Placement - Day 1

It was easy to walk back in there having been there for a good four weeks over Christmas and New Year. Being a small place, most of the staff remembered me and seemed to be confident that I was right to take on responsibility of patients from the get go.

The first question I was asked was 'how long are you here for?' and when I replied with 4 weeks the response was 'Oh great! That means we dont have to do any work for the next 4 weeks!' I wasn't quite sure whether to take that as a compliment or not but throughout the day it became quite obvious that I was going to be given a great deal of opportunity not always with the greatest of assistance. On most occasions, this isn't an issue as I generally know my stuff and am confident in what I am doing but at times, I had to stop and think about what would happen if things went bad and there was no one around because so many times when I wanted to just run things past someone, there was no one around. Particularly as the lack of urgency about an emergency situation became striking clear last time I was there.

Despite that, it was a good day and I had plenty to do. We didn't have anyone in labour so I mostly faocused on postnatal and also attended to a couple of antenatal assessments which were good learning experiences.

I was a little deflated when I first got there and looked at the board... every single one of the postnatal women had had a c-section for one reason or another. Some repeats and one, supposedly a result of a deceleration which to me, really didn't look like decel at all but rather maternal pulse... hmmm...

Tomorrow I am down to work with the midwife going to theatre for yet another section and should hopefully attend to the paperwork and following through her care on Friday. As for today, I am not entirely sure where I will be and what I will be doing.

But for now I must get going!