tell me about L&D/PP clinicals

sophie<3 · Dec 6, 2010

honestly mine were pretty boring. the L&D unit could be interesting if you had some mom's ready to deliver but in my case, no one did. i did observe a CS which was awesome from the student's perspective. the nurses at the hospital i was at were helpful, they explained meds the patient was on and why, they talked me through simple things like hanging IV bags and doing an injection. but overall it was just kind of boring..i didn't even seen a lady partsl exam while i was there. and PP was even more boring in my opinion...in 99% of the instances the moms were healthy and happy..they just wanted to see their babies who were at the nursery. we did quick assessments on them and gave some meds but overall there wasn't much to do when you only have 1 patient. i imagine if you were a nurse and you had multiple patients with foleys and CS incisions and a long list of "to-dos" then it would be interesting but with 1 patient who is overall in a healthy state, it was a long day. my favorite was the newborn nursery...crying babies that need to be fed, held, assessed. babies just coming in who need Vit K injections, assessments, and their first baths, etc. always something to do, and always a cute baby to love on :)

don't be too nervous..if you are a mom, think of things that were helpful to you during your delivieries (position changes, ice chips, cool wash cloth, etc)..relate to your patients...read about the meds, nonpharmacological pain methods, stages of labor, etc. you will do fine! :)

CrunchyMama, ASN, RN · Dec 6, 2010

I HATED it! But everyone else (except for the guys and anyone who's anti-kids) loved maternity. It's fairly easy. I'm just against the typical America way of giving birth (inductions/c-sections, etc), the mutilated memberes and bottles. It was the longest 7 weeks of my life, lol. A lot of the time it was pretty boring.

CorazonDeOro · Dec 6, 2010

I agree with the other two posts. I am just finishing Maternity and I hate it. The day drags on forever and its so boring to me. I happened to get placed at a hospital that isn't quite as busy as some of the other ones around here, but we have all gotten to see a lady partsl birth and a c/s. The C/S was the cool part because the physician let me scrub in and observe up close, but otherwise the rotation is very boring. Mostly its just healthy moms and healthy babies and you do a quick assessment on each, give some baby injections, and do a lot of teaching. (I am so sick of talking about breastfeeding!). If you have kids or experience with kids you will be fine. I had no experience and had to learn to swaddle and hold a baby. I would say that half of my clinical group is in love with maternity and the other half don't like it.

anonymousstudent · Dec 6, 2010

So maybe I should be asking for ways to keep myself busy?

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Dec 6, 2010

I hated it. Im not the biggest fan of kids, but thats not the part that bothered me. I didnt get to do anything. Nothing. All we did was PP education and that was it.

Nurse Kyles, BSN, RN · Dec 7, 2010

I didn't like the Maternity rotation much at all, but most everyone else loved it. I do not have children, so even the basics were new to me. It was pretty boring & easy, especially coming off of a neuro rotation. Luckily we only had a 4 weeks of Maternity at my school. I modified this newborn assessment guide(basically I just deleted all the spaces so it was only 6 pages instead of 12), since we hadn't yet learned too much about newborn assessment: Newborn Assessment I also found one for postpartum assessment: 8-POINT POSTPARTUM ASSESSMENT WORKSHEET

All of my classmates found these pretty helpful.

turnforthenurse, MSN, NP · Dec 7, 2010

I didn't care for L&D/PP. I thought it was very boring.

In PP, there is a lot of teaching, unless of course your patient has had children before, then they know the ropes on how to change a diaper, when to feed, etc. Most of the meds are on a PRN basis. The babies are really cute, tho :) Most days myself and the other students would hang out in the nursery :)

In L&D, it was mostly observation. I didn't care for it because all of the nurses weren't very nice and I'm not into the hold childbirth thing :uhoh3:

itsmejuli · Dec 7, 2010

I'm in LPN-RN transition, me and a few other students had zero interest in L&D and PP. Our instructor was very cool, she let the students who were very interested in L&D take up the available slots every clinical day in L&D. Those of us not interested spent our time in PP mostly playing with the babies. Well, we did do assessments on the moms and babies, but mostly we just hung out LOL

When I did L&D and PP for LPN, I watched a vag birth (yuck) and assessed babies. For me the babies were the best part of both clinical experiences. I have two children and don't need to see anyone else having any.

So I guess that if you have no desire to be an L&D nurse, then this clinical rotation is just going to be boring. Bring your textbook and care plan book and try to look busy.

decembergrad2011, BSN, RN · Dec 8, 2010

I am just finishing up OB and I have to say that I enjoyed it, even if I did not get to perform many skills in clinical, and I have little interest in pursuing a career in this field.

I did get to participate in two lady partsl births over the course of the semester, and that was cool to help coach and hold legs and be right up in the action. I also got to see three C-sections and spend time in the NICU.

Overall my clinical experience was good, but I agree that if you have no interest, you'll be bored. There is a lot of downtime in OB. If nobody is having a baby, the nurses just sit around and talk. You can use this as an opportunity to study, as I did. :lol2:

LuckyinKY · Dec 8, 2010

I HATED it! But everyone else (except for the guys and anyone who's anti-kids) loved maternity. It's fairly easy. I'm just against the typical America way of giving birth (inductions/c-sections, etc), the mutilated memberes and bottles. It was the longest 7 weeks of my life, lol. A lot of the time it was pretty boring.

I am so thankful that one of our instructors is a certified nurse midwife, and seems to be pretty supportive on natural birthing and definitely was pro-breastfeeding in our fundamentals lectures. Where I live, people are so ignorant of things like cloth diapering, babywearing, and extended breastfeeding. I turned pretty crunchy with my second child.

AOX4RN, MSN, RN, NP · Dec 8, 2010

Tomorrow is my last day for the Maternity/Child rotation and it cannot end soon enough. It was a waste of time! I would rather have had 9 more weeks in med-surg to keep up my momentum. For all the limitations on our skills in these specialized areas, I might as well have been back on day one of school when we couldn't do anything!