Assess on Admission

This is why I do what I do….

Going in to meet my patient for my evening shift, I find her grasping the Nitrous Oxide mask to her face with intensity. Her significant other, rubbing her lower back.

Bedside report was completed and I begin my assessment of her and the equipment in the room. I ask the newly trained Nurse that has so kindly just given me an accurate and complete picture of the last several days of this patients admission if she would like to observe how I assess the position of the infant in utero. I always include, “Where is baby?”, right along side my other routine subjective and objective assessments, unless of course, delivery is imminent.

Her previous Nurse is intrigued and participates, yet I can see the discomfort of her in relation to the fact that she was asked to do something that she maybe she should have done 8 hours ago. She had never been trained in maternal positioning for optimal fetal positioning during her orientation.

The patient was in for an medical induction. She had received 4 doses of