Tired question but I gotta ask about OB clinicals

Nursing Students Male Students

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So the summer session starts Tuesday of next week. Have made a B so far in both my previous semesters. I still work fulltime. Summer session will be rough and fast. OB/GYN/Peds. Aside from the trepidation I feel over the academic level requirements of this short session (18wks material in 10) and working while it's going on as I have no choice. We have a total of 8 clinical days. 4 are OB, and I admit to being a little more than scared about my OB rotation. I was a wreck my first day of clinical in med surg but adjusted quickly. I still don't sleep a lot the night before a clinical day but even that is getting better. I just want someone to tell me they had a decent rotation in OB, or that they didn't and why. It will vary depending on where we are (I am in NC) but I hear all sorts of terrifying reports of evil woman nurses on the OB floor who feel that it's the last place a Y chromosome belongs and who set out to make hell the lives of all male students who happen their way.

How was your OB rotation and how did you get through it?

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I don't know about evil but I definitely felt put in my place a few times. One patient requested I leave the room because she didn't feel comfortable around a male.. felt pretty sh1tty.

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I've been ask to leave the room as well. It did feel like crap, but oh well. Don't be so stressed.. it's just 4 days.

K

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

I had a great rotation. My patient in L&D was on her 5th child, in her 30s, and could care less that a male was in the room, after all, her doctor was a male. I think my instructor was mindful of this when she assigned me to her. The next day my patient was fine with me too, she labored but didn't give birth, so we just sat together while she was monitored and talked when she wasn't having pain.

Another woman let me stand back at watch her give birth. She was a midwife and quite understanding of the student experience.

Post-partum went well, the nurses were so busy they barely noticed us. My patient had a c-section and was only interesting in resting.

I went in the summer too and it was a whirlwind for sure.

Nursery was fun.

This has been the one and only time I ever got to see live births and am greatful for the experience.

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There are rarly any male nurses in the OB floor..They just dont get hired there....Some of the nurses at the hospital often gave me bad looks because I was a guy and in the delivery room but some were okay with it..But yea, you normally dont see any guys working in OB..Like once you get out of school, I don't think you should start applying for a job there..It would be really hard to get hired from my experience.

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Specializes in Psych.

I just finished my OB clinicals about two weeks ago. I will call it a mixed experience, my instructor had issues with male students being on the floor. So no I did not see as much as my female counterparts, however I kept myself busy by asking the nurses what I could do and tried to witness as much as possible. Not a total loss, but definently could have been better. Some of the nurses were nice, and some not so much. Goodluck and enjoy yourself.

Shawn

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Specializes in MICU.

Chad- Our school did psych and peds together in the summer, then OB for the 1st half of fall in the 2nd year. I worked full-time through my entire nursing school career. It sucked, but I made it through (you know, we all had to eat!).

Alot (but certainly not all) of the nurses where I did my OB clinicals seemed to hate us all, women AND men. In fact, the hospital "accidently" scheduled 2 different nursing schools to overlap during clinicals- it was a fight just to get a pt to take care of! We often had to share a pt. It was the total pits. However, I actually found the OBs/Midwives to be wonderful. Go figure.

You make it through. You'll feel weird @ first, then you'll just become focused on the work you need to do to complete this semester, and I think you'll be fine. Good luck!

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

I am a woman ... but wanted to add these thoughts to the thread.

As a student many years ago, the OB nurse I shadowed during my student rotation was a man -- and he was terrific and seemed well-accepted by his colleagues. However, I realize that times may have changed since the dark ages of my student years.

Also, some of you may be interested in knowing that the world of Neonatal Intensive Care has a well-established history of accepting men as staff members. In fact, the founder of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses was a man -- as was his successor as president and several other key leaders within the organization. I've worked with several male NICU nurses during my career. So if you think you might be interested in a Maternal-Child career, you might want to consider the NICU as a specialty that is "man friendly."

Good luck to you,

llg

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Yes NICU is man-friendly.

I'm not saying I had a bad experience. Nursery was fantastic and I loved every minute of it.

I just wish attitudes were different because I think it is an area in which I really excelled and I wish I would have been given more of an opportunity.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

I am a female and wanted to add my :twocents: as well.

From the patient point of view I hope none of you took it personally if the woman giving birth asked not to have you in the room. When I gave birth to my daughter I didn't want anyone in there but the nurse who was taking care of me, the Dr and my hubby. Now, by the time i had my son I didn't care if the whole world was in there!!:roll In fact, I was being prepped for a C-section because the cord was being pressed on by the babies head (it was circling the top of his head like a halo, but believe me he is no angel!!:roll )Anywho....the Dr must have made a unit wide announcement that there was some type of excitment in my room, she told me if i could give one more good push I wouldn't need to have a c-section, well I pushed and out he came....I looked up and there standing at the foot of my bed were 12 nurses/students and 4 of them were male! I didn't mind at the time, I was just glad it was over. I guess my point is some women just don't feel comfortable having men there other than hubby during such an intimate time. I'm sure you all realize that but I'm also sure it must be an aweful feeling not to be able to participate in a very exciting part of the OB rotation.

As far as the nurses treating you badly I think that is an aweful shame! We are all profressional and it shouldn't matter if you are male or female!! There were nurses in my OB rotation that treated us females rotten too!!

And just to add a little note here....I have had a few experiences of being in the hospital, most recently last Dec when I had kidney surgery and some of the BEST nurses I have ever had were male!! So keep up the great work!!

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thanks for your kind words of support

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Specializes in Dialysis (All Modalities) , Ex-CVICU RN.

I just got done with my OB clinicals last month.

Although i did not have any problems with the women who were giving birth or who were in Post Partum, our clinical instructor asked the women first if it would be ok if a male could do a PP assessment or observe a Vag/C-sect birth.

I also think that women who have had previous children were more open in having a male nursing student to help with their care.

Good luck with everything.

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