First vaginal exam

[Sarah LnDHopes]

How are new nurses taught lady partsl exams? Do you just learn about it in theory, and then go in and do it with the patient unaware you don't know what you are doing?

Or does your preceptor go in with you to assist? It just seems to me that a laboring women wouldn't be too keen on being a teaching moment...

[klone, MSN, RN]

YIKES!! Besides YIKES...although that would be good if you wanted to know what a closed/thick/high cervix felt like..I ain't doing it!

Once you can find a closed/thick/high cervix and identify it, the rest is much easier. And not all non-gravid cervixes are automatically closed thick and high. Women who have had a lady partsl delivery almost always have an outer os that's slightly open, and depending on where you are in your menstrual cycle, your cervix might be up to a cm open, soft and pretty low.

I'm starting midwifery school this fall, and it will be interesting to see how they handle it. Afte 5 years working L&D I don't need to practice on anyone, and while I have no problem if others practiced on me, I no longer have a cervix, so I would probably be of limited educational benefit to anyone.

[LoveANurse09]

I've heard of one school that has the rule, if you dont volunteer, you dont get to practice. Makes sense. This was how it was at my school with practicing IV starts :). I was lucky to feel one cervix during my OB practicum (epidural pt), but in regular clinical in school, it was a NO.

[arabianeyez83]

Take a female nurse partner and do it on each other. That's what we do in midwifery school. If you can learn on someone else, you can learn on each other. Not so bad as it sounds.

Ouchhhhhhhhhhhh, no wayyyyy

[PetiteOpRN]

I promise your first lady partsl exam will not be this bad:

My father is a surgeon who knew from the time he attended his first A&P class he wanted nothing to do with anyone's reproductive anything. He's proudest accomplishment in med school was being one of two students who never did a pelvic. No pelvics in internship, either. When he was a 2nd year general surgery resident (so we've had a number of years to completely forget everything we once had to know about female anatomy in med school), the director of the ED decides that every female patient with abdominal pain is getting a pelvic, gosh darn it.

He is on call at 2am and a woman comes in with abdominal pain. This poor woman is clad in a burqa, and doesn't speak a word of English. This was 30 years ago, so cultural sensitivity was not yet in vogue, and I don't know if a female staff member had to be present for the exam. He sticks his hand in, without a clue of what he's supposed to be doing, and she cries out in pain, intermittently.

So, no matter who you are, you are probably doing a better job than the one above.

[arabianeyez83]

I promise your first lady partsl exam will not be this bad:

My father is a surgeon who knew from the time he attended his first A&P class he wanted nothing to do with anyone's reproductive anything. He's proudest accomplishment in med school was being one of two students who never did a pelvic. No pelvics in internship, either. When he was a 2nd year general surgery resident (so we've had a number of years to completely forget everything we once had to know about female anatomy in med school), the director of the ED decides that every female patient with abdominal pain is getting a pelvic, gosh darn it.

He is on call at 2am and a woman comes in with abdominal pain. This poor woman is clad in a burqa, and doesn't speak a word of English. This was 30 years ago, so cultural sensitivity was not yet in vogue, and I don't know if a female staff member had to be present for the exam. He sticks his hand in, without a clue of what he's supposed to be doing, and she cries out in pain, intermittently.

So, no matter who you are, you are probably doing a better job than the one above.

Hahaha...but nowadays, pt's are more intimidating and expect you to know what the hell you're doing! lol