Questions for OB class

ocean waves · Apr 5, 2011

Hello. Good luck on your nursing class. I have worked with many maternal/child health patients including OB Recovery and post partum floor patients, however, I kindly suggest that you "interview" in person a registered nurse who works in your city. To me, an assignment to interview a person really implies a meeting with the subject. An interview meeting with an OB nurse would probably be fun for you as an aspiring registered nurse, and you would probably learn interesting information about OB nursing work in your area. If you do not know any local OB nurses, perhaps you could call a nearby hospital and ask a staff member in the nursing office to help you arrange an interview. Best wishes.

wbc · Apr 6, 2011

Excellent questions. I do agree with the above post that you should interview a nurse in your area. That being said let me answer your questions.

I'm an RN with a BSN and several hours toward an MSN. I am retired due to a fall and disability in 1997. I actually fell at the hospital when I was rounding up my students for post-conference. I miss nursing and I miss teaching and I would do almost anything to be back in the hospital or university.

I knew from my first day of OB clinicals that this was my calling. Loved it. My first delivery at that time was traumatic, but I knew from my readings that better advances loomed. That first delivery--the patient was sedated, but was strapped to the table with leather restraints.

Labor and Delivery, and any other area of nursing, consists of quiet or wild days. I always loved the wild days . . . I left work exhausted but exhilirated. I'll tell you this, OB and ER nurses are very superstitious. Never completely erase the patient status board, If there are no patients make one up.

My favorite part of OB nursing was and always will be the miracle of birth. I have no idea how many deliveries I've been a part of but I do know that tears came to my eyes each time.

My least favorite part of OB nursing was caring for "children" giving birth because of incest, abuse, rape, or sexual promiscuity. These girls need and require the most understanding, loving, and nonjudgmental care you can offer. I also hated neonatal death.

Gosh, changes in OB care. My favorite has been single room maternity care. The demise of leather restraints. I do like the notion that laboring mothers can have family with them. When I was having my sons dads and family were forced to wait in a dingy waiting room.

I can't work anymore but I still do volunteer perinatal bereavement in my community. I miss it.

Favorite stories: The first one to come to mind was Baby Robin. Her mom went into preterm labor at 28 weeks. We managed that and Baby Robin was born at term. She was beautiful and so healthy and so wanted and so loved. I took care of her in the nursery. Her temperature wouldn't stabilize. She went south rapidly and died when she was 13 hours old. It was Beta Strep. She would be 23 years old now.

In my first year of nursing I worked at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. One Father's Day I volunteered to care for a couple who had agreed to have their labor and delivery filmed for a TV station. All went perfectly. Then . . . delivery. The baby was crying, but the Doctor didn't hold him up as was his practice. He motioned me over to him and handed me the baby. I took him and saw that he had a bilateral cleft palate. Still filming. I wrapped him in a way to cover the baby's face and took him to mom and dad. It was a shock but they smiled and hugged on him. The episode aired and no one watching could tell something was wrong. The film crew didn't even know.

As an instructor two of my favorite stories include the time I had an excellent student who I felt would soar. She never displayed nerves. But, her first time to enter a labor room I had to literally open the door and push her inside. She did well.

Another time, I had a breathtakingly handsome male student. He could have been on the cover of a romance magazine. I visited patients to make assignments and asked one woman if she would mind having a male student. "Of course not." The next morning the student went in to her room to introduce himself. He came right back out and was upset. The patient had sent him packing. I went to check on her and she said she didn't know he would look "like that" when she agreed to have a male student. I did some juggling and that student went on to diagnose a positive Homan's sign that day.

Enough. Good luck to you. Stay true to who you are. Find nurses you find really good and emulate them. Stay away from lazy nurses or those who feel they are too good to take care of bedpans, walks to the bathroom, or other basic duties. Nursing is about caring. Always.

amp242 · Apr 6, 2011

Thank you both. Excellent responses and advice. :)