Maternal child healthcare (also sometimes referred to as maternal child-nursing) is focused on facilitating the highest quality of health for children and mothers alike. In this field, professionals focus on optimizing the health of mothers and newborn children during the pregnancy and immediately following birth.
Skill Requirements for a Maternal Child Health Nurse
Communication skills are vital to a maternal child health nurse, because they cannot operate in a bubble. Every population has its own specific health service needs that must be assessed and accommodated. To perform the job of a maternal child health nurse to its fullest potential, constantly interacting with the community is essential. It isn’t just what the maternal child health professional learns over the course of their studies, but also whatever information they can organically draw from the very people that they are aiming to help.
By interacting with the community on a consistent basis, maternal child of nurse can develop brand-new interventions and innovative health services. Rather than simply being based on conjecture, these new interventions and services can be based on what they have specifically learned from personal reports from the people that they are committed to supporting in the first place.
Roles and Responsibilities
Though the title of “maternal child health nurse” may be referred to as a single role, there are actually a number of distinct roles that fall under the classification. The following are just a few of the roles that could be accurately referred to as a maternal child health professional’s areas of expertise:
- Community Educator
- Counselor
- Therapist
- Clinical healthcare provider
- Doctor’s assistant
Any of the roles that could potentially be classified as maternal child health provision may either be performed independently by specialist or collectively carried out by a single generalist. The tasks that a maternal child health professional will be expected to complete will naturally demand a well-rounded skill set, according to Explore Heath Careers.
It is common for maternal childhood nurse to be tasked with organizing community education sessions. When educating the community, the maternal childhood nurse will aim to give participants more credible information about how to deliver and properly care for their newborns. In addition to the group sessions, a maternal child health nurse will also offer one-on-one sessions to cover any bases that may need extra clarification for certain individuals.
To ensure that a mother has sufficient base of understanding about what health concepts are most relevant to them as an individual, a maternal child health nurse will oftentimes need to conduct an analysis of their personal health history; by doing this, they will be able to take any unique health issues that may require unconventional precautions into account.
Related Resource: What is an Occupational Health Specialist?
Overall
In addition to offering physical therapy that tangibly supports the health of mothers and their newborn children, maternal child health professionals may also provide valuable emotional support. Through hands-on education and therapy, maternal health nurses can ensure that new mothers are able to go forward with a well-founded understanding of childcare that allows them to independently raise their babies in a far more effective and well-informed manner.