difference high risk OB VS L&D?

[ParisAntonel]

What are the duties of a high risk OB nurse and the duties of L&D nurse? They are separate units, and I am trying to figure out for which unit I should apply. Some People have said L&D is more fast paced, and in OB you have more time to talk with the patient. Thank you :)

[klone, MSN, RN]

It depends on if the high risk OB is just antepartum, or if it's both antepartum and L&D.

High risk OB will take care of women who are there on bedrest (sometimes for many weeks or months) for things like pre-eclampsia or PPROM. You will put them on EFM 2 or 3 times a day, take vitals, pass out meds. If it also includes high risk L&D, you will be taking care of these women through labor, often while they're on magnesium sulfate.

I personally would prefer L&D, because I prefer taking care of women during labor, rather than antepartum, which usually doesn't require a lot in the way of skills (occasionally you may have to change out an IV site or draw labs). I found antepartum to be fairly boring, for the most part. I far prefer L&D.

[RunBabyRN]

I precepted in a high risk OB/MBU, and I have a job offer waiting for me there. We had women who were at high bleeding risk and receiving blood, on mag protocols, who had PTL that we managed, moms who endured fetal demise or had their babies in our level 3 NICU. We had babies with temperature or glucose issues or bleeding circ sites. Lots of breastfeeding help and psychosocial issues. We had drug-addicted moms and babies, lots of social work, psych diagnoses, incarcerated moms, paralytic ileus & associated NG tubes, hysterectomies and foreign fertility tx gone bad... I've seen quite a variety, and these are just MY patients, not counting ones other RNs had.

[MKS8806]

I work at a facility where we rotate through Labor, Triage, and Antepartum. We are a high risk Antepartum unit that gets transfers from all over the area. A typical day on that unit would consist of 3-5 patients, some continuous fetal monitoring, others get monitored 1-2 times per night. We care for patients that are bleeding previas, IUGR, Mo-Mo twins, preeclampsia, vasa previas, etc. Sometimes the patients are stable and require very little, other times, we are running Mag and crashing them for delivery. When I wok over there, I feel very med-surgey sometimes. I prefer the patients that require a little more intensive care and are a little more unstable.

That would be my understanding of the differences between the two units.