Bridget41040

New L&D nurse that just had my 3rd baby at home with a midwife! I worked 2 years peds and 2 years postpartum/floating to L&D. I saw a lot of stuff in L&D that scared the dickens out of me and lead me to feeling safer delivering at home. It's sad, but true. I had a lovely homebirth of a 10 pound baby girl with a very awesome and competant midwife. I now work L&D at a different hospital one I feel much more comfortable at and agree with the above poster.... I treat all my mom's the safe and value their experiences whether they want an epidural or not. But I do think more of our patients need advocates and need to truly have informed consent, because so many do not.

Hi everyone! I'm a new L&D nurse and taking my intermediate fetal monitoring class and I'm learning so much. I learned a few things about pitocin that I'd never heard before, or even seen practiced. #1 90% of women will go into active labor on 6mu/min or less of Pit. #2 Once active labor is established, most women will continue labor on their own and pitocin can be discontinued. This is straight from the AWHONN material. I have never seen this done. They say the less pit the better for maternal-fetal status but most OB's I know love to up the pit and keep it there. So my question is, do you ever turn off the pit during adequate labor? This is probably something you would need MD approval of correct? Or is assumed that you turn off pit during adequate labor? Please share your input.

My birth story is really long! But I will post the last part of it where they obviously took offense:

I'm a postpartum, L&D and nursery nurse. Had my baby 3 weeks ago and was called in for a meeting with my manager today. I posted my birth story on facebook for all my friends to see. I had a planned home birth, with midwife and had a 10 pound baby girl naturally at home. It was a wonderful experience. However, one of my coworkers must have forwarded the story to all of our staff and OB's. At the end of my story I compared and contrast my home birth with my last hospital experience which was a traumatic hospital shoulder dystocia. I didn't mention our hospital name or any OB's or nurses names, but it was clear I favored my homebirth experience. My old OB read it and became extremely offended... he gathered with a few of the other OB's and complained to my manager and nursing officer saying they "don't want me taking care of their patients anymore OB or postpartum because they don't trust me." Now, instead of firing me they are giving me the option of working med-surg (which I have never done) until the OB's "cool down." How can they do that? I shared my personal experience. I provide great care to moms and babies. I never try to persuade my patients to a homebirth, most would look at me like I'm crazy. But apparently, if the OB doesn't like you, you're gone. What would you do? What are my rights? I have done nothing wrong so it seems so unfair and unethical. How can they become offended at my personal experiences and try to get me demoted. My passion is moms and babies and if these OB's don't like me and want me off their unit, I might need to get another job. It's really sad because I love what I do. Thanks for your insight.

Hi all! I've been an RN for 2 years. Got experience working on a nice, acute pediatric floor in downtown New Orleans, recently switched to prn on a peds/postpartum floor at a local suburban hospital...and now am officially training for L&D. It's taken 2 years for me to get my foot in the door and I'm ecstatic, as it's been my dream for as long as I can remember. My manager has been so nice and encouraging, has really gone out of the way to get me in this position but I was very much warned by almost every nurse I know, that these doctors can be brutal, especially to new people. There was an L&D nurse who left just 2 weeks before me because she couldn't take it, and she had experience in L&D. So I was definately expecting it, but it's hard. The amount of arrogance a few of these docs have, is absurd. I'm not new to nursing, I've had a lot of experience working with doctors but I haven't seen anything like this. So, my question, what am I to do? I am jumping in feet first really wanting to throw myself into everything I'm learning. I love working with pregnant women and there babies, it just never feels good to continually be treated like crap and so inferior by an MD. I'm usually a quiet person but I really want to start saying something. Why do these docs feel like they can pick and choose who their favorite nurses are and try to get anyone they don't like fired? Just yesterday I did about 10 NST's in 4-5 hours (the other nurses were taking care of the 4 patients that had delivered by noon) and I had to continually talk to this one doc on the phone in the midst of all that. At the end of the day she told me in the phone, "You know Bridget, my one problem with you today is that it has continually taken you 45 seconds to get to the phone when I called. I'm very disappointed. You really need to work on that!" I was speechless at first but then asked how long she thinks it should have taken me to come from the very end of the hallway to get to the phone? She didn't want to hear it. The other nurses were appalled. I love L&D, but I don't want to be dealing with this crap for years! I know she's testing me, but I shouldn't have to prove myself to her. Maybe my supervisor, my manager, my precepters, yes... but not her. I need help. I love L&D, should I go somewhere else?

I feel very blessed that at the age of 6, my mom, who was in nursing school at the time, gathered all my brothers and sisters, opened up her A&P text book and did her best to teach basic boy/girl anatomy. Now given there's only so much a 6 year old mind can comprehend, but that open line of communication between me and my parents never ended. We had the "where babies come from talk" at an age many parents may feel uncomfortable doing so but I found it extremely beneficial and looking back I'm so thankful they were as open as they were. They did instill a sense of reverence to the sexual relationship and encouraged us to be absitent until marraige, but they still showed us the facts. Growing up, if I ever had a question about my body I would go to my mom. I did end up saving myself for my spouse and though I may have been "inexperienced" when I got married I definately was not ignorent. My husbands family didn't talk about sex and he learned about most of it through sex ed in school (which it sounds like covered basic anatomy, safe sex instructed as well as encouragement to stay abstinent if possible). I have 2 little ones know and plan on making sure they're as educated about their bodies as possible from a young age. I also want them to feel like they can come to me with any questions as they grow. I think one of the major disadvantages to society is the lack of communication and caring between parents and their children. If we could fix a lot of those issues I think of a lot problems would be solved. But it's not as easy as it sounds, I know.

I'm a RN just getting into postpartum hoping to eventually get in L&D, but my experience with shoulder dystocia comes from experiencing myself. I'm 5'2 and delivered an 10 pound 15 ounce baby on my due date... all natural. The entired labor from water breaking to delivery was just over 6 hours.... and the only complication, the only part that was truly painful for me, was the dystocia part... specifically as the doctor dug his hands trying to pull the baby out! They say that size doesn't always matter for dystocia, it can happen to smaller babies too, and position is a key factor as well. They tried almost everything with me, except for he Gaskin manuever. They never had me try going on my hands and knees to open the pelvic cavity. Maybe they were too rushes and freaking out to try that one. I was flat on my back, they pull my knees back but to be honst I don't think that helped. The doctor thought he fractured my baby's clavicle. I felt a pop and he was out... 5 minutes?? I didnt look at the clock but it felt like it was a lot longer than that. My baby was healthy, no broken clavicle... though it took him a few days to really use that arm and my doctor says it was one of the scariest births he attanded. If I have another baby again, I know I'm totally at risk for delivering huge babies. But I'm a big believer on positioning. With the last one I layed flat on my bad (because that was most comfortable for me), had no pain meds and the labor was totally managable using self-hypnosis (any of you heard of hypnobabies? amazing!)... but I would attempt to labor in position that open my pelvic cavity more so the baby wouldn't get stuck. Everyone was totally freaking out on me though. Yelling, frantic, screaming for me to push. Please don't do that to your patient. I finally had one nurse, calmly, but firmly MAKE me look her in the eye and push with me. There was something peaceful about her. I was able to keep pushing despit the horrid pain because I felt like she connected with me.

I've been a nurse a little over a year. Oriented during days but have been working nights. For a while I thought it was great, much less hectic. I work at a teaching hospital and there are litterally a million people on the unit during the day (who the heck stole my chart:o)... so I loved the slower pace of nights especially being new, but I quickly realized it's not always slow. It actually gets quite crazy. Luckily we always have a resident/intern on the unit to go to for orders. But I'm at the point where I'm getting sick of nights. I feel HORRIBLE the day after I work even after sleeping 6 hours or so... when I wake up I might as well sleep the rest of the day (if I could... I have 2 toddlers to get from daycare). And I'm ready to hit the sack again by 7pm. Just so tired all the time. Also I miss sleeping by my husband 3 out 4 days awake. For our marriage's sake I think it would be so nice, no matter how crazy our days were to be able to sleep in the same bed. I'm about to start rotating and eventually want days now!

I work on a pediatric med-surg floor and we recently got our first anorexic in about 2 years. We usually don't do a lot of "psych" based patients but after we did "so well" wit the first one we got another. They come in for electrolyte imbalances or severe malnutrition and have to be refeed usually with a NG tube. I don't know if other hospitals would place them in ICU but we just have them on tele. They get so bradycardic it's scary. I've seen a 16 year old's heart-rate consistently run in the 30's while she slept. Scary! Our psych doctors usually write scrict monitoring orders... bathroom locked, watched when they go, door always open, no exercising, sit with them for meals... if they don't eat. NG tube, daily labs, etc.

i have no medical experience outside of my clinical rotations and have tossed the idea back on whether or not i should insert my past work experience as a server, etc.... but i'm afraid if i don't it will look like i haven't worked. i tried to keep it simple and focus on my desire to work with women and children. i'm very passionate about that but not sure how to convey that in a resume. any tips? thank you so much! here is the basic gist: objective: rn position in labor and delivery or pediatrics qualifications: charity graduate with clinical experience in pediatrics, maternal and newborn, medical/surgical and psychiatric settings throughout 4 semester rotations. extensive experience with small children and youth as a nursery worker and youth counselor adaptive, hard-working and compassionate individual who truly cares for patients and their families and looks forward to working with the healthcare team. education: associate degree of nursing, december 2009 charity school of nursing, new orleans, louisiana children's hospital, new orleans- 140 hrs st. tammany parish medical center, labor and delivery/nursery- 140 hrs west jefferson medical center, critical care- 140 hrs slidell memorial hospital & east jefferson- adult medical/surgical- 280 hrs new orleans psychiatric pavilion, mental health nursing- 140 hrs professional experience: olive garden, slidell, louisiana 2006-2007 starbucks, slidell, louisiana 2005-2006 teen mania ministries, internship,garden valley, tx, august 2004-2005 counseled and prepared teenagers to go on short term global mission trips communicated effectively with parents, teenagers and organizational staff to provide a life-changing experience for all involved. community service: mother teresa's home for the dying, volunteer, november 2005 calcutta, india provided compassionate nursing care and emotional support to over 50 women dying of aids and other terminal illnesses. assisted with bathing, feeding, medication administration and wound care. collaborated with nurses and sisters of charity to provide spiritual support. references available upon request.

Hi nurses. I'm a nursing student and had pediatrics last semster. I seem to remember my instructor (who is PNP) say that most of the vaccines given to infants today don't contain any mercury. Instead of using multi-dose vials, they are now using single dose vials and there is less of need for preservatives. Is this true? I looked on the FDA website, and it looks like a lot of drugs the anti-vaccination parents talk about having mercury in them are actually mercury free. http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228#t1 Look at Table 1. So why are parents still not wanting to vaccinate their kids? Do people still think there is mercury, say in the Hep B vaccine? All input, explanations, professional opinions appreciated!