help

the first thing with ob is that you need to know the normal uncomplicated cycle of pregnancy and childbirth.

go back to the old nursing process. remember step #1 which is assessment? to do a basic head to toe assessment of a regular medical patient you need to know what is normal. . .normal breath sounds, normal pulse, normal temperature, normal bowel sounds, etc. why? so, when you hear something abnormal, you recognize immediately that it is abnormal and that you have evidence of a problem.

you are doing the same in ob. you have to know what the normal cycle of childbirth is so that you can recognize abnormal signs when you assess the patient. as in a medical patient, abnormal signs and symptoms in an ob patient are evidence of a problem. and in ob there are a lot of problems that can happen. what's complicated about them is that many of the symptoms are unfamiliar to you. if you approach them from the view of what was normal and then went pathophysiologically wrong, you might fare better.

keep in mind that you are expected to know the medical condition/disease, how the doctor diagnoses it, how the doctor treats it, and how you (the nurse) treat the patient's response to it. here are some weblinks that you may find helpful:

• http://www.brooksidepress.org/products/military_obgyn/home.htm
  
• http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_london_maternal_1 - online student companion website for maternal-newborn & child nursing by marcia l. london, patricia a. ladewig, jane w. ball, and ruth l. bindler.
  
• http://www.emedicine.com/obgyn/index.shtml - listing of emedicines topics on obstetrics and gynecology

I passed ob/peds...one more semester to go.

Now that you've passed, what advice would you give to others just starting OB and Peds? What got you through this course?