Question re: antepartum visits

Specialties Public/Community

Published

Hi there,

I'm seriously considering PH nursing and I had a question for those of you already in it. If and when you check on antepartum patients do you usually see them in their homes or in clinics? If you see them in their homes do you use one of those listening devices to check the fetal HR or is there something like portable EFM monitoring that's done (I'm totally guessing on that)? What do those types of visits entail? I'm just curious about all that. Antepartum stuff would be new to me and I was hoping you might be able to share your experiences.

THanks.

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Specializes in ICU, School Nurse, Med/Surg, Psych.

I would think that PHN would be assigned acording to specialty. I do PHN with an outpatient psychiatric facility and I help clients transition from their inpatient status to living in the community.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

I believe it depends on the facility. In my area, there are some facilities that see pts in the clinic, and others that have nurses go out to the pt's home to see them.

What gets done there depends on why the pt is being seen. If it's someone on bedrest for PIH, (just an example), you are going to be checking BP, a weight, dipping her urine for protein, and assessing for HA, blurred vision, epigastric pain. You're also going to be doing the standard OB stuff - FHR, asking about fetal movement, maybe measuring the fundus. Checking for any other problems. You might even be drawing blood samples - some antepartum nurses do.

Hope this helps in some small way.

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