My Clinical Observation

Since the birth of my beautiful daughter I have been focussed on perusing a career in midwifery. The care and support that both my partner and I received throughout the Antenatal, Labour and Post-partum periods was outstanding and this made, what I can only describe as the most intense and incredible experience of my life. I would feel a huge sense of satisfaction and pride in knowing that my hard-work will allow me to guide thousands of expectant parents and families through this lifechanging journey.

How rewarding would it be to have the opportunity to get to experience a mother and father seeing their unborn child for the very first time? To get to be the person whom informs parents of the gender of their baby, which they have anxiously been waiting for. I don’t believe there could be a greater feeling in the world than being there and sharing that excitement that people anticipate about their entire lives. Getting to be a part of these moments is one of the main reasons why an OBGYN Ultrasound technician is my dream career.

When entering the facility the first week I felt nervous and excited at the same time. During the second week, I was feeling more comfortable and confident working closely with the other health care providers and residents in the facility. The most interesting and enjoyable part of my time at the facility was caring and assisting

In the world of college, there are many majors or professions to choose from. Whatever career I choose to take, I know that there are many doors open for me to walk through. Planning for life after high school, I am considering going into the medical field to become a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Nurse (NICU).

Monday October 26th: Today at Moses Cone hospital, I was in the role of student nurse. I had two patients; one a returning patient, and the other a new patient. The nurse I was working with is someone I have never worked with before or even seen on the floor, but she seemed to be familiar with the unit.

My role as a patient advisor with Kaiser Permanente began in 2010 after the birth of my daughter. I was induced and spent 6 days in the hospital and during that time my family and I experienced wide fluctuations in the level of care and communication provided by the various healthcare professionals attending to us. At the end of my stay, I shared my observations and perception of the labor & delivery and postpartum hospital experience with the department administrator and ombudsman. Upon providing my feedback I was impressed with the reception I received. My input was welcomed and embraced. Notes were taken, discussions were had, dialogue opened up about what could have been improved and what worked. The ombudsman contacted me a month later

I thought it would be interesting to analyze my own delivery story. My mother had a very unique pregnancy. I’ve had the amazing privilege of being a paternal twin. I have a twin brother, Carlos Castellano. After a month into finding out she was pregnant, she started to feel a pain on her right side. She decided to visit the doctor immediately. They told her she was most likely having a miscarriage. She became very saddened with the news. The doctor came in and told her she was going to do an internal ultrasound to confirm that she was having a miscarriage. When the doctor began doing the ultrasound she found something very interesting. On the monitor my mom saw movement on one end, and movement on the other end. The doctor told my mother, “Frances, those are heartbeats!” She told her, “You are having twins”. She was shocked and couldn’t believe it. The doctor told her the pain on her side was due to growing pains, her uterus had two babies and it was starting to

For the early part of my adult life I was a stay at home parent who occasionally provided childcare for friends and family. When my youngest child went to kindergarten, I obtained a part time job at Target, working at the customer service desk. I was responsible for merchandise sales and returns, answering phones and addressing customers’ questions, complaints, cash register operation and money handling. The school year came to an end and I resigned from Target to spend the summer with my children.

I am 19 and currently now a freshman at Marymount California University. I have many passions such as helping others and singing nonstop when no one is watching. Communicating and listening is more important to me then anything else

At the age of 5 I recall being intrigued by my mother's pregnancy. The day my little brother was born I was amazed that he came from my mothers womb. I never forgot that wonderment. 16 years later I was able to experience another pregnancy (from an adults perspective) and was able to see all the different stages, even the birth. This so far has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. This made me aware that the role of a midwife involves more than just delivering babies. Despite the fact that child birth and the human body have always fascinated me, and that I'm sure delivering new born babies into the world could provide unparalleled job satisfaction, when I spoke to Irvine midwife Jackie Reid she made it clear that midwifery can be a tough, hard slog.

Ever since I can remember, my entire life has been filled with reoccuring hospital visits, some for me, and others for family members. A couple of visits were for my youngest brother Neddy, who was born three months early. He was put in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for two months and kept an incubator that only allowed us to touch him by putting our hands in the built in gloves for the first week. It was hard seeing him like that but I also liked watching the nurses and doctors work so swiftly and with ease. The NICU’s lighting was always dim and the room was always silent with an occasional cry of a little baby. Since then I’ve wanted to become a neonatologist. A neonatologist is doctor who helps infants who were born preterm, with birth defects, with an illness or any other problem a pediatric doesn’t deal with (Pediatrics).

During my rotation in the emergency room, I experienced some things I already did plus few things that I did in skills lab but waited until clinicals. First, I did vital signs on several patients who came in and then every two hours. I was also able to put several patients on the cardiac monitor and be able to know which cable goes with which. I saw nurses put IVs on mostly all patients including teenagers and older adults. Last, I was able to insert an indwell catheter on patient who had a distended bladder.

Second trimester miscarriage is often under reported and lacks recognition in both clinical practice and the literature. There are varied definitions for second trimester miscarriage and terms used to describe miscarriage in current literature. Miscarriage is defined by The World Health Organisation (WHO) (2001) as the premature expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus up to 23 weeks of pregnancy and weighing less than 500g. Internationally there are different views on how second trimester miscarriage is distinguished from miscarriage and stillbirth. In Australia and America pregnancy loss before 20 weeks is considered a miscarriage and a stillbirth is defined as fetal death after 20 weeks (The American College of Obstetrics

Most women prefer hospital delivery, and most health care practitioners recommend it because unexpected maternal and fetal complications may occur during labor and delivery or postpartum, even in women without risk factors. About 30% of hospital deliveries involve an obstetric complication (eg, laceration, postpartum hemorrhage). Other complications include abruptio placentae, abnormal fetal heart rate pattern, shoulder dystocia, need for emergency cesarean delivery, and neonatal depression or abnormality. Nonetheless, many women want a more homelike environment for delivery; in response, some hospitals provide birthing facilities with fewer formalities and rigid regulations but with emergency equipment and personnel available. Birthing centers may be freestanding or located in hospitals; care at either site is similar or identical. In some hospitals, certified nurse-midwives provide much of the care for low-risk pregnancies. Midwives work with a physician, who is continuously available for consultation and operative deliveries (eg, by forceps, vacuum extractor, or cesarean). All birthing options should be discussed.

For my first assigned patient, I was unable to watch the birth. However; the nursing staff at SRMC worked very hard to find another individual that wouldn’t mind having a student nurse in the labor and delivery. I was glad, I finally was able to watch a delivery and have a better understanding of the ways the operating room (OR) and OB work together to delivery a baby.