maternity & peds

[freckles23]

I am starting my 2nd semester of nursing school and will be doing maternity & peds this rotation. I am just looking for any advice and what to expect from this rotation. I'm really not a fan of peds because I don't feel a connection with kids and find it a hassle to communicate with them and I guess I could handle maternity but these two really don't hold my interest. Should I expect the material for the course to be more difficult and harder to understand? Or did you find it easier then your other rotations?

[Nursing_Mamacita]

"Maternity and peds"

You just made me have a little PTSD moment there.

That was my biggest challenge in nursing school. I'm not what I describe as, a "fuzzy nurse". Cute makes me uncomfortable. I like hearts, blood, and trauma. I'm more of a treat 'em & street 'em or flip 'em & ship 'em kinda girl. So naturally, the idea of small vulnerable children and even worse, teeny tiny little infants fresh baked from the womb TERRIFIED me.

Let's start with coursework. Peds: Easiest part was the fact that you should already know theorists and stages of development; this course will focus on the peds portions of those theories. Also easy, is the fact that much of medical surgical information ties into this...just on tinier patients. Hardest part for me was the growth and development; you have to know what they should be doing (milestones) at what age. It got pretty specific on tests in regards to that information. In the end, I passed with a A or B...I don't remember, been a while.

OB/L&D/Blah blah: Easiest part for me? Psychosocial aspect of it. Also, learning fetal monitoring, knowing what to do when things go south (Left side, give oxygen lol). You learn basics like signs of pregnancy, teaching mothers (and fathers), nutrition, etc. But a lot of this class is psychosocial because in the end, pregnant women can be emotional rollercoasters and they worry and they freak out. You learn how to keep them calm and SUPPORT their feelings and choices. Hardest part was the memory aspect, i.e learning fetal lies (positioning); I STILL cannot tell you where you would hear a fetal heart beat if you tell me a position. Really, this class is a lot of information, especially when learning about care of mothers with complicated pregnancies.

Okay so for clinical. My peds rotation sucked. I live in an area where peds is HARD to get into, let alone get rounds in, due to the MASS amounts of universities and programs in the area. So we got stuck doing a split rotation; school nursing and pediatric home hospice. School nursing was honestly the most boring clinical ever. All I really did was give meds, check temps, call parents, and send kids back to class to take their tests they tried so hard to avoid. For the home hospice, I just felt awkward. I, like you, have a hard time connecting with children. I have no kids of my own, so to be thrown into a situation where I am visiting and checking up on dying children was an awkward experience. I doubt your rounds will be like mine were.

For L&D clinicals we went to a very nice facility. I was able to assist with a lady partsl delivery (which was absolutely frightening) and by the end of it I had to sit down LOL. Let's seee, I did a lot of nursery time which I actually did turn out to LOVE (shh, don't tell anyone). I assisted with circumcisions and regular care of the newborns. I performed a LOT of patient teaching. Helped mothers breastfeed for the first time, taught them how and how much to feed the baby, did a lot of peri-pad checking, massaged funduses (yeah, it's as weird as it sounds), etc.

In the end, OB was actually better than peds, imo.

I mean, I kinda gave you a very broad idea, if you wanna know any specifics, just let me know!