If you love working with pregnant women and doing child care, then becoming an OB nurse is something to consider. Becoming OB nurse is an exciting career that provides medical care to patients during labor and delivery.
What is obstetric nurse?
Obstetric nurses or OB nurses are professionals who are trained in taking care of women who are pregnant along with their babies. This particular career in nursing can be very demanding as nurses take huge responsibilities in the patient’s health care needs.
Duties of obstetric nurse
- A pregnant women receiving proper prenatal care can makes lots of visits to their obstetricians before the childbirth. Obstetric nurses are responsible in taking the patient’s history, assisting the physicians during initial exams and performing routine duties such as weight checks and blood pressure monitoring.
- OB nurses are responsible in preparing delivery rooms, gather the needed equipments, prepare the medications needed and sterilize delivery room equipments. OB nurses should also check the equipments in the delivery room and make sure that they are all functional.
- Obstetric nurses play a vital role in patients during labor. Ob nurses perform not only the technical aspects but also serve as coaches and caretakers in what is known by many as “supportive nursing care”. There are lots of patients who need a nurse to attend their physical, emotional and mental needs during labor and delivery.
- Upon childbirth, OB nurses clean and provide warmth to the newborn baby while assessing their vital signs. Obstetric nurses are responsible in performing care while ensuring the bonding is achieved between the baby, mother and the father.
- OB nurses also handle recovering mothers. They are responsible in providing accurate pain medications and checking the patient’s recovery status or progress. They also provide several health instructions in newborn care and assist recovering mothers in doing breastfeeding.
Conditions of work
OB nurses mostly work in a fast-paced medical environment and any other medical institutions like hospitals and doctor’s clinic. Obstetrics nurses are generally required to work in long periods, rotating shift as well as holiday hours.
Educational Requirements
In order to become a obstetrics nurse, you must possess skills in assessment, communication and clinical in order to take care for patients during labor and delivery. A GED or high school diploma is the basic requirement to enter this career. However, some employers prefer an associate degree in nursing and proper training or a prior work experience as a nursing assistant.
Occupation and Progress
Job prospects for any nursing career are expected to continually grow until 2018, according to United States Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The obstetrical nurses mostly earn an average annual wage of about $60,277 including retirement, health and other benefits.