the UK, who delivers the babies in the US?

[HappyNurse2005, RN]

Ok - OB nurses everywhere-

Are you ACLS certified?

Are you doing cardiac arrythmia monitoring on all post-op patients?

I am. not all OB nurses are.

Yes. all post op patients are in the PACU after csection, and are on cardiac monitoring while in PACU. all PACU nurses are acls certified

[kathiecnm]

Ours is a very busy teriary care unit with 450+ births/month. You can add the skills of sterile speculum exams, amniotic fluid & fFN collection. Under coplications/other duties add incompetent cervix & cerclage placement.

Under education you can add mentoring ANIIs, GNs, new RNs, paramedics, residents & medical school students as well as immunization education prior to Hep B, Tdap & Influenza being offered to protect our vunerable newborns. WOW do we ever work hard!

[kathiecnm]

I am. not all OB nurses are.

Yes. all post op patients are in the PACU after csection, and are on cardiac monitoring while in PACU. all PACU nurses are acls certified

All our L&D RNs are becoming ACLS certified because be do our own C/S & have a PACU. Probably overkill, but still required.

[tinyscrafts]

In the US most babies are delivered by Obstetricians. A small percent of women use Certified nurse midwives and a few percent use homebirth or out of hospital midwives. and a few family practice doctors that still do obstetrics but they are rare.

[jackiannieRN]

SHOULD I BE INTIMIDATED BY OB NURSING? I HAVE BEEN CONSIDERING THIS AREA. :uhoh21: HMMM ...

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

It is one of those things (I have found) that you either love it or you don't. Can't hurt to give it a shot.

[SmilingBluEyes]

One more duty, if you will:

Respect to the maximum safety and policy will allow, all your patient's wishes, and special requests. If you get a birth plan, instead of laughing at it or deriding, try imagining yourself on the other side of that bedrail and wanting some control over what is one of We all know as nurses, all wishes can't always be honored, for many reasons, however, if this is the case, again imagine that is your mom, sister, friend, daughter, laying in that bed, and be kind enough to explain why; and do so respectfully, when something can't be done to her expectations/desires.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Don't be intimidated. Do be aware! WE need you in nursing!