Zzzz…

Our first day in Maternity/OB clinical was pretty uneventful–almost downright boring. Part of the problem is that we have clinicals on the weekend. C-sections and inductions are not typically scheduled for weekends. So we are basically just sitting around waiting for someone to spontaneously go into labor (and with all the planned C-sections these days I’m not sure if people still do that…). There was a single postpartum mom on the entire unit. The clinical instructors had to go “find” a baby so that they could show us how to do a newborn assessment. I will admit technically it was just our hospital orientation day (which translates into boring computer training on yet another EHR system), but I was all ready to palpate some funduses (fundi?) or something. I also heard that we’re not even going to be giving meds which leaves not much else to do than a lot of patient teaching–if there’s anyone there to teach…

So although many of my fellow students are still excited about this rotation since some would like to work in maternity, I can already see it’s not my cup of tea. I need more “action”–like in an intensive care or ED environment (but real emergencies–not “my baby has hiccups”). Not that I thrive off of dire emergencies or people being critically ill/injured but when you’ll be working 12-hour shifts I’d like to be doing a little more than reading the tabloids at the nurse’s station (don’t act like you haven’t seen it). Who really cares how Kendra Wilkinson lost 10 lbs in 10 days?–she probably ran 5 miles a day on a strict diet of romaine lettuce…

Of course now I’ve totally jinxed myself and this weekend it will be on and popping (hopefully)…

Now Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Program…

That’s right. Winter Break (and nights that involve a solid eight hours of sleep), is officially over. Back to the grind.

This semester they’re shaking things up a bit (BIG shocker there). So instead of taking two classes simultaneously for 14 weeks, we’re taking Health Assessment for seven weeks and then Maternity/OB for 7 weeks. At first I thought it would be better to only have to concentrate on one subject of books, BUT now you have to learn everything twice as fast! So even though we’ve only had four classes so far, we’ve already had to read about 20 chapters! My brain, is so overstuffed with information, that I am starting to have dreams about Kaposi’s Sarcoma, black hairy tongues, furuncles and frickin’ cranial nerves! We had an exam last Tuesday; we have an exam this Tuesday. I have to do a genogram and health teaching project in the next two weeks. And check-offs are fast approaching at the end of February. Sheesh. Things are moving so fast I feel like a walking case of vertigo!

Clinicals are good so far. Again, it’s a lot of information being crammed into a few short weeks, but my instructor is good. She’s thorough and always willing to answer any questions you may have. My lecture instructor, on the other hand, replies to 90% of our questions with “It’s in the book.” Gee thanks. Well instead of me coming and sitting in this classroom for three hours listening to you read off the powerpoint, maybe I should just stay home and read the book. She’s nice and all, but it just feels like yet another course where I basically have to teach myself. What exactly does my $480/credit get me around here?…

Well this is going to have to be one of my shorter posts–duty (aka studying) calls!

~Peace, love, and coffee 🙂