Day 2: Labor and Delivery

I was very anxious coming into this four hour shift. I had never seen live child birth before and didnt really know what to expect. I clocked in at 4pm, changed into a full set of scrubs, and headed to meet the charge nurse at the nurses station. At this station, there are about 5 nurses working the 7am to 7pm shift. Each of these nurses has 2 mothers to take care of for 12 hours until the next set of nurses come. I started off by checking on a hispanic woman who did not speak any English, but her husband did. It was around 4pm and she was at 7cm. She was having frequent contractions and I was hoping I would get to see her deliver. She was doing a natural birth and did not want an epidural. When I first walked in I could hear her screaming because of her current contraction and I thought this is it, shes having the baby right now, oh my word get me out. I started sweating and my knees went weak. Little did I know, she wasnt going to deliver the baby while I was on my shift. I soon calmed down when I realized it was just a contraction and I got used to the loud screams, as she had a contraction every 3 minutes for the next 4 hours I was there. The nurse I was shadowing showed me what all the monitors were for and how the chart her contractions and keep track of the baby's heart beat. I could only imagine how overwhelmed this woman felt during this scary first time experience as everyone around her spoke English, and she spoke not a word. I tried to put myself in her shoes and helped calm her down during her contractions and fed her ice every now and then because she wasnt allowed to drink water during labor.

The next woman I had an experience with was a mom that was giving birth to a very unhealthy baby. She already had one kid with the same conditions and she is alive and living with severe disabilities. She told the doctor if this baby comes out without a heart beat, do not try to resuscitate it. I guess mothers do know best because this baby did come out without a heart beat. A very sad sight to see, but the nurses have to quickly deal with getting the baby dressed for pictures to put together a small memory book for the parents to take home. Once the parents had enough time to say good bye to their child, the nurse takes it away to another part of the hospital.

Overall, I really liked this department more than the NICU. It was a lot faster pace, more action, and I got to wear actual scrubs! I feel like I would be good at calming down the mothers during contractions and helping them through the labor process. I am very interested in this field.

Day 1: NICU

Today I arrived at the NICU around 3:55pm, I signed in, rode the elevator to the third floor, washed my hands and forearms and scrubed into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for the next 4 hours. As I expected, the nurses werent that welcoming and kind of left me on my own to look around and ask questions to different nurses that were caring for the babies. All of the babies in the NICU were in a plastic covering with multiple tubes and IVs in them. They had blankets over their plastic "egg" they were in to make it dark as if they were still in the mothers womb. The first baby I saw was the smallest in the entire unit. He weighed less than 1 pound. I was in shock and couldnt take my eyes off the baby. The nurse in charge of the baby said this baby was born at 20 weeks and has to stay in the NICU until it gets to at least 5 pounds. A NICU heart doctor came over and did an ultra sound on this baby's heart. I got to see all of the different aspects of the heart even though it was so small. Because the baby was so premature the baby's heart beat shook the whole baby. Next I followed a nurse to her baby's station. This baby had a swollen stomach and it was hard for it to get a lot of oxygen. The nurse took the baby's temperature under in its armpit, gave it medicine, changed its diaper, switched it to its stomach so that its head could continue to grow properly. She also put different barriers around the baby so it can build muscle by pushing against those cushioned barriers as if it was pushing against the mothers uterus wall. Next I followed a nurse that was taking care of a baby thats mother was on drugs while she was pregnant. This baby cried so much and the mother didnt show up for the baby's visting time which made me sad. Next a nurse was taking care of a baby that had ripped out its feeding tube and made a mess in its bed area so she let me hold the baby and calm it down while she changed the bedding. That was my highlight of the entire day because the nurse was so nice and helpful and offered to take my picture.It was breath taking to hold a baby that small. After this I watched multiple parents come in to visit their baby and also some got to take their baby home for the first time which was a very sweet thing to witness. All of the nurses acted like they were family and laughed around and joked with each other. At 7pm a new set of nurses came in to take the old nurses spots. These nurses would now stay from 7pm to 7am watching over the babies. Overall it was a slower department than I thought but I really enjoyed it.

Expectations

My first day I will start off with 4 hours in the NICU. I heard from some other classmates that the nurses in the NICU werent all that helpful and didnt explain much so I am prepared to ask questions on my own and work to get the most out of this department. I am curious to see what different methods the nurses use to help the babies grow and to make it seem like they are still in the womb. Overall, I am very excited to see the different departments and to see which one I am drawn to the most. I think I am the most anxious about labor and delivery because child birth freaks me out a little bit. I hope this will give me a better understanding of being a nurse in a womens hospital and hopefully will narrow the departments down for me so I can figure out what area of nursing I want to go in.