OB nursing is not my thing

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So many girls are so into this rotation and I have NO interest in it. On our floor all we do is stand around. We do our morning assessments, vitals. Same thing at noon and 4. We're there 7-7. I practically BEG nurses for stuff to do or watch. The exciting part of yesterday was giving one IM injection and a tiny bit of teaching. The nurses are sitting in their break area half the day, complaining about how long their day is.

You'll find our clinical group half the time in the nursery playing with babies. It's ridiculous. I need something fast paced, I dread going to this clinical each week. Maybe some other OB floors are exciting but this one, even with 20 or so patients on it, is not my thing. I miss med surg. I miss my geriatric patients.

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I wasn't nuts about it, either. A little ooey-gooey for my tastes.

I did, however, get to assist with a lady partsl delivery and it made me cry. But I don't need to do it again.

:)

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Specializes in Psych..

I hated my OB rotation too. Then I hated Peds even more.

Half my class wants to go into some sort of OB or Peds, so I look at it as less competition when we graduate and start looking for jobs. I was so glad to pass that class and MOVE ON.

I liked Med/Surg too. And I'm in Psych now and absolutely loving it, to my surprise..

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I hated my OB rotation too. Then I hated Peds even more.

Half my class wants to go into some sort of OB or Peds, so I look at it as less competition when we graduate and start looking for jobs. I was so glad to pass that class and MOVE ON.

I liked Med/Surg too. And I'm in Psych now and absolutely loving it, to my surprise..

I expect to loathe peds. I'm not a fan of kids, nevermind the anxious parents that will be with them (understandable on their part, but no thanks). It seems like most the girls want to do OB or peds and I just have no desire to at all. I wasn't a huge fan of psych, depending on the unit. I did love my time on the neuro floor at psych... but I also did peds psych and hated it, and surprisingly I didn't like the geri psych as much as I thought I would. Med Surg is where I want to be, at least for a few years and see where I go.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

I understand and respect the differences in interests regarding patient age, developmental stages, disease processes, etc. That's what is great about nursing. We can all choose a patient population that fascinates us and focus our attention there.

But, much as this will not win me any friends among the students posting here, please don't ever state how bored you are with your clinical rotation, regardless of its focus. As your preceptor, I would have a field day with that.

An entire mother-baby unit, and not one mom or family in need of teaching, psychological support, anticipatory guidance or discharge planning? Hard to believe.

You must all be experts in car seat safety! How admirable!

Not a single mom struggling with breastfeeding? No lactation consultant or staff breastfeeding nurse to shadow? Even harder to believe.

You are all well-versed and ready to teach about Hepatitis B vaccine, Rhogam administration and MMR vaccination for non-immune mothers? Harder yet to believe.

You are all prepared to respond quickly and effectively to every imaginable complication of childbirth (amniotic fluid embolus, hemorrhage, DVT, infection, pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, gestational diabetes, just to name a few)? Still harder to believe. Oh, yeah, you have unlocked and checked the unit's neonatal and adult emergency carts, right? And performed mock codes, too. I feel safer just knowing that.

You are knowledgable of every drug given on the unit. Really! And understand the principles of epidural anesthesia so that you can safely and effectively assess and manage the post-epidural care of your patients?

You can perform and document an independent assessment of the newborn, including complete gestational age assessment? How about a head-to-toe on mom? You should! And then carry forward with individualized care plans for each.

I could go on, but you get my point.

Once you've done all these things, please get back to us and let us know just how bored you are.

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Specializes in DOU.

I hated it, too. And despite Jolie's post, I was also bored. We had to SHARE patients. Plus, the ones we got? They were mostly 14 - 18 years old. What a depressing rotation.

I don't really understand why we had to have a rotation through there when we are quite certain that will NOT be our area of interest. I would have happily taken rotations pretty much anywhere else. And I love babies... I even have a couple of my own. :)

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

I don't really understand why we had to have a rotation through there when we are quite certain that will NOT be our area of interest.

So, should students who dislike working with adults just get to skip med-surg?

Nursing requires the knowledge, experience and ability to respond to patient needs across the lifespan, even the parts we don't particularly like.

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An entire mother-baby unit, and not one mom or family in need of teaching, psychological support, anticipatory guidance or discharge planning? Hard to believe.

I was in an EMPTY unit for most of my rotatin.

We did the safety seats with the state police.

My preceptor was there for all of it. We did a lot of reading.

We were bored.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

Sue,

I understand the difficulty and frustration that goes along with a lack of patients.

But the OP indicated that there were 20 patients on his/her "boring" unit.

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Specializes in DOU.
So, should students who dislike working with adults just get to skip med-surg?

Nursing requires the knowledge, experience and ability to respond to patient needs across the lifespan, even the parts we don't particularly like.

I have no problem with the academic part of the OB education. Of course we should have a pretty good idea of how to respond to a patient's needs regardless of age, but unless you are working in OB, you are unlikely to run into many of the problems you listed on a once-a week rotation, and things like DVTs and infection are likely to also be seen in med-surg.

I favor studying OB, but allowing students the option (when possible) of choosing a rotation that is more relevant to the areas they want to work in. For example, we only get one DAY in ER, oncology, surgery, etc. I would have rather spent more time in those areas.

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I understand and respect the differences in interests regarding patient age, developmental stages, disease processes, etc. That's what is great about nursing. We can all choose a patient population that fascinates us and focus our attention there.

But, much as this will not win me any friends among the students posting here, please don't ever state how bored you are with your clinical rotation, regardless of its focus. As your preceptor, I would have a field day with that.

An entire mother-baby unit, and not one mom or family in need of teaching, psychological support, anticipatory guidance or discharge planning? Hard to believe.

You must all be experts in car seat safety! How admirable!

Not a single mom struggling with breastfeeding? No lactation consultant or staff breastfeeding nurse to shadow? Even harder to believe.

You are all well-versed and ready to teach about Hepatitis B vaccine, Rhogam administration and MMR vaccination for non-immune mothers? Harder yet to believe.

You are all prepared to respond quickly and effectively to every imaginable complication of childbirth (amniotic fluid embolus, hemorrhage, DVT, infection, pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, gestational diabetes, just to name a few)? Still harder to believe. Oh, yeah, you have unlocked and checked the unit's neonatal and adult emergency carts, right? And performed mock codes, too. I feel safer just knowing that.

You are knowledgable of every drug given on the unit. Really! And understand the principles of epidural anesthesia so that you can safely and effectively assess and manage the post-epidural care of your patients?

You can perform and document an independent assessment of the newborn, including complete gestational age assessment? How about a head-to-toe on mom? You should! And then carry forward with individualized care plans for each.

I could go on, but you get my point.

Once you've done all these things, please get back to us and let us know just how bored you are.

Jolie, I would love to do those things and Id love to get more out of this rotation. Unfortunately, there are 8 girls, around 6-8 nurses, 2 of whom do not want students. And.. can I walk into any room I please and start teaching about car seats? Nope. Can I just go administering meds to whom I please? Again no (thank god..). My instructor disappears, gabbing with every doctor or nurse she can find. And we are left standing in the hall trying to figure out where she is.

We ask other nurses if there's anything we can do and we get "nope, i dont think so." (And yes, I've done this many times). I think I learned more standing in the nursery and just talking to the nurse in there. I was in no way trying to say I'm "all knowing", I'm saying that there seems to be little opportunity for the students and I am not getting a good impression of this unit.

I was not making a generalized statement about OB nursing, if that is how you took it.

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

Well, I think we should all be permitted a rotation that we just don't like or get into much without feeling like crud. For me, I suspect that will be peds or OB. Honestly, I'll probably go through the motions, do what I have to do, and then move on.

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