What can I expect in Maternal/Peds & Adult Nursing next semester?

theRNuLOVE2009 · Dec 23, 2008

It's a good thing that you actually want to work in that area. I just finished OB/PEDS this semester and I hated it with a passion. I don't plan on birthing no babies! We had 3 people to fail ob, but they ended up passing after going over the final exam with our instructors. I heard that 3 failed peds, but I don't know if they challenged that final or not. I did lots of studying this semester more than any other.

goodstudentnowRN · Dec 23, 2008

I will be doing OB next term too but I do not know what to expect...I would like someone to tell me what to expect.

Panthyr · Dec 24, 2008

Me too. My next semester is Peds, OB and Med Surg. I would love to know what to expect from OB, it makes me the most nervous....

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Dec 24, 2008

ob is no different from med/surg except that it focuses on the female reproductive system. just as you learn normal anatomy physiology for medical disease and then what goes wrong, the same applies to ob. learn normal gestation and childbirth and then what goes wrong, and believe me, plenty goes wrong. remember that a baby coming through the birth canal, while it may seem normal, really isn't. the baby causes trauma to the mother's birth canal. review tissue damage and inflammatory response in your pathophysiology books because that is what is going to happen in all cases. a c-section is surgery and a medical treatment. it has complications just as any other surgery. an epidural is a type of anesthetic and has potential side effects. do not get caught up in the excitement of the birth process and let it cloud your judgment and rational thinking. there are problems even though everyone is smiling and happy because there is a bouncing baby once labor and birth are done. you can't see inside the uterus, lady parts, bladder and cervix to see the damage that has been left behind by the little bundle of joy that everyone is ogling over! women died from complications of childbirth all the time before the 20th century and modern hospitals. there is still a lot of skepticism about home birthing because of this.

see the ob weblinks on this thread to help you as you go through this semester: https://allnurses.com/forums/f205/medical-disease-information-treatment-procedures-test-reference-websites-258109.html - medical disease information/treatment/procedures/test reference websites

gillytook · Dec 24, 2008

In my program, OB/Peds was more observation than hands on. In both OB/Peds and adult med/surg you will apply all those basics you learned last semester. Now you have to know what to do first for what situation, what your priorities will be. Just remember that you have to know what the doctor should be doing medically for a particular situation, so you know what to ask for at 0300 or what you need to go to the charge nurse for when you don't get it. You also need to know ow to recognize what is going on because you are the one who has to communicate it to the doctor. Tip: Don't study to memorize. Study to understand why you are doing what you are doing and why the doctor is going to do wht he/she does. It makes it easier to answer questions in the long run.

Nrsstudent09 · Dec 24, 2008

OB was more observing in the L&D part of it. The postpartum was hands on assessment wise and with main management, after all something much bigger than 10cm has just come out of that tiny hole hehe. I loved Peds and it is def what I want to do. Expect a lot of reading because you have to understand the pathology of things too. I agree with the don't study to memorize, it will not help. You need to be able to answer things that are application based. The questions aren't just: What is a symptom of CHF it's what will you do to fix it.

IloveNY · Dec 24, 2008

in ob you should expect to start with learning about basic reproduction, although my instructor did not spend too much time covering a&p material, because we have already taken the class. the class itself was very interesting (ob). you go through different stages of pregnancy and labor and will learn about taking care of women post-partum. you will learn new born assessment, abnormal and normal pregnancy and high risk pregnancy such as preecalmtic women and gestational diabetes pregnancy. remember women with gestational diabetes usually have macrosomal babies :) just a tip.

if you have some extra money from christmas, i highly recommend buying mary ann hogan's maternal and newborn nursing review and rationale book. i found it on amazon for like 20 bucks. it's a great book and it goes step by step on the different subjects. it really does a great job and i used it as a study guide when i didn't feel like reading the chapters. the cd also helped me alot to do some practice questions. good luck and have fun! it's the best class ever! :yeah:

DutchRN09 · Dec 25, 2008

Thank you for the tip! I just ordered the book...

moncj66 · Apr 27, 2009

well, i found OB/Peds to be hard. I too ended up hating it with a passion. HOnestly, alot of ppl in our class failed OB, I really dont want to scare u, but i advise to start reading now.