Maternal Child Nursing is a specialty area of nursing that focuses on the care of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, as well as the care of newborns and children up to adolescence. Maternal child nurses work in a variety of settings, including hospitals, clinics, and community health centers, providing care to mothers and children with a wide range of needs. In addition to basic nursing skills, maternal child nurses are trained in specialized areas such as obstetrics, gynecology, neonatal care, and pediatrics. They are responsible for providing comprehensive care to their patients, including physical assessments, administering medication, managing labor and delivery, educating new mothers on infant care and breastfeeding, and monitoring the health and development of newborns and children. Maternal child nursing is a demanding and rewarding field that requires a high level of knowledge and expertise. Nurses in this specialty must be compassionate, patient, and able to communicate effectively with patients and their families. They must also have a strong understanding of the complex medical needs of both mothers and children, and be able to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary healthcare team.
Maternal-child nursing is a specialty focused on the care of women throughout their pregnancy and childbirth and the care of their newborn children. This specialty includes obstetric nursing, perinatal nursing and pediatric nursing.
Nursing Pocket Cards, including well woman exam and amenorrhea
Guideline Summaries, including breast cancer and ovarian cancer
Blog posts, with infographics, mnemonics, tips, and more
Journals
Advances in Neonatal Care
Infants & Young Children
Journal of Pediatric Surgical Nursing
Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing
MCN, The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing
Articles and nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) activities
Headlines and news stories
Society partners
The electronic health record (EHR) has a vast source of patient data that can be used to retrospectively review patient needs and nurse staffing gaps that can serve as a basis for prospective planning for nurse staffing. In this quality improvement project, data from the EHR were used to evaluate real-time and prospective nurse staffing needs and to be consistent with the nurse staffing guidelines from the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses. Reports from the EHR provided quantitative data that supported a budgetary increase in nurse staffing and a more flexible nurse staffing scheduling system to meet the needs of the patients.
Nurse and human resource leaders at Boston Children's Hospital, a tertiary care, 454-bed pediatric academic medical center, developed, implemented, and evaluated strategies to increase racial and ethnic diversity in recruitment and hiring of the nursing workforce. Significant increases in racial and ethnic diversity recruitment and hiring were achieved. These strategies can be helpful for nurses and other health care leaders to advance health equity through the creation of a racially and ethnically diverse nursing workforce.