Job Shadowing an Obstetric Nurse Essay Example

in her stomach, even after she had delivered her baby, and these fluids were not draining.

Although I did not get to observe this next condition first hand due to the baby being placed in the NICU, I was informed that there was a baby born with gastroschisis. Gastroschisis is a disorder in which the baby is born with part of its intestines outside of its body, via the umbilical cord. My mentor described this as, “not common, but not rare. ” I observed a total of four circumcisions. Two preformed with the Mogen clamp and two with the Gomco clamp. There was also a woman who was admitted and did not know she was pregnant until she gave birth.

Unfortunately, I was leaving the hospital moments before she was admitted to the Mother/Baby unit. I would have like to have heard her story. Again, my mentor commented that this wasn’t a common occurrence, but that it happens every once in a while. I learned how emotional nursing is. Most patients stay for about 2 to 3 days, and some even longer than that. But in that short amount of time, a bond is formed. A nurse’s job is to know every little detail about the patient, which at times is more than the family knows about the patient.

A nurse’s job is to take care of the patients, and in return the patients will trust them. At 4:00 in the morning when the father is asleep and the mother is in pain, it is her nurse that will sit beside her bed and give her comfort. If you spend any amount

of time with my mentor, Wanda McLaughlin, you’ll see how passionate she is about her job and her patients. And in return, usually the patients are very thankful and grateful. But even when they are irritable and stubborn, Mrs. Wanda shows them how much she cares about them by giving them her full attention.

Having a baby can be terrifying to some women, especially at a young age. This past month I job shadowed Mrs. Wanda when she was taking care of a young couple who might have been worried and didn’t have a lot of people they could ask for help or a lot of resources they could resort to. But Mrs. Wanda answered all of their questions, and I believe she put their minds more at ease. She did all of this simply by caring and preparing them for what was to come. After this experience, I am determined to become a nurse!