The State of the OB Floor

So, What's been up on the childbirth front?

My sleeping after night shifts is getting considerably better. I used to have an awful time of sleeping the day after.... Waking up frequently, not getting to sleep easily... Well, that all seems to be changing. My last 3 day stretch of nights went great! I fell right to sleep and slept for hours before waking. In fact, the last night I worked, I went to bed at 9am when I got home and slept until after 4pm that evening before waking up even once! Sleep makes everything better.

I have scrubbed in on c-sections with every doctor with practicing privileges now. So, I'm scrubbing independently now. I still really like scrubbing... It is a surprise to me, but I don't mind it at all.

I am trying to make some positive headway with the one doctor who has been giving me grief. Out of all of the doctors there, every single one of them have gone to my nurse manager telling her what a great job I'm doing and how quickly I learn - every one of them EXCEPT this one particular doctor. I think I've written about him before.... Well, he's still on my case. The other nurses tell me he does the same thing to every new nurse and it is sort of like a right of passage or some such nonsense. Anyway, I think the ground is just starting to thaw, and hopefully his obsession with making my shift miserable will pass soon enough.

I've gotten a string of high risk patients recently, which is really what I need experience with. I've managed several PPROM patients (pre-term, premature rupture of membranes). I've had a stillbirth induction unfortunately, and I attended a birth where the doctor didn't make it....I nearly didn't either as the head was already out when I went in and I caught the baby, literally...clamping and cutting the cord and all.

Things stay pretty busy on night shift for us. The vice president of the hospital came around the other night to talk to us and reassure us that the hospital is still strong in light of the current economic condition. Hospitals all around are laying off and cutting back. Apparently our hospital is still making money and is not in trouble, but the struggling economy is having a trickling down effect -- People are cancelling elective surgeries because they lost their insurance coverage when they lost their jobs, etc... So, the VP informed us that they are putting a freeze on hiring right now. But they do not expect that any layoffs are in the future.

The good thing with a nursing degree, I believe, is that I will almost always be able to find work with it. It may not be in the department I want it to be or during the hours I would like... But, work as a nurse will nearly always be available. Luckily, the VP informed us, that we OB nurses picked one of the safest specialties to practice nursing in, as far as job security goes.