Care of Childbearing Clinical

[meridian8004]

I am in my second semester of an ASN nursing program and am registered for Maternal Nursing this semester. Our school recently got a new instructor for this class and I am somewhat concerned about our clinical rotation. The clinical is titled "Care of Childbearing". We have 196 clinical hours this semester and out of that we are only scheduled for 40 of those in a hospital clinical setting. Other than the 40 hours on a maternity ward in a hospital, our instructor has us doing the following:

• We will be spending THREE days at a therapeutic horse ranch where we will be walking alongside special needs children while they are riding a horse.
  
• We will be shadowing a school nurse for 1 day
  
• We will be going to a maximum security juvenile detention center to shadow the nurse there and present a presentation on a specific medical topic to the inmates.
  
• We have to attend a childbirth education class and have to schedule this ourselves.
  
• We have to shadow a lactation consultant and also have to schedule this ourselves.
  
• We have to complete 4 case studies which have been assigned by the instructor.
  
• We have to write a video analysis on any movie of our choosing that is rated PG-13 or below.
  
• We have to go to Wal-Mart to play "Bingo". This is where we walk around making observations about the customers in the store and have to determine 3 part nursing diagnoses for the customers we observe.
  

I am just wondering if this is in any way "normal" for this type of rotation. I am really concerned about several of these. Specifically going to Wal-mart to judge the customers, spending 3 days at the horse ranch and going to Juvy (due to the dangerous nature of this task). Also, it seems like case studies should be reserved for didactic portions of education or assigned for a missed clinical. I don't understand why we have to do that in place of spending time in a clinical setting.

I have also ran into issues with scheduling my own childbirth education class and the lactation consultant. Some of the places I have called have said it is unprofessional for students to be calling instead of the professor. Shouldn't this be instructor scheduled?

Am I just whining or not understanding? Please be honest. Several of the students in our class have the same concerns and we actually have a meeting scheduled with the instructor on Tues to discuss our concerns, but I don't want to stir the pot if it's just us having a bad attitude because we aren't doing what we expected in this clinical. Any advice would help. Thanks so much.

[meridian8004]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[all4neuro]

Ask for the lactation consultant's voicemail, or the nurse educators voicemail. The facility/hospital usually has a phone directory for them, listed by the unit. I imagine you will look for post-partum, maternal/infant, maybe L&D. It depends on how big the hospital is, it could all be on one unit. Leave a professional message of your name, college, your instructor's name, and date you want to shadow.

Child birth classes can also be set up thru the educator, LC, or ask them who is teaching the classes.

Don't ask a unit clerk or staff nurse, just ask to be transferred and leave a message.

As a student, my nursing class self scheduled a TON of clinicals. You learn how to talk to people, be proactive, etc.

In my hospital we have a nurse educator assigned to every unit, they are in charge of all shadowing, preceptorships, new hire education, etc. They do this ^^^ along with scheduling current employee yearly Education days, CPR renewal, arranging TB test's and flu vaccines, etc.

Going to WalMart? It can probably be any dept. store. How does WalMart make a difference?? LOL!! The same shoppers go to other places also ... whatever, I just find it funny they want "WalMart" specifically. Is that "Walmart-shoppers-are-mostly-unhealthy-profiling"?

This assignment is easy. You are not judging people, your being observant. Look at the elderly, they usually have an abnormal gait, or posture. A middle age person that has a large abdominal circumference or generally over weight = obesity. An infant in a carrier is dependent on their care giver.

Anyone may have poor hygiene, thinning hair, a lazy eye, blindness, hearing aides, use a cane, crutches. Look for use of assistive devices and prosthetics. Some people wear oxygen.

A brace on any extremity. Observe the vision/eye care center, and pharmacy waiting areas.

This assignment is probably to test your observation and assessment skills.

As a veteran RN I can tell when someone has Graves disease, are diabetic, have had a stroke ... etc.

Juvy is protected. You are shadowing, and won't be left alone. You may witness some outbursts or a kid throwing things, but there are guards. Your safety is priority. Someone will discuss with you the precautions and P/P's you need to follow. There are individuals in our general population that have been in juvy, jail, or prison that you cohabitate with daily in your community. Your over thinking this.

The horse therapy is awesome! you should enjoy it. Again, expect the same things I said about Juvy.

Case studies are for any nurse. I am not sure what to advise b/c your instructor will want what she wants. You are a nursing student, you are not a research student, you will be expected to turn in a case study appropriate for your education level per her guidelines.

[DalekRN]

I get the unprofessional part of self scheduling clinical time with lactation consultants.... Having a student is not everyone's cup of tea, to begin with. Then to have tons of students calling and you have to get back with them all individually... Hell no.

[chrisrn24]

Juvy is not scary. Most of the people actually like the nurses.

Also by self scheduling they may mean that they have a person in mind but you have to choose what day/time you want.

[libran1984, ASN, RN]

omg... that is a lot of things to do for your clinicals...

I have taken Peds/Ob twice now (during my LPN program at Ivy tech b/c I failed it the first time). 4 years later, I'm back in the transitional program and I have to retake peds/ob yet a third time. Dear Lord.... you have officially frightened me. My most sincere apologies to your social life. It will take quite some time to recover.