The nurse that assesses the newborn immediately after delivery??

essT · Jul 12, 2016

We do not have a "transition nurse" as you've described. At my hospital, this is handled by the L&D nurses. After delivery, they promote skin to skin care initially, help the baby latch, do an assessment, eyes & thighs, and prepare the baby for transfer to nursery. The NICU team attends deliveries for a set of conditions (fetal distress,

If you want to work with healthy babies, I'd suggest general nursery or post-partum -- they tend to get the most hands-on time with the new babies. Only a fraction of an L&D nurse's time is spent with the baby after it is born. Some units, especially at smaller community hospitals, will cross train and let you work both roles. Good luck!

Edit to add: I see you're new here. If you haven't already found it, there is an OB/GYN nursing board on the nursing specialties list -- they should be able to help too!

Coffee Nurse, BSN, RN · Jul 12, 2016

I did my capstone placement on a postpartum floor, and IIRC there was a nurse selected on each shift to attend routine deliveries and perform the sorts of tasks you're talking about. No guarantee that you would be that nurse when you worked, though, you might end up just doing actual postpartum stuff.

BrandNewBabyNurse · Jul 12, 2016

I did a capstone in L&D, and my hospital had a transition nurse come to deliveries except on the weekends. I also worked day shift, so I'm not sure about nights. But regardless, the transition nurse was always a postpartum/mother-baby nurse who was assigned to be the transition nurse that shift. If a transition nurse for some reason wasn't available, or we had multiple simultaneous deliveries going on, then the L&D nurse just handled all of the baby stuff. I'd search for mother-baby positions and inquire about the hospitals handling of newborns at birth. Hope this helps!

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Jul 13, 2016

You might also try 'stork nurse' or 'newborn specialist.' I will say, it requires you be very very familiar with normal newborns (so you will recognize what is not normal), so you might apply first to a place that still has a newborn nursery so you can familiarize yourself with normal. I had about 9 years of newborn experience before I started doing this full-time. I LOVE IT. But it isn't very common, so I hear.

Ashes172, BSN, RN · Jul 13, 2016

At the hospital I was at it was the mom/baby nurses who were specially trained in transition who did that.

SteveNNP, MSN, NP · Jul 13, 2016

The role you are describing can be done by several different nurses, including L&D, Newborn Nursery, and NICU. It's typically an assigned role for the day, not a "hired-into" position. You would also likely need some solid newborn experience before they cut you loose running deliveries. In my hospital, we have experienced NICU nurses who attend all high risk deliveries, update parents, etc...with one of us NNPs or PAs. They are all experienced in transport, resuscitation and neonatal care. This might be something you can transition into once you have some experience!

BSNSt3ph · Jul 13, 2016

You might also try 'stork nurse' or 'newborn specialist.' I will say, it requires you be very very familiar with normal newborns (so you will recognize what is not normal), so you might apply first to a place that still has a newborn nursery so you can familiarize yourself with normal. I had about 9 years of newborn experience before I started doing this full-time. I LOVE IT. But it isn't very common, so I hear.

Wow! I will definitely look into this! Thanks!

BSNSt3ph · Jul 13, 2016

The role you are describing can be done by several different nurses, including L&D, Newborn Nursery, and NICU. It's typically an assigned role for the day, not a "hired-into" position. You would also likely need some solid newborn experience before they cut you loose running deliveries. In my hospital, we have experienced NICU nurses who attend all high risk deliveries, update parents, etc...with one of us NNPs or PAs. They are all experienced in transport, resuscitation and neonatal care. This might be something you can transition into once you have some experience!

Great! I am looking into special care nursery and mother baby. Thanks! :)

Tenebrae, BSN, RN · Jul 13, 2016

They care called midwives here the ones that do the immediate care and checks following the birth

There is the midwife who follows the mum through out their pregnancy and will usually be there at the birth and who will assess the baby directly following the birth. The labour and delivery wards also have midwifes on the ward who will do the same thing but they are connected to the ward

The registered nurses on obstetrics are the ones who do the post partum care

LKH_RN · Jul 14, 2016

This was my first job out of school, it was simply "nursery" nurse. My duties were to attend lady partsl deliveries and c-sections. I admitted the babies, but I also took care of them for the duration of their stay. This meant breastfeeding teaching, CCHD and lab screenings, weights, assessments, and special care for sicker babies. Seeing as how you mentioned your OB clinical, I assume you are a nursing student and soon-to-be nurse.

I hope I do not offend you, but I just want to share with you that I do not think this is a good first nursing job. As others have mentioned, many hospitals do "couplet care" (the L&D or postpartum nurse admits and cares for the baby). Some hospitals elect one nurse every shift to complete these tasks. However, hospitals with dedicated "nursery" positions are not typically couplet care facilities. Mine was not. This was incredibly challenging, as your patient load tends to be larger and your time management is challenged by the requests of the moms that truly belong to a postpartum nurse--not you (can't exactly leave patients hanging, whether they are yours or not!).

In addition to well babies, you are typically also responsible for intermediate care babies (level 2 NICU). This means you may have a crappy delivery, meconium, suction, resuscitation, etc. but also have 4-5 other babies that need labs, breastfeeding teaching, and baths at the same time. You do not always see these sicker babies coming and this can leave you scrambling to re-organize. I don't know if you're interested in more critical babies, but if you are a well baby nurse in a smaller hospital you will most certainly have to start IVs, fluids, CPAP, and definitely resuscitation at some point in your career. These opportunities may not be abundant during your orientation period. Likewise, they don't tend to staff many well baby nursery nurses per shift. There may be 1-2 max. That means you might be working alone or with one other nurse (imagine all of that happening with just you scheduled as the nursery nurse). Your chance to soak up knowledge and get help from more skilled nurses will be limited if you are working alone.

I feel like newborn nursery is limbo for new nurses. It's hard to get in as a new grad, but also hard to transition out if you stay too long and change your mind. My advice would be to select a speciality that allows you a chance to transition babies without it being your only job. Labor and delivery, postpartum, NICU (high risk deliveries!), etc. At least with these specialties you can rely on the support of other experienced nurses and you have a wider range of transferrable skills should you change your mind or want to grow.

Just my thoughts from someone who worked exclusively nursery. Best of luck to you!

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · Jul 14, 2016

I have always heard the role you described called "baby nurse".