Exam by body system

How to examine a newborn

Other platforms explain it with text and video. In VMS you practice it on the patient.

MD / DOPANursing (NCLEX)
Practice it in VR with Blocky

The newborn exam looks for problems that need early action: heart, hips, eyes and birth injuries.

Step by step

  1. Prepare

    Warm room, clean hands, baby undressed but kept warm. [1]

  2. General look

    Color, tone, cry, breathing, birth injuries. [1]

  3. Vital signs

    Heart rate, breathing rate, temperature, saturation. [1]

  4. Head and face

    Fontanelles, shape, eyes (red reflex), palate, ears. [1]

  5. Heart and lungs

    Murmurs, femoral pulses, breathing effort. [1]

  6. Abdomen and genitals

    Masses, cord, genitals, anus present. [1]

  7. Hips and spine

    Barlow and Ortolani tests, spine and skin over it. [1]

  8. Reflexes

    Moro, grasp, suck. [1]

Common errors

Practice it in VMS

In VMS 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.

VMS cases that train this skill

12 VMS cases train this skill: open the case library

Sources

  1. OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills (CC BY 4.0)
  2. NCCPA PANCE Content Blueprint
  3. Stanford Medicine 25 (bedside exam)
  4. 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). VMS is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.