L & D

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I have no clue why, but I am terrified to work labor and delivery. My school required that I do at least one semester in L&D. I wanted to mentally prepare myself. I wanted to know what your thought were about working L&D? is it scary

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

The likelihood of you being able to do anything more than shadow (and start an IV or a foley if you're lucky) is very slim. I seriously would not worry. Most programs, the students only spend a couple shifts actually on the unit.

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.

I loved L&D. I actually got to scrub in for a procedure. The L&D nurses were very caring, professional, and insistent that they were the nurse and I was the student. However, there were a lot of little things to be done. We actually got to talk a new dad out of using his family's sword to cut the cord...no joke. I asked if it was safe to autoclave this precious heirloom...

At any rate: Most of the semester is book learning with maybe one day a week in the hospital. Learn what you can. If you feel nauseous or overwhelmed, step back to the wall, slide down and sit. That goes for all your clinicals, BTW.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatrics, Wound Care.

Most of L&D is "Women's Health". You'll probably do mostly postpartum, and maybe a day in a nursery (learning infant assessments), NICU (maybe) and actual L&D. When I was in school, on my L&D day, I saw 3 lady partsl births and 0 c-sections. I think I saw the "most" births, other classmates did see c-sections. Some didn't get to see any births. Being a learning student, and actually "working" are very different things.

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