My first day in postpartum...

[lisamc1RN, LPN]

I had a Spanish speaking woman, g3p3, who could only say "thank you" in English. She was as sweet as could be. I went in to do her full assessment after report. As I was checking for Homan's sign in her left leg, she flinched. I looked up at her and asked "do you have pain?". I don't think she understand, so I dorsiflexed her foot one more time and she moved up the bed and flinched again. I stopped the exam and went and got my instructor, who came and did the same thing. Poor woman did the same as before. I finished my assessment and my instructor informed the doc that our patient was having lower leg pain. He checked her and gave orders to put her on heparin and a k-pad. The patient was a real trooper. I was trying my hardest to explain why we had to put a shot in her stomach and she was trying her hardest to understand us. The nurse and I kept pointing to her leg and trying to explain. We all laughed several times as we were trying to communicate with each other. :) It was a pretty good morning, all in all....and THEN.... I got yelled at by the doctor. :chuckle I was asking my nurse how to chart on the flow chart where it says "redness, warmth, pain". I was pointing to the word pain as I was saying that my patient had this. The nurse was getting ready to answer when the doctor jumped on me and told me that I had better not document redness or warmth because there wasn't any. Okkkkkkkkk. I wasn't going to, but thanks. The nurse gave me little looks as the doc gave me a mini lecture on charting correctly and then she pulled me aside and said that he is like that with everyone. The thing is, I wasn't upset at all. He didn't intimidate me. I hadn't written one word down that wasn't as completely accurate as I could be and that hadn't met with approval from either my nurse or my instructor. I had done nothing wrong and I knew it. My nurse told me congratulations for making it through my first chewing out! :rotfl: I think I was just initiated! Heh heh! Anyway, later I hear the doc chewing someone out over the phone and I knew that I was in good company. I read the chart of my patient and guess why heparin was administered ...phlebitis... Heh heh. I made sure that when I charted that I only charted pain, no redness, no warmth, because I didn't notice any, but how on earth does a person have phlebitis without it? Is it just that the doc suspected it, or that it was the beginnings of it?

To wrap it up, I could happily park myself in postpartum/nursery from this point on! I've loved my clinicals and I cannot wait to get out there and learn more. Thanks for listening if you made it this far!

[SmilingBluEyes]

Ahhh welcome to the wonderful world of nursing. You sound like a gem to me. Good luck to you.

[kellyo, LPN]

I start my rotation Monday. I'm so excited, I can't sleep! I feel like I did just before I got married--a mixture of pure excitement and joy, coupled with fear of the unknown. I keep going over little scenes in my head of me helping a mom breastfeed, or explaining why we palpate the fundus postpartum--almost kind of "acting it out"! I'm really looking forward to all of the teaching.:)