Maternity is KILLING me. Is it just my school?

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I was just curious... do most schools have an entire semester of maternity, or is all the material crammed into a few weeks? I'm used to lengthy reading assignments, but the amount of reading/information that we're expected to know in just 5 weeks is insane and unrealistic. How am I supposed to retain information from 6 chapters for one lecture, especially when some chapters can be 50+ pages long? I'm just frustrated because I'm wondering if this is the norm. I thought maternity was supposed to be an entire semester, or at least half of one.

Swacho, there's nothing wrong with using Saunders. It's the same info though there might be a difference here or there between that and your textbooks. Less can be a lot more if you learn that info. It's still pretty dense material but much more doable compared to reading a few hundred pages of your textbook. Why don't you try it? Go through it slowly and really learn the info and see if it's better than the approach you're using that's killing you. It helped me a lot, plus it gears you towards the nclex. I would use additional sources for questions though. The more of those the better.

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I hate my maternity rotation. However, I think my teacher is amazing (even though I'm currently failing the class) because she teachers so well and challenge us students to learn the material well. Though it's her test that are killer.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

My ADN school had Basic, Intermediate I and II, and Advanced Nursing. We learned everything from LTC/community based nursing to critical care... so no way would they have been able to devote an entire semester to maternity. It made for an extremely fast-paced program.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

Just keep in mind that your professors don't know what specialty any of their students are going to go into, so they are aimed at the big picture. When you study, don't study thinking if you are thrown onto a maternity ward you should know exactly what to do and when. Nursing school is really just a way to teach you the basics. I've told all my CNA's that are in school to become RN's this... you really don't learn to be a nurse until you are actually working as one. Focus on the common issues of maternity and what would be a big red light for you if you were working on that unit.

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Our maternity course was a full semester long. But we also had Adult One and some online classes at the same time. I know that a school near by does the 5 week maternity but that's all you do for the 5 weeks and then the next five is peds. I think that sounds pretty nice! Because you get to intensely focus on one at a time.

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Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.
I wish I could say the same about my maternity professor :( She just reads off of powerpoints.

This can work to your advantage right now. Your goal is to read and understand every single powerpoint slide. THAT is what your professor thinks the most important information is.

Yes, yes, its all important and in a perfect world we would all read every textbook cover to cover.

Forget the textbook. Learn the powerpoint slides, and use the textbook as a reference if needed.

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Thank you all for the advice. I'm ditching the "read every page word-for-word" approach that I was used to, and I've decided to go with saunders, as well as my ATI book. My exam is next Friday, so I'll update you on whether or not it worked :)

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Just keep in mind that your professors don't know what specialty any of their students are going to go into, so they are aimed at the big picture. When you study, don't study thinking if you are thrown onto a maternity ward you should know exactly what to do and when. Nursing school is really just a way to teach you the basics. I've told all my CNA's that are in school to become RN's this... you really don't learn to be a nurse until you are actually working as one. Focus on the common issues of maternity and what would be a big red light for you if you were working on that unit.

That's a really good point. I've been told that the feeling of not knowing anything persists until you've been a nurse for 5 years or so. So reassuring, lol! I hate not being confident/knowledgeable in what I'm doing, but I've come to realize that the only way around that is years and years of experience.

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My maternity rotation was like 5 weeks or so.

That's when I totally gave up reading the book.

It just wasn't possible. So I paid attention in class and just read up on the main concepts that I wasn't able to fully grasp. I managed to get an A.

Having children did give me a boost in this one area though!

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Specializes in NICU.

It is 1/3 , maternity,LD,nursery ,peds a nicu visit.Many find it surprisingly rough.Study all the time,you can do it.

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Update: got a 90 on the exam :) Thanks everyone!

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