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Discussion

The OB ICU - Does It Exist?

Adult ICU RN here, just wondering if any hospitals out there have dedicated beds and/or staff for OB/GYN ICU patients. We see an rare pregnant patient just about as rarely as we have a post-section that went poorly.

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    There are some out there. Many of them specialize in high risk pregnancy (severe cardiomyopathy or other heart related issues) that require invasive monitoring. There used to be one in the Philly area, but I am not sure if it is still up and running.

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    There is one in my state as well, I think it is small - under 5 beds. They see stuff like emboli, DIC, PP cardiomyopathy, eclampsia, etc.

    The ICUs at my hospital have pregnant women in their unit along with everyone else. If they need fetal monitoring, L&D goes down there however often orders say to monitor her to run the strip.

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    Our L&D will admit a patient that is OB-ICU to our L&D unit or one of our ICUs and work collaboratively with ICU staff to manage patient care. We also open our high-risk OB inservices to the ICU RNs. Perhaps you could work to develop a similar program at your facility...it's gone over well, here.

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    I am very intrigued by the concept on OB ICU's. Since(thankfully) the need isn't so common that there are OB ICU's scattered throughout multiple facilities in each area, why do some nurses get high-risk obstetric certification? Will an ICU only allow a nurse with that high risk cert to work alongside in ICU?

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    There currently isn't any high-risk OB certification. However, one is in development and we hope to roll it out possibly in 2025.

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    So in answer to your question - no, obviously. A certification in high-risk obstetrics is not required for a nurse to take care of these patients. That is why they work in tandem with an ICU nurse - so that these patients' conditions (both their pregnancy, as well as their condition that deems them high risk) can be safely managed. 

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