How to examine a newborn
Other platforms explain it with text and video. In Making Synapses you practice it on the patient.
The newborn exam looks for problems that need early action: heart, hips, eyes and birth injuries.
Step by step
Prepare
Warm room, clean hands, baby undressed but kept warm. [1]
General look
Color, tone, cry, breathing, birth injuries. [1]
Vital signs
Heart rate, breathing rate, temperature, saturation. [1]
Head and face
Fontanelles, shape, eyes (red reflex), palate, ears. [1]
Heart and lungs
Murmurs, femoral pulses, breathing effort. [1]
Abdomen and genitals
Masses, cord, genitals, anus present. [1]
Hips and spine
Barlow and Ortolani tests, spine and skin over it. [1]
Reflexes
Moro, grasp, suck. [1]
Common errors
- Missing the red reflex.
- Not feeling femoral pulses.
- Letting the baby get cold.
Practice it in Making Synapses
In Making Synapses you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.
Making Synapses cases that train this skill
- Neonatal jaundice
- Newborn respiratory distress
- Neonatal resuscitation
- Transposition of the great vessels
- Phenylketonuria
- Hypospadias
12 Making Synapses cases train this skill: open the case library
Sources
- OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills (reference)
- NCCPA PANCE Content Blueprint
- Stanford Medicine 25 (bedside exam)
- Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College) (CC BY 4.0)
Steps adapted from Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Facts and steps also follow NCCPA PANCE Content Blueprint; Stanford Medicine 25 (bedside exam). Making Synapses is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.