What do delivery nurses do

Accurate interpretation is imperative to proper care. Each of these scenarios has different interventions, which is why the nurse needs to know how to act appropriately. Most of them are in labor, which makes an assessment fairly easy.

In many hospitals, nurses perform all assessments and notify the doctor of progress. The nurse is responsible to support the mother as she pushes her baby into the world. If mother and baby are both stable, the nurse transitions them to the postpartum unit about 1. During a cesarean section, the nurse will assist in the Operating Room OR.

In the OR, the nurse acts as the circulating nurse. One nurse will assess the baby, determine APGAR scores, and assist with skin to skin; the other nurse will continue taking care of the mother until the surgery is complete. During recovery, the nurse will be exclusively with the patient and the newborn for about two hours.

The ideal recovery patient will have had a spinal a type of medication administration. If the patient was laboring with an epidural prior to delivery, the anesthesia staff can also dose it to use in the OR for a cesarean section. Unfortunately, if your patient had an emergency surgery without an epidural, the patient will likely have general anesthesia, making the pain more difficult to control.

In this case, the nurse will be busy administering medications during the recovery period. A PCA Pump is a type of pain management that allows the patient to control the pain medication administration.

These patients deliver in the same way as other patients. However, the nurses have additional things to include in the plan of care. Once the baby is born, nurses allow patients to grieve in whatever way they choose. This is their time. To make special memories, we often call services like Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep to take pictures of the baby and family. In addition to pictures, the nurses will do footprints, hand molds, and any other special things the family requests.

I could go on all day about why I would never work anywhere else in the hospital! I LOVE birth. So, here are my top three reasons why I love working Labor and Delivery:.

As a nurse on Labor and Delivery, I love the working relationship between the nurses and the doctors. Even though nurses and doctors have very different skills and roles, there is a collaboration between these two professions. The role of a nurse is more of a partnership with the doctors, making for a fulfilling work environment. Another aspect I love about Labor and Delivery is the diversity in the job.

Nurses participate in a wide variety of areas, such as triage, OR, recovery, and labor. I know that every day I walk on the floor is going to be different. Working with a low patient ratio, some Labor and Delivery nurses work in the general ward, while others choose to specialize in working with high-risk groups - mothers with high-risk pregnancies, advanced maternal age, or those having issues with fetal development.

Location, experience, certifications, and experience affect salary. Jobs are forecasted to continue to grow in this field, as our population, and indeed the world's population, continue to grow. What Is a Labor and Delivery Nurse? This certification is maintained on a three years cycle through continuing education. An NRP certification program combines online testing, case-based simulation, and hands-on simulations, and debriefing.

The different testing environment s should focus on leadership, communication, and teamwork skills in emergency neonatal situations. An NRP certification is valid for two years. It is not uncommon to find that many nurses who land in OB are extremely passionate and never leave the area of work. Learn how it works. Skip to main content Skip to footer. Get interview requests from top hospitals for hundreds more jobs like these. Tired of applying for nursing jobs?