Advice for L&D extern without maternity experience

[83studentnurse]

I am incredibly excited to be doing an externship in L&D this summer, but I won't study maternity until the fall '09, meaning that I will have no experience in the area at the time of my externship. Though the hospital knows I won't yet have studied maternity, I want to be as prepared as possible and would love any advice you can give me. Books to read, topics I should know, procedures I should familiarize myself with ... anything you think would help me to succeed would be immensely appreciated. Thanks so much!

[romantic, BSN, RN]

I am incredibly excited to be doing an externship in L&D this summer, but I won't study maternity until the fall '09, meaning that I will have no experience in the area at the time of my externship. Though the hospital knows I won't yet have studied maternity, I want to be as prepared as possible and would love any advice you can give me. Books to read, topics I should know, procedures I should familiarize myself with ... anything you think would help me to succeed would be immensely appreciated. Thanks so much!

Hi,

If you plan to become a L&D nurse, you can become a member of AWHONN organization and take on-line Fetal Heart Monitoring course for beginners. The price is 75 dollars for your membership and 75 dollars for the course but it worth the money. Also you can buy a book, Fetal Heart Monitoring Principles and Practices, AWHONN-- a wonderful source of information with a great number of different fetal heart strips.

I also can suggest buying Maternity Nursing by Lowdermilk Perry. I have 7th edition. Beautifully written, the book gives a consise review on many important topics like labs, labor stages, labor at risk, assessment of newborn, major drugs with their side effects, nursing iterventions, cultural considerations, etc.

Another book that I find very helpful and wonderfully written and I know that many will agree with me --- The Labor Progress Handbook by Penny Simkin and Ruth Ancheta.

Good luck to you!

[SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN]

i was an extern on l&d for a bit... you need not know anything ahead of time! in fact, the less you know the better since the attitude of the nurses is that you are a student (because you are) and that you have a lot to learn (because you do). in other words, do not worry...

being a nurse extern on l&d is more fun, then a major challenge because you are limited in your scope of practice. in other words, you will see more then you will get to do. in fact, there maybe a lot of down time depending on your patient load unlike other floors such as medical surgical, where you hit the floors running as a nurse extern. thus, if you already have your maternity textbook, bring it to work. this way when a nurse asks you to look up something for your own benefit, you will have it handy. as you probably know, if you want to be an ob nurse, being a nurse extern on the floor is a good start, so have a great summer!

-new grad rn