MidniteLaborRN

i didnt mean pinch as in pinch... but just using your checking fingers to guage how thick it is by kinda y' know..."pinching" it.... okay nevermind! but to klone, that is what i needed to know, i think! i will try it and see how it works! and to redbeads... i am sure u are right... thats the way everything else has come:)

I came across some information on the net that I thought would really help me in assessing effacement. Because most of what I've come across is really vague and really not that helpful. Even a friend of mine told me, "my fingers just know...." So the information that I came across on the internet said to use your finger joint, beginning of your fingernail, and end of your fingernail to assess effacement at 75, 50, and 25.... i dunno. I'm not sure what your supposed to be resting your finger against (considering the baby's head could be at different stations) in order to use that method. I then asked her if I could just pinch the edges of the cervix with my "checking fingers" to guage how thick it is and she said yes. So then I went and checked someone and callled them 3-4/50/-2. The cervix felt relatively thick so.... And I know the comments about how effacement is objective and just knowing thick or thin are out there but when I report off... they want percentages... what do u all think about the "pinch test"?

personally... i acquired this skill when i began to believe in my ability to do so.

I have come back to L & D....again. This isn't my first return. However, prior to and even now, I have been thinking about why I've been wanting to come back to something that I found very stressful and somewhat intimidating. With my first go round, I was a new grad hired straight into a very busy unit... 8 bed triage, more than 20 LDRP's.. a teaching hospital. I wasn't listening to those people who said that a little med-surg experience was needed to work in a specialty. But after orientation, I found that I took refuge and even started to seek and desire assignments away from the stress and business of a labor assignment. Ante- and postpartum. My managers told me I was a good nurse but that I lacked confidence. The second return was a short one. A 3 month contract where I was expected to come in and hit the ground running. I did... and surprised even myself. At the end of the contract, I was asked to stay on. However, I felt burnt out and decided not to. Got every IV start in that time period except for two. Drew blood like a champion phlebotomist. Most of my SVE's were accurate-- the ones I found difficult, I grabbed a co-worker for a second opinion.... I have to point those two things out because I had a lot of trouble with those skills my first go round in L & D. Where did all of that come from?!! I think that missing it in those key areas caused me to feel inept and thus shy away from and feel as if I wasnt cut out for the job. But here I go again, starting orientation. In labor and delivery. A setting much like the one I started out in... But this time things seem different. I cannot say that I am not nervous. But I am so much more calm. I cannot say that I am not scared sometimes but I realize that what I am most afraid of is not trying. And then not knowing. And then wondering and regretting. I do know that I am a more mature and a more experienced nurse now. I've obtained a few skills that I am looking to master. My mindset is different, not one of avoidance but one looking to take on new challenges. I wonder if this is where I would have been had I stayed in the same hospital, same unit these last five years? Or did it take all those detours through womens services for me to get here? Lets see how i do this time!....

I was told just last week in orientation that Bard will only guarantee one inflation. So after may years of pretesting, I will not again.

I wanted to try them but I was a bit leery about the whole running back to the OR for a stat C/S in a shoe that my foot wasn't stabilized in (like in a running shoe).

One thing that irritates me about anyone anywhere is when someone isn't teachable. We should be willing to learn from someone else. And even if you do know something, listen anyway.

Are there antepartum and postpartum travel opportunities?

it is the same where i work--npo means nothing by mouth. exceptions are written as orders.