The dog days of summer

It's been steady business on the L&D floor the past few weeks. With the exception of a few days in June where several of us were left home on call due to low census (who would have thought???!!!), it's been almost non-stop babies.

Every shift, I have at least one woman who gives birth, and I am a second RN for at least 1-2 births per shift as well. Plus other random assignments (preterm labor, r/o labor, r/o preeclampsia, etc). It all adds up to a very busy time for everyone on L&D/maternity/newborn nursery/NICU.

Speaking of NICU, they have been full to overflowing with admissions! The docs have been begging us to slow down with the number of babies we send to them. Like we can prevent inevitable preterm births! Sometimes, the babies just fly on out, despite our attempts at tocolysis to delay birth a little bit longer.

And twins - we've had lots of twin moms in with preterm labor! What's up with all of these multiple births?? Knock on wood, at least we haven't seen any triplets or quads recently........now that I've said that, we'll get some high order multiples.

It's also STUDENT TIME AGAIN!!! I've had two days in a row this week where I have had a paramedic student assigned to me. Most of the paramedic students just are observing births, but they can also get their hands in there and do some physical assessments. I let them do an assessment on the newborn after I've done my initial newborn assessment. Then I quiz them on the normal vital sign parameters for newborns. How quick some of these guys get flustered! Dudes! I'm not testing you here, just helping your education! I let them know that I'm here to just help educate them - I don't actually critique their clinical time, or grade them. The paramedic students usually tell me a bit about their own children's births, and it's really cool to hear about birth from their perspective.

Once August begins, we'll get nursing students again on L&D. They are totally hands off, observation only. (I remember those days in nursing school - the fear of God put into you by your instructors!!!!) However, I encourage the nursing students to also get their gloves on and start assessing the newborns after (or at the same time) I do the newborn assessment. The nursing students also have this assignment sheet, which has NOT changed one bit since I was in school (!!!), where they need to write up EFM strips. So, I do a lot of education with the nursing students on how to "read" an EFM strip. That can be very time consuming, and repetitive, when you have students almost every time you work. However, I can tell which students REALLY care to learn, and those that only do what they need to do to get by.

Ok, that does irk me. If you're paying good money to get a good nursing education, wouldn't you at least show SOME enthusiasm for the clinical site? Even if you know you don't want to do L&D after graduation, or you flat out hate L&D (yep, some people do hate it, believe it or not!), at least show some enthusiasm for learning while you're with me. If you don't, I'm not going out of my way to teach you anything, and I may just "forget" to find you when it's time for the baby to be born. It's an honor and a privilege to attend a birth, so show respect for the mother, her baby, and the nurse teaching you. SHOW some enthusiasm and spirit for the birth process. Ask questions. LISTEN when I tell you the answers. Show initiative and inquire about what you can do to help the birthing mother --- or the nurse who is running around like crazy from patient to patient. Don't sit on your ass in the break room and chitchat on your cell phone.

Ok, rant done.

Where was I? Oh, let's see.....students...summertime...where WAS my train of thought?

My youngest daughter and I did a mommy and me day at the pool yesterday, so I'm a tad sunburned. Back to working 3, off 1, working 3, then finally off for FIVE!! YEAH!!!! I plan on getting a LOT of studying done on those five days off.

School? Yes, it started this week. Lots of readings to do. Plenty of papers to write. Have to work on finding a preceptor for next term (Community Health Practicum), which also links in to the didactic work I'm doing this term.