Ob Nursing

Hi there!!!

I will be graduating in May and have been hired on the labor and delivery floor at a local hospital. I am very excited, but nervous as well. Can any of you experienced OB nurses give me any advice on what it takes to be a good OB nurse?

Congratulations on your upcoming graduation and your new job. I have found that as an OB nurse you have to be flexible (assignments change all the time based on the needs of staffing and the patient population). You have to be in reasonably good physical shape because there is a lot of lifting, pulling, and pushing. You have to be very nurturing and touch oriented because it's a job where you end up holding hands, wiping bottoms, stroking foreheads and providing a LOT of emotional support. You should be truly good at teamwork and not be whiny (when you see someone with a heavy load, you should pitch in if possible), and you have to be able to tolerate stress reasonably well. OB floors are acute floors with patient status constantly changing. It is not laid back at all (or very rarely). You should also have a really good grasp of physiology because the status of the fetus depends on the status of the mother- you need to understand how and why that is.

Altalorraine