Light at the end of the tunnel and OB clinical Rotation

[CareteamRN70]

well i am in the last phase of my program. i am currently finishing up my l/d rotation and i have to say it has been a wonderful experience. my instructor asked me at the start did i plan on a career in labor/delivery and when i said no (which i am sure was expected) she said she would rotate me appropriately. my fear was i would spend several weeks charting or doing sheet changes. i was pleasantly wrong. i admit the instructor gave preference to the gals wanting to work in l/d in the future, but she still made sure i was rotated among all the units from ante partum to active labor, nursery and nicu, and postpartum. all of my patients have been great, good humored and all thought "fundus" sounded as amusing as i thought it did. i have observed several c-sections and still have to observe a vag birth. i have seen 3 vag births of my own children so do not feel i will miss out if this does not come to pass. the other male in our class absolutely loves the nursery and every time i go in to do an infant assessment i find him sitting in a rocker with a newborn. i like babies as much as the next guy, but raised three so kinda old news to me. as for the nursery, maybe its because i am male but watching circumcisions was both fascinating and horrifying at the same time.

i have my pediatric rotation coming up but my hospital doesn't get a lot of peds beds filled so it will be 50% on the unit and 50% in a sims lab.

a few months after peds i will have my psych rotation then its graduation in october 2010.

so in summary, guys i hope ya all have as good a l/d experience as i did. even one of my teachers was surprised at how well the males (me and the other guy) were accepted on the unit by nurses as well as by patients. i have to say my favorite part of the rotation has been the postpartum unit and that's probably because it feels as close to medsurg as any of the units and i don't feel so "out of place" as i do in ante partum or active labor.

those just starting and wondering about the l/d clinicals hang tough, it isn't that bad, and i hope you all have as good an instructor and nurses as i have had.

semper fi

ps.

happy b-day flo

may 12 1820

:hpbday:

[K.P.A.]

Congratulations. Light at end of tunnel :-) Thanks. Peds and momma/baby here this summer. Should be fun. Children's and women's hospital rotations so should see plenty. Ditto on "own kids". Then community and senior hours in fall and out in Dec.

[CareteamRN70]

Wish we had done a seperate geriatric rotation but with limited clinical space they combined our medsurg with geriatric, even tho most of my medsurg patients had been between 45 - 55 yrs old, not what I consider geriatric.

[CareteamRN70]

okay one quick update, my last day in l/d didn't go so well. i was given a patient, went in and introduced myself. pt was polite, her hubbie was, everything looked good for a fairly quick birth. then the rn i was under came in and the patient without even looking at me in a very annoyed voice states that i can not be in the room and that i would not be providing any care to her. the rn looked at me and shrugged her shoulders, i left. now i am 100% an advocate for the patient to decide who can provide their care but i have to admit this was the first time in 12 years (10 years i was an aid) i have had a patient refuse me as a care giver. i think no biggee, the unit is hopping, i'll get another patient. i did get another patient (who the rn told beforehand that i was a male student) who said i could participate in her birth...with conditions.

a: i could not witness the actual birth.

b: i could not be present for any invasive procedures.

c. i could not do any assessments or checks on the patient.

so basically i was in her room twice to check her pitocin iv rate.

needless to say i was becoming abit disheartened. i have no plans to go into l/d as an rn so tried to remind myself that my area was geriatrics, and that my target patients for the most part always liked and complemented me on the care i provided. as i said above i had been having a great ob rotation, no problems with patients on postpartum, or any of the c-sections i observed. i had to finish a careplan on my patient for the day and yea, i was a little stressed making a careplan for a patient i could not realy talk to, assess, and had to go purely by the chart. i did it, but i didn't feel 100% comfortable with my careplan. and then the other male in my class comes and says his patient heard about me and felt bad another male student was having trouble with observing a birth so gave permission for me to be present at hers. it was the jackpot...this kind patient had twins! and on top of that the second one born was a breach presentation! dr got her out okay and i made sure to go thank the new mom when she was in post partum for allowing me to observe the wonderful birth of her twin girls. so in closing, last day of ob started real bad, but ended on a note i don't think i'll soon forget.

semper fi

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I just finished up my last journal for this L&D and it was not a good experience in terms of the actually witnessing any birth. I did have 2 very interesting times. 1 was because the pt was developing severe pulmonary edema after surgery. The 2nd was the most interesting though. Woman was over 400# G15P9 yes that is not a typo. The doctors went in saying either baby or her would survive not both. I was able to scrub in and assist which was insanely fun......until the procedure took 3 hours when it should take all of what 30 minutes? Both ended up surviving which was a miracle. My instructor still hates me and has it out for me but the day I get my license im mailing her a copy with a few choice letters for her to ponder over.