A new student with questions!

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I am going to be in the nursing program at our local Career Center (connected with the high school I am a senior now). The 2nd semester we begin clinicals to become CNA's. Unfortunatly we don't rotate in the area that I really want to work in when I become an RN, Labor & Delivery! So I want to Job Shadow a L & D nurse so I have a few questions if you don't mind :)

1). Do most hospitals allow a student to job shadow an L&D nurse around? Would there be issues with patient privacy etc. if I did?

2). If I asked my local hospital, do you think they would allow me to come in and watch a woman have a baby (with the womens permission of course) even if I didn't know the woman? I want to make sure I can really handle a live birth (I've watched all the TV shows etc. but that is different than actually seeing it tho I doubt I'll have issues). Are there normally extra people like this in the delivery room?

3). A friend of my mom's is having a baby recently and said I could watch her have her baby as long as her husband is ok with it. I'm wondering what "guests" in the delivery room do lol This may sound dumb but do they normally stand up with the mom or would I watch the actual birth? I want to know what most "guests" like that would do.

Thanks for helping answer my unusal and random questions! :)

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Although my program actually had a Maternity Rotation, i think i can try and answer a few questions.

The last one, yes you can be in the room.. you really get into it, helping the mom breathe and getting the dad involved. You can watch the birth pretty much by standing beside her.. and of course the mom can choose whoever she wants to be in the room at times.. (ive seen up to 15 people watching haha, it was a family event for sure!)

As for the hospital, im not sure if you could ask to shadow.. i think you would need an in. See if your program can hook you up with getting in there and job shadowing a person :)

And watching a birth is pretty awesome. Over my 4 weeks in maternity i only saw 1. (always ppl in labour or ppl who are postpartum)... BUT, it was pretty amazing.. and i was standing right beside her holding her hand and encouraging to push when the nurses said so.. and I saw the entire thing. :)

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

In answer to #2, I can't imagine any hospital would allow a stranger who's not affiliated with a college's OB rotation to just come in and watch some random person's birth.

The only "extra" people that are in the room are usually guests of the pt or students of some sort (that are there as part of a school's OB rotation). Where the person stands generally depends a lot upon why they're there. If you're there to support the mom, they usually stand at or near the mom's head. If you're there to see the birth, then you usually stand near where the action is.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

With a friend, I think it depends on the hospital policy, the staff at the time, and your relationship with the person giving birth. My hospital's policy is two people besides the baby's father allowed during labor/delivery, and staff reserve the right to ask people to leave in an emergency or if they need the space for whatever reason. In the OR for a c/section, only one support person is allowed. I was a support person for one of my friends several years ago and help hold a leg (she wanted me to) and got to see her deliver her first baby. I was a brand new nurse and not an OB nurse at the time, and it was pretty darn cool. (I'd seen other births in nursing school but that one was the coolest since she was my friend.)

Regarding 'shadowing' a nurse, you'd have to talk with the manager of the unit as well as (probably) human resources. With infant security issues being paramount in many places (as well as patient privacy/comfort) it's not as easy as walking up to somone and asking if you can shadow. I'm not saying that was your assumption to begin with, just making a point. I applaud your eagerness to learn and hope you are able to get what you need. :)

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Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.

We had a similar program like that my HS that I just graduated from, but we did all our rotations at an LTC (long term care facility). We had to shadow so many hours for grades and I shadowed in the ICU, ER, and Minor Emergent Care. I just talked to my hospitals Nurse recruiter and she called the dept. And informed them that I wanted to shadow and when I wanted to shadow and I came in and they assigned me to a nurse and I really liked it!!! They even let me do the skills I learned in class while I was shadowing.

Talk to your hospitals nursing recruiter if you have one or talk to someone in human resources or a charge nurse on the floor you want to shadpw on.

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Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.

We had a similar program like that my HS that I just graduated from, but we did all our rotations at an LTC (long term care facility). We had to shadow so many hours for grades and I shadowed in the ICU, ER, and Minor Emergent Care. I just talked to my hospitals Nurse recruiter and she called the dept. And informed them that I wanted to shadow and when I wanted to shadow and I came in and they assigned me to a nurse and I really liked it!!! They even let me do the skills I learned in class while I was shadowing.

Talk to your hospitals nursing recruiter if you have one or talk to someone in human resources or a charge nurse on the floor you want to shadow on.

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