Care of post abortion pt

SmilingBluEyes · Oct 12, 2002

I think you would more be getting GYN type experience (medically) and this would not be largely helpful for OB, except perhaps in later-term abortion cases. I would also think you would be getting some good psych-wise in this area. But as a springboard for OB? I am just not sure on that. I just want to say I do wish you luck and welcome you aboard!

fergus51 · Oct 12, 2002

I think any women's health is a good springboard for OB because a lot of places combine OB/GYN units, especially smaller hospitals. Besides, many supervisors look for previous experience in med-surg before taking nurses in OB, so you'll have that.

frankie · Oct 13, 2002

Jenipherlynn, I know little to nothing about OB/GYN or abortion care, but just yesterday I was searching the internet for info for a patient I administered methotrexate to for an ectopic pregnancy. I went to the nih first http://www.nih.gov

then I looked under women's health, searched ectopic pregnancy and methotrexate, pregnancy, abortion. I found quite a bit of excellent information r/t all these topics. And I did find a handout my patient could take home. So, maybe if you follow the same path, you can read up on this subject. frankie

OB/GYN NP · Oct 13, 2002

There are lots of reasons why this could be a good place to start for you. Any experience in the field of Women's Health is helpful when it comes to breaking into a new specialty later on, like an OB/GYN unit in a hospital. Especially if this clinic does prenatal care, you could gain a lot of experience in just getting fetal heart tones, learning the typical plan of care during the prenatal phase, etc (depending on how much you would be allowed to do while working there). If you're concerned about the future ramifications of the fact that you had a job at an abortion clinic, you don't even have to discuss that aspect of the job at an interview unless you feel comfortable discussing it. Just emphasize the prenatal care unless the interviewer asks, but then of course be honest about it. Anyone who works in Women's Health recognizes that women do have abortions, no matter what their personal feelings are on the abortion issue. I think you should go for it. If it doesn't turn out to be the job for you, at least you gave it a shot.

joyrochelle · Oct 13, 2002

I used to work at a planned parenthood doing just that actually....taking acre of postop- AB patients. And yes, a lot of it was psych and support. Many of those patients ( many not all) are very emotionally strife and need to a lot of care in that 2 hours before they went home.

But basically the care was typically monitoring for ANY complication, a lot of discharge teaching and physical assessment. It was rewarding, and honestly I did this as a volunteer alongside a RN, and this is what inspired me to earn my RN and then CNM ( one down...cnm to go).

As far as if its what you would really bene fit from, I guess it really depends on what yoru dream OB/GYN dream would require of you. If you plan on ultimately working labor and delivery, i tmay not prepare you as much, but you can always derive experience from wherever you are enriched!:)