OB Rotations

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I've got OB/Peds this fall, and I'd like to know what some of you had to during your OB rotations. What else is typically required during OB? For example, are you forced to rotate through the nursery, etc?

I'll have that along with community and public health as well as issues and trends in healthcare and nursing.

Exciting semester. :uhoh3:

It could, yes. Additionally, someone could walk in with monkeypox. Do you know immediately what to do about that also?

This is either a successful attempt at trolling, or a failed attempt at a sound, logical argument. Are you honestly comparing the normal biological processes of pregnancy and childbirth to an obscure infectious tropical disease that few nurses are ever likely to see? Come on. I totally respect the fact that you're not personally interested in OB, but your attitude that it's not important to try and learn as much as you can from your rotation is troubling. We're not in nursing school to be entertained- we're in it to become good nurses.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma.
One other piece of advice...suck it up and get your hands dirty someone is watching and knows what is going on, it will make you a better care giver in the end!

I think, "Suck it up and get your hands dirty" is going to be my motto for the rest of school. There really is no better attitude!

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I hope I'm never a patient in a facility where you work with an attitude like that!!

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"Suck it up and get your hands dirty" reminds me of helping one of my classmates clean up a patient with liver failure taking lactulose on my last med surg rotation :D

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OB was my favorite rotation! I got to see c-sections, lady partsl births, start IVs, put in urinary catheters, give IV meds, "recover" newborns (give them their first set of injections, give them their first baths, do foot prints, etc). We rotated through L&D, postpartum, and the NICU. It's pretty intense (I was at a busy community hospital though), so the shifts went by quickly. Go in with an open mind, it may end up being your favorite rotation too! Good luck!!

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This is either a successful attempt at trolling, or a failed attempt at a sound, logical argument. Are you honestly comparing the normal biological processes of pregnancy and childbirth to an obscure infectious tropical disease that few nurses are ever likely to see? Come on. I totally respect the fact that you're not personally interested in OB, but your attitude that it's not important to try and learn as much as you can from your rotation is troubling. We're not in nursing school to be entertained- we're in it to become good nurses.

No, I'm not comparing the two. Go back and re-read them.

With 1,836 posts I doubt I'm trolling.

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I loved my OB rotation. We were at Maimonides in Brooklyn, which has a huge number of lady partsl births going on all the time due to the largely Orthodox Jewish/Hasidic population (most of my classmates were lucky to see one C-section). We rotated through Post Partum, L&D/triage and the Nursery. I loved L&D the most; the nursery set my teeth on edge (all that squawling--I'm not a baby person). Spending a shift in the NICU was optional. Everybody was great and we were able to do a lot of hands-on stuff. Hope you have as great a time as we did! I found the class one of the most challenging in nsg school but enjoyed it, too.

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I'm farily well known for replying to pointless, argumentative replies.

I personally enjoy your sass. It makes me giggle when people get butthurt about it.

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No, I'm not comparing the two. Go back and re-read them.

With 1,836 posts I doubt I'm trolling.

You obviously weren't trying to say that monkeypox and pregnancy are the same thing, but you were clearly trying to compare the importance of understanding one to the importance of understanding the other- which is still ridiculous. I'm sorry that my response wasn't clear.

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As an OB instructor I can tell you what you will do....you will use and adapt the assessment and patient care skills you have learned in other rotations to provide care to a new population. This is no different than any other rotation in your studies. You will spend time in L&D assisting your client though that process, you will work with mother/baby couplets as they recover from the work of labor, you will work with the hospitalized mom-to-be that is trying to stay out of early labor, and you will work with newborns in both the nursery and NICU.

These areas are not everyone's favorite just as Med/surg is not mine. But as nurses, we learn to care for clients across the lifespan and through birth, death, and everything in between.

Approach your clinical willing to learn. Each clinical experience heightens your knowledge.

PS. The one poster's "I'll do as little as possible" (in my rotation) would result in a failure.

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Too bad. I take male students all through the maternal/infant units without incicent.

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It's kind of like this. I love target, defensive, and combat shooting both long and handgun. I like learning about firearms. I like working with new and varied firearms. I like reading about ballistics and learning how environmental and physiological conditions effect shooting. However, I couldn't care less about reloading. That's a firearms niche in and of itself. I don't even want to know about it much less take part in it.

OB is kind of the same way for me. It's just something out there that I'm not interested in when in fact I love physiology and pathophysiology. I'm not really opposed to a theoretical knowledge so much as I feel that I have no place in that realm thus the lack of desire to take part in anything concerning pregnant women or newborns.

Similarly, I like geology a lot. Those were among my favorite courses back in college. Mineralogy, on the other hand, the basis of geosciences (after of course physics and chemistry) isn't something I want to read about or put my hands on.

We all have our interests and disinterests (me especially). I completely understand how OB fits in with the big picture of healthcare, human development, dealing with all ages, etc. I (me) started this thread because I wanted to know what I'd be expected to do because I want to go through the motions and be done with it. I'd rather prepare for that here rather than find out for the first time that I'm expected to wash someone's neonate while I'm standing in the room with them with an obviously angry facial expression. It's not due to lack of aptitude certainly, and I don't feel there will be anything unduly challenging or difficult. I just want to be done with it as quickly and as efficiently as possible. When some choose to reply in a challenging context I have no problem with replying in kind. My biggest fault in life is not knowing, or sometimes refusing, when to stop or when to "let bygones be bygones."

That about sums it up, folks. Perhaps that will assuage the wounds of those that seem to have been offended by my remarks, but once again it was my thread for me to learn from. Invitations were to explain the process of OB from a student viewpoint rather than interject your opinions of my character.

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