OB Rotation is Hell

Nursing Students Male Students

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I am a male nursing student. I am doing well in school overall and acing my Med surg rotations--However, my OB rotation is pure hell! i feel useless and out of place. They tossed me out of a Birthing room today because I was in the way of the doctor and nurse! They make me feel like a jerk and like I dont belong there--I dont want to fail this rotation because --right now I feel like a incompetant idiot! What are your thoughts about OB and Male nurses?

Specializes in LTC Geriatrics.

I'm currently in the middle of my OB rotation and its been easy sailing so far. The instructor is giving me this vibe that she doesn't expect much from me when it comes to the care of the LD and MB client since I am a guy. However, I would just advise that the best way to go is to put aside any emotional gender issues and keep the client care in mind. For me I'm just ignoring the fact that I'm a guy during the rotation and focusing on the aspect of being the best caregiver that I can be. Getting over this OB hump is definitely going to secure or at least improve the "maleness" in this nursing field.

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Specializes in LTC.

My last OB/Gyn rotation as a student was over 20 years ago, but the scars remain...

I can laugh now, but being a 19 yr old baby faced student probably made things that much worse for my patients in our small community hospital.

The upside was that the rotation was split in two: 1/2 was spent on the floor with the moms, and the other 1/2 was in the nursery and L&D, which was great.

I had to do 2 rotations: a 2 week rotation and a 6 week rotation. The first rotation went by pretty quickly; I had a clinical instructor that felt my pain and took me under her wing, and made it more tolerable for everyone. I almost enjoyed it. Almost.

My 6 week rotation was hell; my instructor verbalized her distaste for men in nursing to begin with, was more critical of our performance and actually went out of her way to intimidate us and generally make our lives miserable. I loved the L&D and working with the newborns for the first 3 weeks - I had decided then that I wanted to work in a neonatal ICU. Then came working on the floor with the moms...I actually called in sick for several days, probably about 5, just beacause I was so stressed, and when the rotation was over, right before the Christmas break, I was given an incomplete because of my missed days and told that I could pass the rotation IF I made up all my missed time...over the Christmas holidays. So, bad news: a week on OB with just me and my clinical instructor. The good news? My clinical instructor would be the one I had for my original 2 week rotation and it actually went okay - the staff knew why I was making up my time and helped me out, and it was actually really slow on the floor, and I survived.

I never did persue my original desire for neonatal care and actually ended up at the opposite end of the spectrum in long term care!

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My husband was stuck sitting at the nursing station for his spin through OB/Peds (OB part). Not a single patient was willing to have him around even to empty trash! However, he did a lot of baby rocking. He was actually better at that than the girls. I think it's the deep voice. Babies seem to love it. He didn't mind missing out, though. He would have liked to skip our son's birth but the Doc wouldn't let him leave!

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Specializes in Med-Tele, Internal Med PCU.
I'm currently in the middle of my OB rotation and its been easy sailing so far. The instructor is giving me this vibe that she doesn't expect much from me when it comes to the care of the LD and MB client since I am a guy. However, I would just advise that the best way to go is to put aside any emotional gender issues and keep the client care in mind. For me I'm just ignoring the fact that I'm a guy during the rotation and focusing on the aspect of being the best caregiver that I can be. Getting over this OB hump is definitely going to secure or at least improve the "maleness" in this nursing field.

Shouldn't this be our focus everyday?

This whole male/female thing becomes more and more frustrating every day.

I'm 6'3", I am used to reaching to get things that are too high for others, but I don't expect the 4'11" classmate to pick up the mess up off of the floor (she is closer).

We all have talents and abilities that need to be developed, which is why we are in school. For your instructor to "give you a vibe" that she has lower expectations is not right, does she lower the expectations for the woman student that has to place a foley in a male patient?

Separate standards for male and female students is not fair to any one, especially those who will be in your care in the future.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I hated psyche. I hate psyche. I just can't stand psyche.

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Specializes in Forensic Psychiatric Nursing.

Just wanted to return to the thread with an update. I had a great day in L&D today. My nurse just about grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and shoved me in the pt's crotch and had me do the lady partsl exam, start the foley, remove the foley, hold the pt's leg while she was pushing, give the Vit K shot, just about everything we can do I did.

She made a point of selling the patient on having me do what I could. The pt didn't have a problem at all, the pt's husband was there and was fine with me being there, it was great.

No uncomfortableness at all from anyone. That ward is going to get a great review from me. Tomorrow's my last day, so tonight I'm going to write up a nice letter for that nurse and show her some appreciation for being so accommodating to me.

Nevertheless, during post conference, the two female students that went to couplet care (where my fellow male classmate and I were snubbed pretty hard) were encouraged to take care of the patient and were taught... well I guess I have no idea what they were taught.

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

Try to hang in there- the rotation is usually short and you only have to do it once. Nursing owes it roots to prostitutes and midwives so since we are not likely to have a streetwalker rotation out of respect for our founders I think OB isn't going away. I am a guy and my L&D rotation was as bad as it could get. For one thing it was our first clinical-squeeky white shoes and green as grass! Next, the instructor announced she didn't think men should be in that rotation and didn't want us there but since the program required it there was nothing she could do about it. She stated she would not tolerate squeeky shoes since they disturbed the patients. I even agree with her, (about men in the rotation, not the shoes)- I think L&D should be an optional clinical. You can learn all you need for boards from lecture and the skills are not very applicable to other areas of acute care. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do about it eather. She reviewed the male students care plans at the desk in front of the other students and staff making frequent sarcastic comments about our obvious incompetence- never the female students. 2/3 of the way through I approached her and said I felt I had a better understanding of her expectations of me as a student and I would redouble my efforts to get the most out of her rotation--she wrote be up for insubordination. By the way she was 7mos pregnant herself at the time. The guys spent much of thier time avoiding her and hoping for preterm labor. The kicker was after finishing the L&D rotation I picked up mono and had to drop out for a semester. You don't just repeat what you missed when you repeat a semester but I had to repeat the whole thing-including a second L&D. I changed clinical sites to a different hospital and for 6 weeks there were no babys born while I was on. I must have a guardian angel.

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Specializes in Forensic Psychiatric Nursing.

I don't think it should be optional. My career plans are going to take me to a sporificely populated area. Among my certs when I'm finally done with school (probably another six years) will be RN, FNP, Paramedic, and whatever else I can scare up.

It's entirely possible that I will end up delivering babies and taking care of brand-new moms. I don't want my education short-changed, and neither do you if you ever go out to the back woods.

I learned a lot today and am now less squeamish than I would have been without the experience.

My EMT instructor delivered a baby in Philadelphia once. It just so happened that he was the only one there who could help, and it was up to him. If you have a wife or a girlfriend, you want me to get the best L&D clinical available.

After the baby was born, I was the first to shake the father's hand and congratulate him. A few minutes later, the nurse told him that he shouldn't hand the baby off to anyone who doesn't have the pink stripe on the bottom of their ID badge. He didn't seem to take that instruction in very well, so I walked up with my school ID badge and showed him that mine doesn't have the pink band. You're OK, he said, I'd hand my son to you.

Bottom line is that I'm conflicted about this whole thing. Mom was happy to have me there, the nurse was very enthusiastic about teaching me, my clinical instructor seemed happy with my performance, dad was pumping my hand like he thought I was a slot machine, and it was all good.

And then we get the bizzle from couplet care who walks around with this smug look on her face because she can shut me out of breastfeeding instruction.

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I am a male nursing student. I am doing well in school overall and acing my Med surg rotations--However, my OB rotation is pure hell! i feel useless and out of place. They tossed me out of a Birthing room today because I was in the way of the doctor and nurse! They make me feel like a jerk and like I dont belong there--I dont want to fail this rotation because --right now I feel like a incompetant idiot! What are your thoughts about OB and Male nurses?

I hear ya brother.. I wasn't even allowed in the birthing room. My instructor told me outright "Men don't belong in OB". I made a formal complaint with my faculty about it. My clinical instructor then failed me on my case study, stating that the NDX's I used were "not even NANDA approved NDX's" I demanded a separate review by one of the school faculty, then showed her word for word where the NDX's were in the textbook. She admitted I was abosulutely correct and passed me on it.. :angryfire

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Cardiac.

You guys have me worried. My OB/Peds rotation starts in March. Most of my male classmates that have been through the rotation had no complaints, but still...

Personally, I'm interested in OB since as a paramedic I could end up delivering a baby tomorrow in somebody's house so every little bit of info that I can get is useful. As a nurse though I plan to stay about as far away from L&D as I can possibly get.

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Hey guys,

I can relate to this thread, as one of the TWO guys in my nursing class, I was kind of concerned about the OB rotation. I was concerned about how the patients would feel about me, a big hairy guy, being in the room while they're suffering through delivery! And I wondered how I would feel about it. Being a gay man, I'd never even SEEN a real live lady parts until my rotation through the womens health clinic, so this was all VERY new territory for me. Happily, I got through my L&D rotation with no problems with patients, and I actually really enjoyed it. Being there to help the patient feel better, more comfortable and at ease overall were just great things. And out on the postpartum floor was even better. Now do I think that my being gay might have helped the patients feel more at ease with me, well, probably. Does a purse fall out of my mouth when I start talking, well, not really, but if you have any intuition, I think you'd pretty much figure me out. And if that helps the patients be more at ease with me, well HALLELUJA!~ hehe

As has been stated, male nurses in this field are rare, at our hospital I have seen only ONE in L&D, and I think there aren't any on the postpartum floor. So it is a rare thing. I don't know that this is the field I want to specialize in, but it definitely felt very good to my heart. The nursery was a LOT of fun too, holding babies, burping em, feeding em, it was just all good!

haha thats great that you had a good experience...but I have to be honest. If/when I ever give birth there is no way I'm letting any man in the room besides my husband! I want a female doctor too! So, don't take it personal guys...they don't just hate you...they hate every man when they're giving birth.;)

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YES IT IS!!!!

Thank the Gods I have just finished! :bowingpur:biere:

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