Length of maternity/infant placement

[lpn-rn_bn]

Hi there,

Just curious what length of time you were in a maternity/infant clinical placement as a student. I have spoken to some people who spent a month on a maternity unit and some who spent 3 8-hour shifts. I personally had no specific maternity placement although I was placed in clinical experiences where I spent about 34 hours with maternity/infant patients.

[haunani, BSN, RN]

We had 5 days, with each day being approximately 5 hours, so 25 hours. This was in a smaller community hospital, where we were lucky to see one delivery each.

[ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN]

We had two 10 hour days (7a-5p) a week for 8 weeks. This was split between L&D, postpartum, and NICU. NICU we only got 1 day, the rest was 50/50 L&D/PP, depending how the census looked. I got to see several lady partsl deliveries, 2 c-sections, and a version, plus plenty of time with laboring moms and postpartum couplets. It was a good experience, I am glad I got more than a day or two!

[BrandNewBabyNurse]

I got three 8-hour days on my OB rotation, which felt like a total scam because we had six 12-hour days for almost all of our other rotations. One day was L/D, one day PP, and one day with "nursery," which really just meant attending any births and helping the second RN assess the newborn. A couple people (including me) got to shadow in the NICU on the nursery day if they really pushed for it. Definitely wish we could have had longer with OB, which is why I ended up choosing a capstone preceptorship in L/D.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

I'm doing my maternity rotation now. We get 80 hours. We go to mother-baby, L & D and the NICU. I love it.

[AspiringNurseMW]

I got about 6 12 hour shifts for clinicals. This included L&D, PP, and NICU. But if census was low we went to PP, if our patient delivered we followed them to PP, and if we were in NICU it was usually only until lunch and then... PP. So needless to say most of our time was in PP. I only got to see 2 cesarean deliveries, both unplanned, but only labored with one of them.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

In my hospital based diploma program, we got a month of 4 8 hour days a week plus a prep/conference day. Two weeks in L&D, a week in the nursery, and a week on postpartum. I think the degree program nurses are being cheated out of some amazing learning with a lack of clinical time.

[mkk99]

2 12 hour days in nursery, 2 12 hour days in postpartum, 1 12 hour day on labor and delivery. No experience with couplet care because my hospital didn't do that (different nurse for mom and baby). The L&D day was mostly observation (lady partsl and/or c/section) and not focused on learning that nursing role. This was in a master's degree bridge-equivalent program.

[AvaRose]

We had 50 hours as we split time between OB and Pediatrics that quarter and would have normally had 100 hours if it were a regular quarter. I saw 4 deliveries (2 C-sections, 2 lady partsl) and was able to assist with each of the deliveries (starting Foley, helping position for spinal, counting gauze after c-section, holding leg and encouraging during lady partsl delivery, and I even got to perform a lady partsl exam to check for dilation which my instructor verified that I was correct on). It was one of our more active clinical experiences...most clinical rotations we didn't do very much.

[AngelKissed857, BSN, RN]

Just curious, where is your diploma program?

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I had 16 hours a week for 7 weeks; we were in L&D, post partum, mother/baby nursery, and NICU.