Abortion in nursing school rotations?

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Hi All,

I am soon to enter my Maternity/Peds clinical portion. I'm curious to know if you see abortion procedures during these rotations. I'm speaking of elective and medical emergencies...or would this be something that falls under OR?

Can any of you share your experience in Maternity? Did you see any sad things? I know that, realistically, I will see some depressing stuff (already have)..just want to know what to expect. Thanks

EDIT: Ps. I'm not asking anyone if they are pro-life or pro-choice. If you want to speak about that please take it to another thread. Don't be rude and mislead my topic. It's a simple question. Thanks

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another hard one is seeing a 1st of 2nd trimester baby lost to a mother who desperately wanted that child with all her heart and soul. All sorts of stillbirth, genetic and etc issues that will come thru maternity. It is hard to be non judgemental on things (for me its drug addicted or alcohol addition) of course I have a social worker background, so I probably more negative about certain lifestyles than maybe some nurses (because I used to have to really know my 'client' and their past and current history, made it very hard to not have downright disgust actually).

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This is a topic that comes up every semester, so I'd say search the forum. Better yet, ask your instructors.

These threads always get nasty and shut down by a mod.

So ask your instructors. Go in with an open mind.

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Specializes in OB/GYN, Peds, School Nurse, DD.

Im a peds nurse now, but I was L&D and post-partum for the first 10 years. At my hospital they did not do abortions. THey did D& Cs after miscarriages or missed abortions in the OR. Mother's with stillborn babies were labored and delivered in L&D, but not placed on the PP floor. They went to a GYN section. Women who sought abortions had to go to a private clinic for that. Occasionally we would get someone over by ambulance who was bleeding excessively, so that person would go to the GYN area and treated appropriately. Their post-abortion status was not an issue . I am fevently pro-life, but I'm not going to force my personal beliefs on anyone. If they're on my floor, for whatever reason, I'll take care of them with the same excellence that I would afford anyone else.

In my years in Maternal/Child Health, I did see some bad things but mostly I saw good things. It's a fast-paced environment and sometimes you'll do some critical care things. When stuff goes wrong it gets very bad, very fast. Sometimes babies are born too early or have development disorders. Occasionally babies die. And rarely, mothers die. You can't dwell on those things. Remember, you can't fix everything. Sometimes bad things happen. Even when babies are born with disabilities it is important to celebrate his life with the family. :nurse:

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Specializes in Cardiology, Oncology, Medsurge.

I witnessed a fetal demise surgery in my medsurge rotation/ OR observation (not maternity). Strictly voluntary, I didn't have to see the procedure: I could have refused. The staff placed surgical towels over the observation window for privacy and went to it. Really interesting to witness this procedure, the removal of a dead fetus; no one was happy to say the least and the baby's body parts being sliced and diced and sucked up through a tube wasn't a joy, the MD was rather hum drum (just another day at the office!) however I wouldn't have missed witnessing this during my rotation. All of OR was interesting! Sit back and enjoy the ride.

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Thanks

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I think it depends on the school. I transferred schools (because I moved to a different state) and had to do OB twice because of a credit transfer mishap. In my first school in NJ, my OB rotation was 7 weeks long and we had to go to a women's clinic for one day. I was offered the opportunity to see an abortion and it was completely optional.

In my school in PA, my OB rotation was only 3 weeks long. We had to do one week in the NICU, one in postpartum, and one in L&D so there wasn't an opportunity to experience that.

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this stuff is mostly handled in clinics these days (way to divisive for good business, hosptials are all about biz $$$) and most clinicals are done in hospitals, so it's unlikely.

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never witnessed an abortion, but do remember thinking i had never seen so many young teen mothers, with std's and drug addictions.

i wanted to cry.

leslie

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Specializes in ER.

It depends on the school. In my rotation, we weren't allowed to be anywhere near fetal demise cases or go in the rooms (which were marked) that had one. Your course manager will most likely let you know. But I'm sure if something happened quickly and you were already assigned to that patient, then that's different (although that never came up for any of my classmates).

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never witnessed an abortion, but do remember thinking i had never seen so many young teen mothers, with std's and drug addictions.

i wanted to cry.

leslie

Lots of women with drug addictions? :( Also..not to sound silly..but are you actively observing their std or is that something you read from the charts?

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Specializes in OB, NICU, Nursing Education (academic).
Lots of women with drug addictions? :( Also..not to sound silly..but are you actively observing their std or is that something you read from the charts?

I'm not the person you were responding to, but OB can be full of drug addiction....depending on where you live, I guess. Where I am, more than half (I think the stat is 62%) of our newborns have positive drug screens. Truthfully, some of those are not the result of maternal addiction, but we do see an awful lot of neonatal abstinence syndrome.

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