Provide an example of an incident during clinical that reinforced the theory you have learned in OB lectures.
An incident that reinforced what I have learned in lecture was the postpartum hemorrhage simulation. I learned how chaotic and overwhelming everything can be during an emergency, but also realized how important it is to have teamwork and a general game plan. It’s amazing how good teamwork allows things to go so smoothly. The entire process, with everything that is involved, seems to run like a fine watch when each team member follows suit and does their part.
Provide an example of an incident that contradicted the theory you have learned.
I guess the only thing in simulation that contradicted the information learned in theory was the way that our patient and family member reacted throughout the scenario. Since students played the roles of patient and family member, it’s obvious that this is not at all how it would be in real-life.
I am certain that things would be a lot more hectic with a real patient that is experiencing a postpartum hemorrhage. Our patient was very calm and understanding. A real patient would most likely be screaming and crying and the significant other would certainly have a lot more questions about what is wrong and what was going to happen. I did, however, gain a much better understanding of different ways to deal with overbearing family members.
What were you most proud of today (i. e. behavior, skill performance, interactions, significant observations)?
I was extremely proud of the teamwork displayed between myself and the other members of my class during our post partum hemorrhage scenario. The fact that we worked so well together as a team allowed our return demonstration to go surprisingly well. Although we were all nervous and felt like we had no idea what we were doing, we ended up doing a pretty good job. We not only assisted one another, but we also challenged each other with questions that allowed us to use our critical thinking.
What would you do differently if you had the chance?
During our return demonstration, we all felt like we needed to look to our instructor for guidance in what we should do. The reason for this was because we all lacked the confidence to feel like we knew what we were doing. If I could do it again, I would have liked to have been more knowledgeable about the scenario so that I could be more confident.
What can I do to help you meet your goals for this experience?
It is obvious that all of our instructors have a common goal, which is for all of us to learn as much as we possibly can. I honestly think that by allowing as many opportunities as possible to see and experience as much as possible will help us all learn from our clinical experiences.
Goals: I found all of our simulations very interesting today. I gained an enormous amount of information which I am sure will enhance my skill performance. Our instructor was very helpful in explaining fetal monitoring and how to interpret the strips. I thought that she did an amazing job explaining how to read the strips and answering the questions we all had.
I feel more confident about this material than I did prior to coming to clinical. I would have to say that learning more about this is one of my many goals as a nursing student. I still have the same goal that I had at the beginning of this clinical. I would ike to learn more about high risk pregnancy and delivery. With what I have learned thus far, I feel that the importance of patient education is something that should be a major focus. I can see myself incorporating this into everyday practice as a L&D nurse.
