Infertility nurses?

JUSTYSMOM · Oct 7, 2003

I am not a nurse yet, however I have been an IVF infertility patient. That is how I got pregnant with my son (who is now almost 5 years old). :)

A very dear friend of mine was one of the IVF nurses at the clinic I went to. She was/is a wonderful nurse. However, she ended up quitting and going into another field for the following reasons:

First of all, the clinic she worked in was a very large, "top" IVF clinic in S. Florida. According to her, she felt that she couldn't give the kind of care & attention that an IVF patient needed.

According to her, the head IVF nurse instructed the team to treat the patients like we were numbers. This means no chatting with us, get us in and out within a certain number of minutes etc. It was a rush rush attitude.

In addition, it was very stressful for her. You are dealing with a very emotional and sensitive procedure and time frame. It was imperative to monitor patients closely. You were not allowed to go home until ALL of the calls that were left in the IVF voice mail box were answered.

Now, she had two young children at that time. So she was getting into work very early and leaving very very late. So this was taking a toll on her personal life.

Lastly, she had a hard time with all of the IVF procedures that did not have a positve outcome. She became very close to her patients and couldn't deal with the emotional aspect of IVF.

I guess that it all depends on the size of the clinic, number of patients, what area of infertility you want to work in and of course your own personality.

Believe me, us infertility patients desperately NEED caring, compassionate and competent nurses in this field.

Jules

studentdeb · Oct 7, 2003

I am not a nurse yet either, but I wanted to share my experience with infertility nurses. I have two children conceived by going to the Cleveland Clinic. I only saw the doctor once or twice initially and spent the rest of my visits with the two nurses who job shared. They were wonderful!!!! They taught us (actually my husband) how to give me injectibles and performed the monthly inseminations we went through.

It seemed to me that they enjoyed their jobs greatly. They were very caring and knowledgeable. I was so comfortable with them. I know there probably is alot of heartache they share with some patients, but based on the amount of baby pictures on the wall, I'd say that they shared alot more joy.

It seems like a good field and I've considered it myself for the time I finally get through school. I would like to help people like myself try to achieve something so important.

Of course, this is just my opinion. Good luck in whatever you decide.

Trixie01 · Oct 8, 2003

Thank-you both for feedback. Its just so hard to know what to do.

Its scary and exiting thinking about this possibility for the future!

As I am a infertility patient I know how stressful this can be.

So I am trying to think of all the issues. The pos'n I am looking at would be parttime. Tues, Wed and fridays. 1 Weekend per month?

So I would have some downtime.... but I still don't know if I could do the actual job....because it is so technical. and complicated?

I guess I just need to look for a sign or something? I am interested in Women Health and this could help me gain experience there too. I am going to pray about this....Thanks again.:)

JUSTYSMOM · Oct 8, 2003

Quote:

"but I still don't know if I could do the actual job....because it is so technical. and complicated?"

I belive you can!!!!

I can only speak for myself as an IVF patient. The nurses ran their butts off! But then again, IVF is such a timed & precise process.

Do you want to be an IVF nurse? That in itself is a specialty.

Good luck with whatever you choose :)

Chaya, ASN, RN · Oct 8, 2003

I did this as an embryologist but I can tell you what the nurses did back then (about 10 years). Assuming a couple entering the process works with one nurse primarily s(he) will interview them, coordinate blood and semen lab testing, MD examination and oversee the woman's cycle for insemination/ IVF or whatever. Our nurses made a lot of phone calls-setting up appointments, reviewing lab data with the couple and setting up daily blood testing or arranging for insemination or IVF- and calling with pregnancy results. There is A LOT of teaching involved. The couple must understand basic male and female anatomy and the stages of the woman's menstrual cycle. They may need to have either partner learn to give the woman hormone injections on a daily basis (at least they used to). They need to learn the timing involved with ripening the egg, then getting the semen sample to inseminate within a specified time frame. The couple needs a lot of emotional support until the outcome of the cycle is known (understatement of the year)! Besides calls and interviews, our nurses rotated attending a daily meeting where the daily labs were reviewed with the embryolgists and the MDs and the scheduling was done (who needs another couple of days of blood testing and who to schedule for insemination or egg retrieval in the next day or two). Our nurses did pelvics and the actual intra-uterine inseminations..It's an intense work envirnment but there isn't anything like it. Good luck if you do try it!

Texagain · Oct 8, 2003

Maybe I am the one you are thinking of as I worked in an IVF clinic for about 5 years. The description by Chaya is quite accurate. I enjoyed the work immensely and left only because I had a medical problem myself that sidelined me for a very long time.

Aside from a few, ahem, O.K., I'll just say it , crazy patients (one of whom defaced the lobby because it had pictures of children on the wall), it was one of the two jobs I enjoyed the most- the other one being the job I have now.