Thursday, February 25, 2010

L&D!

Today I got to shadow a nurse in Labor & Delivery (L&D) at my hospital! My hospital does a program where nurses can shadow a nurse in a different area than their usual floor. Such a great idea, btw.

I was so excited for this day, but I didn't want to have too high expectations in case I was disappointed. But truthfully, I was excited no matter what. I arrived to the floor a little before 0630. The nurse I was shadowing got report from the night nurse on her patient. The patient was a VBAC, so it was a 1:1. I saw how documentation and assessments were done on the floor. L&D is almost all computerized charting, totally different from my usual floor.

I got to see that baby being born! And then my nurse took on another nurse's patient, who delivered as well!! So I got to witness the birth of two babies today! The nurse was telling me that sometimes students who do clinicals there don't even get to see one, so I am truly thankful that I got to see all that I did.

The supervisor and manager asked me how I liked it and if it was what I expected. I said that I really enjoyed it, and yes, that it was what I expected. And I meant it. It was everything I expected it to be. That's how I felt about when we did OB clinicals in nursing school. I knew that I wanted to go into OB before I started clinicals, and then going through them confirmed that.

The really cool thing is that the first birth was attended by a CNM!! I was thrilled. There were also a few OBs as well, and they seemed nice.

All in all, I just really enjoyed it and could see myself working in that setting one day. I mentioned to the supervisor how I saw job openings often for this area. The supervisor said that it was not because people were leaving often, but because they really needed more staff. I really hope there is an opening in the future when I am ready. I know I may want to work in this field eventually (and also to get experience as a possible future CNM), but I don't think I will be leaving my area anytime soon. I feel like I should stick around my current floor for at least a year, you know? I like the people on my floor, and I'm getting more used to it. We'll see. I'm just so happy that I got to spend a day in L&D. It gives me something to hope for and look forward to someday, hopefully.

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