Yay Nurses!

So I'm a week off - this is a quick little tidbit from my maternity clinical last week.

I saw a C-section and tubal ligation (getting her tubes tied! Except at REX, they actually just clamped them shut with little metal clamps that they leave in you...interesting) of a Mom - 4th baby, 4th boy, 3rd C-section.

Needless to say, we're in the recovery room; the nurse is doing assessments and taking vitals and doing lochia checks (ladies, check THAT one out! pregnancy is SO much fun), and the doctor walks in for the first time to talk to the Mom after he finished the surgery.

Doc: "So while I was in there, I found some blood clots in the veins that lead to your uterus, so I'm going to start you on a medication to help with that. Okay?"

Patient: " Is that normal? How long will I have to take it?"

Doc: "Not a big deal because when you're pregnant you're more likely to clot, but still enough of a problem that I actually saw them. And I'll have you take it for a few days. Okay, have a great day! Congratulations!"

[Doc leaves room]

Patient to Nurse: "Soo.....what? I have blood clots?"

In nursing school they're always talking about how patients trust the nurses and rely on nurses for clarifying information, explanation, education and the like. Not that I have anything against doctors, almost all that I've worked with so far have been fabulous. But this particular exchange wasn't done in the most tactful manner I'd ever seen (quick, pretty vague, etc), so it was cool to kind of see this seeking for clarification/revealing a sense of trust in the nurse in action. I mean, he hadn't been gone for five seconds, and the patient looked to the nurse for answers. Since they put such a stress on patient education and creating rapport with patients, it was nice to see it carried out. (By the way, the nurse's explanation was more thorough...and calm, so it calmed the patient and husband down a bit).

So...yay Nurses!

But yay for the doctor too, since he, despite his lack of bedside manner in this instance, performed the C-section and brought her handsome baby boy into the world!

Peace Out Cub Scout!

E

Babies!

Well Folks,

I'm starting the year off right by blogging (not just in general, but in a timely manner also) ...and instead putting off my maternity reading! (I'm sorry 100 pages in one night? Not gonna happen.)

Anyways, I can already tell that this blog, at least for me, is going to get more stories from my maternity clinical than my public health clinical, but nonetheless here are 4 terms to describe my public health clinical this week:
1. headaches
2. sore throats
3. itches
4. one SUPER obvious faker!

Even though it was a lot of the same as last week, I'm still really enjoying it. The kids are so cute in their (real and fake) misery. That sounds bad, but you know what I mean.

Maternity Clinical - first day on L&D, and it started out with a bang! I "helped" deliver a beautiful 7 lbs little girl to a set of first-time parents, and it was wonderful. For those of you who are close to me, you may remember a time not so long ago where I had sworn off maternity forever because it seemed...well, totally gross. And it is gross, let's be honest, but it's beautiful too. And coming out of it (this being the second time I've witnessed/participated in a vaginal delivery), still the major thing that I'm taking away is not the grossness of it all, but the miracle of life! It sounds silly I know, but man, when you actually see a baby - a real. live. baby. come out of another human - it's totally incredible. I mean that baby is alive! And it's crying! And it's tiny! And these two people in front of me MADE it. It's incredible. God's incredible. I mean, nursing school has taught me that in pregnancy and in childhood, a whole lot of things can go wrong so easily. But to see this little piece of perfection entering the world is truly amazing. So...I've been converted, maternity isn't too bad after all. I'm still trying to figure out if it's what I'd like to pursue (assuming it worked out with the Navy of course), but I like it so far!

And men reading this blog (or women who can tell husbands/sons), be supportive of the mom! The husband yesterday was SO supportive and encouraging, and it was really great to see. She pushed for less than an hour (first time moms usually actively push between 1.5-2 hours, so this was unusual in a great way), and I think the support of the dad had to have been part of it. And they both cried when the baby came out, and I have to admit that, again, I had to blink back a few tears.

So a great start to my maternity clinical, stay tuned for [hopefully] more interesting stories in the future.

And a funny picture to leave you with: a sign hanging in the bathroom on the L&D floor.

Erika!

Back to school, back to school...

Well folks, it's that time again. Except now we're all trying to figure out, "wait is this our senior year? are we really going to be practicing RN's this time next year?"...the answers are yes, and hopefully!

Anyways, this semester is looking to be an exciting one. And since this was our first week of clinicals, hopefully we'll be getting back into the swing of blogging.

For my public health clinical, I'm working as the school nurse at St. Mary Magdalene catholic school in Apex, NC once a week. I had my first day on Tuesday - my preceptor is so great and I think we'll get along really well. The majority of what I heard on Tuesday: "my tummy hurts....my throat is sore, can I get a cough drop?" Lots of cute kids and, no surprise here, a fair amount of fakers!

For my mother/baby clinical, I'm working at REX hospital (with MK) in Raleigh. This week was just an orientation week for us, but I got my schedule for the semester and my first four weeks are going to be on the labor/delivery floor - I'm sure stories will abound!

I'll let MK and Katie let you (our 3 faithful followers...) know what they'll be doing this semester, but hopefully we'll be able to share some fun/interesting/gross experiences from this semester!

Until then :)
E

PS - Can I just say how great it is to be back here with MK and Katie? Because it is! Ok, great.