moongirl

thank you all so much! this is almost worse than the boards- i am so nervous!

Hello- can any of you suggest a good study guide for the inpatient OB RNC test? thanks so much

my favorite is the mom who refuses vaccinations b/c "my children wont ever be in daycare and they are going to a private Christian School" ... ...so tempting to say " and when you go out in public they will be in a bubble??!??!"

I think alot of it boils down to how much time a pt actually spends with the OB nurse compared to the doc. It may not bother a pt to have a male doc swoop in for the 15 minutes it takes him to deliver the baby, do a repair, pat the mom on the hand, say good job and leave. We L&D girls are the ones with the hands all up in the business end of things. we are the ones helping clean up the peri area after the delivery. We are the ones squatted down at va jay jay level while the pt sits on the potty trying to help her get her pad and undies on. We are the ones helping with breastfeeding, which more often than not finds me grabbing the breasts and helping with positioning. Some women just may not feel comfortable with a male RN doing all of that.

ditto what everyone said!! Eat a real meal on your lunch break. dont let family/friends/appointments interfere with sleep. Oh,and a really nice quality eye mask.. even if your room is super dark. It is a signal for me now, ear plugs in, eye mask on and my brain knows it is time for sleep. always eat something substantial before you try to sleep all day, otherwise at noon your tummy will be growling, used to having lunch at that time.

wow.. this post couild have been written by me. I hate the dayshift at the hospital I am at.. they all need to take a pill. I work 2nd shift ( we do 12's, so there is only day/night shift) and MOST of them are ok.. but we have a group of very jr high-ish 20-25 year olds and i most certainly dont fit in, dont want to fit in and they make sure that I will never belong to their secret handshake society. they are also famous for writing untruths in evals about other nurses that are not in their clique. sad state of affairs since the UNM knows about it and it still continues.

totally understand. they rush in at 0200, with it wrapped in toilet paper "In case you wanted to see it" and then state that they are in labor. It IS annoying b/c then I have to do a pile of OP paperwork on them, and it takes me away from my true laboring pts. and I am annoyed with the docs more than the pts. if they would give them some education ie" this will happen, its no big deal and unless it is followed with contractions, a gush of fluid or bleeding YOU DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL". It is more their fault than it is the primip who doesnt have a clue

As a student, we were not allowed to do vag exams. As a new nurse, the first few I did, I asked to please wait until the epidural was in place. I did not think it was fair to the pt to have someone who had no exp digging around and sometimes around and around searching. I still apologize to the OB checks that come in that I have to assess, even tho I now know what I am reaching for. No matter how gentle you try to be, it still hurts!!

In a small hospital I got more exp. with the scary stuff. At 0200 you are "IT" and you have to handle whatever comes down the pipe, often stablizing/keeping someone alive until the copter shows up.

I am so not sure. I have only been there a few months so I am still trying to figure it out!!! I dont know how much longer I can take it, but I live in a rural area where there are not alot of options for working...

I left a small hospital for a bigger one and actually found the opposite. The smaller unit I worked in was a team atmosphere and everyone really got along. You kinda gotta when you count on each other to have your back in an emergency, or in just plain ol day to day stuff. This larger hospital i am in is... sigh. triple the amt of employees on the unit, triple the work and triple the bitchin, backstabbin, cliquey-ness. One would think that in a busy unit there wouldnt be time to try to throw weight wround, complain about others, make others feel bad in order to bring themselves up etc etc. but good gravy, it is a nightmare. Give me a small unit anyday. The more people you work with, the more people you have trying to assert themselves as top dog.. or big fish

not necesarrily. depends on your location. My OB/GYN has all RNs who do the nursing care in office, including draw blood.

maybe she had a day off, called in sick, or was in meetings all day long. dont stress it!!

take you off the floor for 3 hours so you can study?? not likely. who would take your spot? or am I misunderstanding your question?

my favorite computer charting would be to get rid of the computer except for order enteries and go back to paper!!!

me neither. If there is no money to go out to dinner or movies... you make up your own entertainment...:redbeathe

exactly. Littmans go in "backwards" to what they look like they should

goals- pt will verbalize understanding of proper wound care. pt will demonstrate wound care. pt will remain infection free throughout their hospital stay. Pt will verbalize understanding of s/s of infection and when to call MD. interventions- teach pt wound care, proper handwashing, teach pt s/s and when to report to MD

me too. and I am wondering what the point is to the original post...?? yes, I want a smart nurse, yes I want a compassionate nurse. Do they have to be 2 different people?? Why do I have to choose as a pt, why do I have to choose as a nurse?? i think that as a nurse, I am smart enough to want to understand what my pt is rec'ing meds wise, but also smart enough to fluff a pillow. I dont wake up each day and say "Gee, yesterday I was smart, so today I will be compassionate"

When I speak to people, many think of a lay midwife as a non-CNM who does homebirths. exactly.. and to answer your question, Apgar.. a lay midwife in IMO is exactly that.. ones like in my area who carry no emergency meds (pit, methergine, oxygen) and who are 40 miles away from the nearest help. the ones who brought a primip into me ONLY after her placenta had been retained for 5 hours and her BP was 60/40 with an EBL of 2500.. the same ones who are responsible for the brain injuries suffered by a friend's newborn.. tight nuchal pushed for 2 hours at home then finally got her to the hospital, where she was crash sectioned . He is now 9 and functions at a level of a 2 year old. If he had been at hospital, distress would have been shown on the monitor and he could have been sectioned earlier with a good outcome. I had my first with a CNM, but at the hospital, I am GBS +. SHe was awesome and I loved the whole experience.. but very glad that I was there. Being primip, I had no idea that I was a bleeder and after delivery was rushed to OR. In pioneer days, i would have died. You just never know what can happen, even when moms are considered "low risk"

with lay midwives- absolutely with CNM's- no

its not about how her brain is "wired". I do the same thing. It started when I was 7 years old and my grandmother died, leaving me with a mother who has emotionally/mentally abused me all of my 42 years. My grammy was my only source of love/acceptance/comfort. Since then, in times of worry or stress, I chew on the skin on my fingers. Usually never enough to draw blood, but sometimes. I have a sucessful marriage, career, 2 good kids and graduated from college with a 3.7 gpa. I suppose it could be called an issue that would benefit from counseling, but not a "mental issue" per say. Even with happiness in my life, I revert back when upset about something. Doubt that it could be changed after 35 years. Maybe this is true with Beth as well. What happened to me cannot be undone, and it does not manifest in anything other than chewing on my fingers. I count myself as lucky

this is interesting to me, b/c when I was in nursing school, thats all I was doing. We were required to have all the other classes- A&P, Math Micro etc completed before applying. It will get easier, right now you are still in the "overwhelming stage". Others have good advice- make a list of what's due when, read each night and give yourself a break every once in a while

PALS and NRP are not obtainable by the general public, or by auxillary staff. A CNA would never be called on to do either, nor would a student. As a student nurse you will learn BLS, when you earn your degree you will have the option to do ACLS, PALS or NRP depending on where you are working NRP and ACLS are a requirment of my job. I work L&D and postpartum.

amen to that.