OB Rotation is Hell

I start the OB/Peds rotation on Feb 25.

Don't know whether to dread it or not.

Dreading it isn't going to help; look forward to it as a learning experience....
You'll either get excluded or included.
If excluded just make sure you know what you need to do to pass.
If included you'll be too busy learning to worry about it...

Good luck!
Mark

Guys,

I'm telling you. Walk in, put gloves on and do everyting you can to help your preceptor. If you slink to the outside walls, the staff or pt will ask you to leave. This is a time when being timid is definitely to your disadvantage.

Hope I'm not crashing your forum (I'm a girl!) but that's utterly (udderly? HA HA!) ridiculous. I've NEVER given birth, yet I was expected to give breast feeding instruction. Now I felt qualified just based on what I'd been taught, and I feel as though I know what I'm talking about - but please - what do I know about let-down reflex if I've never experienced it?

My point is - what the h-e-double hockey sticks makes YOU any different? What a load of crap!

I'm totally in your corner here, guys. If I was pregnant, and went into sudden labor in a shopping mall, I would feel JUST as safe if the ONLY person who stopped to help me (if only to keep me calm until EMS could arrive) was a guy (no matter what age) who came up to me and said, "Don't worry, ma'am, I'm a nurse - I'll be here with you". And if he looked to see if the head was out - I"m really not going to care one way or the other.

The ONE guy in my class (only one, poor thing) is the world's best teddy bear - he had 51 little sisters (even though about half of us were older than him!) for 16 months. If I'd been pregnant, I would have rather had HIM in my delivery than several of the chicks in my class.

ROLL ON MEN IN NURSING!!! I'm a former military girl and I love working with guys because: (1) you don't get caught up in the female BS (and you know what I mean); (2) I can have it out with one of my guy friends and we can still go have a beer after work - you know where you stand with a true male friend moreso than SO many women I know, (3) you KEEP IT REAL, and (4) when I do confide in a male friend about the goofy one I married, he always tells me straight up if I'm blowing it without blowing smoke up my butt.

Just my guys, not trying to crash your thread here!

OH YEAH: PS - regarding the idiot instructor who told the guy he shouldn't be allowed in the rotation - DID SHE TELL THE MALE DOCTORS TO LEAVE? Would she tell a MALE INTERN that? Sexist cow (sorry!). If a male instructor told a female she shouldn't be allowed to do testicular exams or give instruction on male sexual dysfunction, he'd be sued for sexual harassment/discrimination/any other charge her lawyer could come up with.

Female here and pre-req nursing student to boot. I wouldn't have a problem with a male student/male nurse taking care of me. As long as they were professional and kind I would be okay with it. Trust me there are some female nurses I wouldn't let touch me with a 10 foot pole.

She might be nice, but that's a sexist thing to say. You have every right to go into OB if you so desire. You will be a RN same as the rest of us. It should be your choice.

I do believe preceptors are part of the problem here as their approach of the patient that will set the tone. I've read that some say, "You don't want a male student, right" which will usually have the patient agree with them. They could say, "This is Mike. He will be your student nurse today." If the patient has a problem they will say so. If they don't and the male student senses their discomfort they can remove themselves from the situation. It is all about professionalism and kindness.

I start my OB rotation next week and I am not looking forward to it at all. It is a five week rotation and I am afraid it will be pure hell. I guess it is one of those things we all have to go through. Maybe I will feel different when my wife has her baby?

My L&D experience was amazing. Yes I had nurses even being cold to me simply because I was a male invading thier unit. But if i got placed with such a nurse I simply told the CN that I needed to be reassigned to someone willing to teach me.

And I was.

The nurses were amazing to me because they saw I was there to learn. Even if the patient refused to have me in the room during birth or more intimate care, they still allowed me to monitor the FHR and do other care for them.

In the end I saw two C-Secs and 1 Vaginal delivery in my rotation, and learned so much more about Pre-partum and post partum!

I agree. I just finished my OB rotation and it's been my favorite so far. I won't be working in OB, but I really did enjoy it. I do plan on working in the NICU and I got to spend one day there, but I really loved the deliveries. I think I got to be in more deliveries than anyone else in my group. I didn't have a single patient refuse to let me do anything. In fact, none of them even acted at all uncomfortable (even when I put in Foleys - of course, that was probably due to the epidural. :-)).

You've just got to get in there, don't wait around for someone to tell you what to do, ask. Just be professional and that goes a long way towards making people feel comfortable and let you watch/do things.

In fact, the only time in nursing school that I've had a woman refuse to let me do something was on Med-Surg when a woman refused to let me give a flu shot. She was ok with a student, just not a MALE student.
Bryan

Now that is just plain funny! Anybody but a male... for a flu shot...

Congrats to you; hope my time goes as well as yours (got an email yesterday that said I was accepted to the partner ABSN at UA in Tucson).

Mark