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About
Ursula Rocha spent most of a 17-year nursing career in labor and delivery — the part of women’s health where a patient’s condition can change in minutes and someone has to be watching. She also served in the military for many of those years. She now works in the ambulatory surgery center at Shady Grove Fertility’s Rockville headquarters, the accredited suite where egg retrievals and reproductive procedures take place. Preparation, monitoring, recovery and discharge after a retrieval are the same nursing skill set as a busy delivery floor, applied to a different procedure, and that is why a practice with an on-site surgery center staffs one.
Rocha is an advanced practice nurse, not a physician. Her path started with an undergraduate degree in Women’s Studies with a women’s health emphasis at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1998, followed immediately by a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 1999. She returned for a master of science from Frontier Nursing University in 2016, the year she moved into advanced practice. Maryland certifies her as an advanced practice registered nurse through the Board of Nursing, and the National Certification Corporation holds her nurse practitioner certification.
At SGF she is assigned to the Rockville surgery center, where her work covers patients coming in for procedures and the nursing care around a cycle: pre-procedure assessment, monitoring during recovery, patient instruction, and follow-up between physician appointments. Treatment decisions — protocols, stimulation, what to do after a failed cycle — belong to the practice’s reproductive endocrinologists, with the medical directorship of that surgery center held by Dr. Jeanne E. O’Brien.
Clinical Expertise
- Perioperative nursing in an ambulatory surgery center: pre-procedure assessment, intra-procedure support and recovery monitoring for retrievals and other reproductive procedures
- Post-procedure care and discharge: observation, symptom triage and instruction after sedation
- Fertility cycle nursing support: patient teaching, monitoring coordination and follow-up between physician visits
- Labor and delivery: the bulk of a 17-year nursing career, including high-acuity assessment and rapid-response care
- Women’s health assessment in a fertility practice setting
- Military nursing service spanning many years of that career
Why Choose Ursula Rocha, CRNP
She works where the procedures happen. Not every fertility practice has an accredited ambulatory surgery center at its address; SGF’s Rockville headquarters does, and Rocha is assigned to it. If you have a retrieval or another procedure at the Rockville office, she is part of the team caring for you there.
Seventeen years of women’s health nursing, most of it in labor and delivery. Recovery after an egg retrieval is monitoring work, and monitoring is what she has done longest.
Two Maryland institutions plus Frontier. Women’s Studies and nursing degrees from the University of Maryland system (1998, 1999), then a Frontier Nursing University master’s degree in 2016.
Certified twice over: as an advanced practice registered nurse by the Maryland Board of Nursing and through the National Certification Corporation, with membership in the two nurse practitioner organizations for women’s health — NPWH nationally and NPAM in Maryland.
Military service in the record. Many of her years in women’s health nursing were spent serving in the military.
Professional Affiliations
Certified Registered Nurse Practitioner in Maryland — the state’s title for an advanced practice registered nurse — certified by the Maryland Board of Nursing, with nurse practitioner certification through the National Certification Corporation. Member of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health (NPWH) and the Nurse Practitioner Association of Maryland (NPAM). Education: University of Maryland, College Park (1998); University of Maryland, Baltimore, nursing (1999); Frontier Nursing University, master of science (2016). Practices in the Shady Grove Fertility ambulatory surgery center in Rockville, Maryland.
Suitable For
- Patients having a procedure at the Rockville surgery center — retrieval, hysteroscopy or another operation performed on site — for pre- and post-procedure nursing care
- Patients who want nursing follow-up between physician appointments, on bleeding, pain, medication questions or recovery
- Anyone anxious about sedation and recovery, who would rather hear the practical details from the nurse who monitors recovery rooms
- Patients with obstetric or gynecologic histories who benefit from a nurse whose background is labor and delivery
- Note on scope: Rocha is an advanced practice registered nurse. She does not set IVF protocols or make cycle decisions; those belong to the practice’s reproductive endocrinologists and to the surgery center’s medical director