So, I am still LOVING OB and all it has to offer. I have made my rounds from labor and delivery, postpartum, the NICU and for my last two shifts at the hospital I am in the newborn nursery. I cannot wait! The nursery consists of doing thorough head to toe assessments on brand new babies, giving vitamin K and hepatitis B shots and putting antibiotic ointment on the babies eyes. I believe we also get to give the brand new babies their first bath. I really cannot wait. I realized a few days, maybe weeks, ago that I have not been overly nervous about this clinical rotation. I have had great nurses to work with that took time to teach me. My instructor is not intimidating, but very detail oriented, so I am learning so much. I know because I love this area, all the work I am putting into it is going to pay off. I am also feeling like a sponge and wanting to soak up as much information as possible in the last couple weeks. We have only two more OB lectures followed by a second OB exam and then a cumulative pediatrics and OB final. I have a lot of studying ahead of me. Hopefully, I do well!!
At the end of this semester we do our clinical for our Leadership course. This course hasn't been so bad, but they have clearly saved the best for last. We are going to be doing 60 clinical hours in a matter of five days. We put in our top two choices for clinical placements. I received women's health, which might be in the umbrella of OB, but it will definitely be with women, not necessarily pregnant women. I am a little bummed, but I am telling myself, it is a new experience, it's only five days, and maybe I will find another area in nursing that I love. There is a very small possibility I will switch placements with a friend due to her lack of a car to get to her clinical site. She was placed in a mother/baby unit, which we both assume is postpartum. Fingers crossed we get to switch, as I would LOVE to be in a postpartum unit. I am trying not to get my hopes up, but pretty sure it's too late for that.
My Erin had a birthday last Monday. We saw each other for maybe five whole minutes that day. She had to work all day, and I had clinical from 3:30-10pm. I got home just in time to say goodnight. I made up for that on Tuesday, my sister came over and we all had a nice dinner together. I also made Erin her favorite cake, vanilla with vanilla frosting. It was delicious, if I do say so myself.
We paired the cake with some delicious wine :)
Erin is on spring break this week. I am happy that she has a whole week off. That girl works her butt off! Her days have been so long due to track. My hard working Erin deserves a break. I am off this Thursday and Friday and the following Monday. Erin had the great idea to go out to dinner (with the gift certificate from my brother and his fiancee they gave us for Christmas) and we are staying at a fancy hotel in the city overnight. Erin found a pretty good deal thanks to Living Social, so we will also get a delicious breakfast included with the hotel stay. I can't wait! It will be great to have a night away with my Erin. We live, technically in the city, but we never make it into the city. Now we have an excuse and some one on one time to catch up with each other. Hopefully the weather is nice so we can do one of our favorite things, grab fancy coffees and walk through the city. :)
Ok, time to get to bed. I was up until about 1am last night finishing up a mountain of paper work for my lab day today. Oh yeah, that reminds me, we had our OB simulation lab day. We had three scenarios where they stage a patient and a problem. We had a postpartum hemorrhage, a precipitous birth (super fast labor), and care of a normal newborn. I was chosen for the super fast birth, so me and another nursing student had to coach an actress (sitting next to the hospital bed with the mannequin actually giving birth) and an actor playing her husband. This "couple" was great! The posing dad interacted with the mannequin and the actress posing as the woman in active labor, even though she was sitting next to the bed, her screams were very real! I am pretty sure I did everything wrong, but somehow tricked my instructor into believing the other student and I kinda knew what we were doing. Crazy! After the excitement of lab, we had a short break and then met again with our group for a few of us (myself included) to give our presentations on the paper we had to turn in last week. I did my paper on the benefits of skin-to-skin care of parents and their newborn. I loved this topic and can't wait to one day have skin-to-skin time with my future lil baby! In the meantime, I will swoon over the newborn babies I get to assess in clinical :)
Tomorrow is OB and Leadership, two long lectures. I better get some sleep so I don't fall asleep in class!!
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