I know you are all waiting to hear about how the clinicals are going for me. Off to a great start! I've caught one baby so far, and have done one labor management. For my first office day, I had several new OB clients, and almost a dozen return prenatal appointments. Weaved in there were several things referred to as "common health problems", but for the sake of HIPPA, I will not go into detail here. Needless to say, these were fairly common health concerns, but they also needed addressed for women at their visits.
I have several complete physical exams, complete with pelvic exams and breast exams under my belt. Those seem to have come fairly easy! Luckily, everyone was pretty straightforward and "easy" to examine, but very minimal variations.
Checking a cervix: piece of cake. Then again, I have been doing that very same thing for well over ten years now.
I also had an NST to review (also, a piece of cake, I can do those in my sleep).
All in all, a very good start to my clinical hours and experiences as a student nurse midwife. I have an AWESOME preceptor, who I just LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! She is so kind, gentle, understanding, and oh so smart.
My hospital site is very mother-baby friendly. A truly amazing place to be, and to learn how to be a true midwife. The practice is a very laid back, flexible practice, and I am eternally grateful for my preceptor to agree to take me on for at least the next six months.
11 comments:
Longer time reader, first time commenter. Love your blog! I was wondering how are you balancing clinical with work?
very, very carefully. I cut my work hours back to PT, and I'm doing clinicals about 2-3 days per week.
Thank you for answering my question!!!!
I'm so glad you have a great preceptor. Makes all the difference in the world, huh?
A great preceptor certainly DOES make the difference. NO doubt.
Like Grace, I'm a long-time reader, first-time poster. Please forgive me if this is a dumb question, but in order to be a SNM, do you need nursing background first? Or, are there folks who jump feet first into midwifery? One last question (I promise!!), are there males in your program?
You are so inspiring to many women, including myself. I must say that your posts make me very tired at the end!! Take care :)
congrats on your first catch! so exciting! i have a frontier student at my site doing her integration and i think she's awesome. we do our didactic alongside our clinicals so i'm just finishing my first clinical semester (ambulatory only) and it's crazy how much i've learned the past 13 weeks - i feel like a totally different student!
and Penny Mae, i'm not sure about frontier but we do have a guy at our program (a few cohorts behind me) and at the ACNM annual meeting there were male midwives and midwifery students. one of them spoke at the conference, i thought it was great. :)
I just want to say a sincere thanks, first for sharing your experiences and second for sharing my blog. I get a lot of traffic from your site, and I really appreciate it.
I especially love your recent posts, since you are a few years ahead of me on a very similar trajectory. I won't lie, it makes me a little jealous and anxious to get there myself ;-) but in a good way. Congratulations on your first catch!
Jenny - you'll get there! I have to pinch myself sometimes, because it seems so surreal that I'm this far in my journey!
Penny - yes, in order to become a CNM, you must first be a registered nurse (RN), graduating from the appropriate program (minimum of an associates degree). I attended Frontier's Bridge (ADN) to MSN program. I believe there are one or two males currently in the program. I've known two male CNMs in my lifetime, so they are out there!
How exciting for you! I love that you are so open about your experiences throughout school and learning. Such a great, encouraging thing for me to look forward to!
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