Life as a Med-Surg Nurse

So, this blog is supposed to be thoughts from an OB Nurse.... But recently, I've been feeling a little like a Med-Surg Nurse..... You see, when the census is low in OB, we take post-op Gyne patients... Sometimes it will be a hysterectomy or my all time favorite to say in report the "Salpingoophorectomy" AKA removal of an ovary and its fallopian tube...

Anyway, the last few days we've had a low census, so we had about half of our patients being Gyne patients. I was kinda disappointed at first when I saw my assignment...afterall, the whole reason I suffered through four near tortourous years of nursing school (and am still going) is so that I can care for women who are giving birth.... Not women who are loosing their reporductive organs... But, like other things in the past (scrubbing, to name only one), I was pleasantly surprised at how much I didnt' actually mind my post-op gyne assignments.

I've found out that I'm glad I have this aspect to my job as well. I have the opportunity to keep my general nursing skills fresh and sharp with the occassional med-surg assignment...and, I can appreciate more the whole circle of a woman's reproductive life.... Helping women to celebrate pregnancy and birth; then, encouraging them to embrace and accept menopause, whether natural or surgical...it is a new stage for them to acclamate to, one that they may not be prepared for.

I've found that allowing them to talk to you about their feelings in a general way is healing for them... For example allowing the woman to say to me, "I've always loved being a mother" without them having to verbalize, "I'm sad I'm losing my uterus." Listening and understanding is what they remember about you as their nurse, not that you kept their JP drain empty or their SCDs on or their IV going... You know?

I'm still in the honeymoon phase, I suppose. But, I still love my job - nearly every aspect of it - and think every single minute of nursing school was worth it!