Maternity Clinical

My nursing specialty is maternity this semester and I'm also eager to find out what to expect!

when I took maternity we rotated between labor and delivery, postpartum and the NICU. I loved it! assessing vital signs on a newborn is tough as they move around, make noises and their HR and RR are so quick! you will get the hang of it though :) remember they're not as fragile as they look, you aren't going to hurt them by touching them!! the only thing I didn't like were the slow days... some students will see everything when others may not! good luck!!

Every hospital is different and the way every school designs their clinicals is different. A community hospital likely has one floor that encompasses ALL maternity including antepartum, labor and delivery, post-partum, newborn nursery... and possibly special care nursery/pediatrics. An large academic medical canter will likely have separate floors for antepartum, labor and delivery, NICU and post-partum. We rotated through all four when I was in school but our primary assignment was post-partum and we only got to spend one day each on the other floors.