cervical exams?

[jennifers]

Ok, how many cervical exams did you do before you knew what you were doing? I just started labor and everything just feels like mush. I've got Complete down. lol

I have checked a few and so far I'm still clueless.

[socks341968]

The very first SVE that I did was actually not at the best time, and things weren't going so well. The baby was having late decels, and mom was in tremendous amount of pain even with epidural. I listened to my preceptor, did the exam as she was getting other things ready, and I know I looked at her with an odd expression on my face. I was totally trying to be cool about it, and finally told her "Hey, check this for me will you?" I couldn't feel anything except for the baby's head. I felt and felt trying to find the cervix. I felt so inadequate that I couldn't find it. Then, lo and behold, my preceptor did a SVE and said the pt was complete...lol. That's why I couldn't find the cervix. The severe pain was caused by the baby being ROP. FYI...the very next pt that I checked was complete as well!

[Irishobrn]

Scope out all the epiduralized patients on your unit and ask to check them before the doctor or experienced nurse. This will help you get more comfortable and enable you to really be able to feel around without making the patient uncomfortable. We also have these plastic boards on our units for the new nurses to practice on to get a feel for how many centimeters feels like to their hands. Everyone has different size fingers so my two fingers in is 3 cm...but it may be only 2cm for someone with smaller hands. You need to get comfortable with your own touch. It will come to you with practice and experience. :)