Starting 5weeks of mother/baby on monday, ill take any advice!

LVNBSN2 · Jan 6, 2012

Don't take it personally if a mom says she doesn't want a male student. Try to learn as much as you can. I wish I can fast forward to my 5 week M/B rotation!! Good Luck!

chansen · Jan 9, 2012

First and foremost, confidence. You don't walk into a room and say, "Hi... um... are you ok having a guy in here?" You say, "Good morning/afternoon/evening, I'm icarr757, the student nurse working with nurse blah blah today. I'm here to see if you need anything/get a postpartum assessment/give your baby a vaccination/whatever you're doing at the time." If you appear confident, even if it's your first time, Mom will sense it and be more receptive to having you around.

I did 10 weeks between postpartum and L&D and never once had a mother/family ask me to leave.

Be confident, be appropriate, seek out new experiences whenever you can. Best of luck.

Patti_RN · Jan 10, 2012

I have a good friend who is a male midwife. Why is that so much different than being a male OB/Gyn? And, what's the difference between those two than a male nurse working in maternity? You're there as a health care professional, if you practice nursing with confidence (in whatever area of nursing) your patients will usually respond appropriately.

If you're in a large, metro area where you have international patients or different cultures or religions that do not share our philosophies about allowing opposite genders to treat patients, you may encounter some (possibly serious) issues. I've been a nurse for years, and have heard only one problem of this kind. A man refused to allow any other male inside his wife's delivery room--no male doctor, no male nurse, no male from food services dropping off her lunch tray. Surprisingly, the hospital caved in because it was a religious belief and pulled the male nurse who was assigned to that patient. We debated the issue for months (years!) afterward, with some nurses saying, "what next? a racist patient who refuses to have a minority nurse?" and others saying, "but, it would only hurt the female patient, because he could abandon her if another man saw/touched her body" Both positions are legitimate. It's a real ethical dilemma... but one you probably won't be dragged into!

gkvegan, MSN · Jan 12, 2012

Don't worry about it. OB was actually one of my favorite clinicals and I learned a lot. Everyone was really nice to me (staff and patients).

Think the title says it all. Anyone have a funny story, or some wisdom to lay out there?