For my seventh rotation, I was back at QHC for OBGYN. I really enjoyed this rotation and thought it was a great opportunity for me to build my skills and medical knowledge in women’s health. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Gloria Sacco, the preceptor and really felt lucky to learn from her and build and expand my skill set. I was very interested in OB going into the rotation and had had a wonderful experience during my NICU rotation and looked forward to having the opportunity to learn from the OBGYN team. The rotation itself exposed me to different areas of the practice and I spent my five weeks rotating through these areas and learning more about the respective practices.

During my first week I was on night float and responsible to work 14-15 hour shifts overnight on the labor and delivery floor. I actually really enjoyed being on night float, with the exception of the limited sleep. Night float was a great opportunity to meet the providers and work more closely with them and be hands on with the variety of patients. The team on overnight is responsible for the entirety of the OBGYN service and managed new admits, GYN patient, consult, antepartum or postpartum patient currently inpatient in the hospital. During my first week, I was also exposed to a number of deliveries both NSVD and C-section and was fortunate enough to scrub in for the deliveries. I wound up having a 24 hour shift scheduled on my first day so jumped right into the rotation and was able to experience a lot from the beginning. With the exception of a delivery I’d seen in the ED, this was my first time being part of a team that delivered babies and it was really significant for me to be a part of that. This was the first time I was actively participating in a delivery and helped to deliver the baby and placenta and definitely something memorable I will take with me.

My second week was spent on the Gynecologic service and the hours were a lot. While this week was particularly exhausting, it was a great opportunity for me to learn and grow. As the students we were responsible to pre-round on the inpatient service and ensure the patient was comfortable and the providers were informed before seeing them each day. There was another student on the GYN rotation with me so we split the gynecologic surgeries and had the opportunity to scrub in for hysterectomies, dilation and curettages, hysteroscopies. I went with the residents on the ED consults and had the opportunities to interview patients to learn more about what brought them into the hospital. During this week there was a particular patient that I built a rapport with after having scrubbed in on her hysterectomy. I visited her throughout the day as she was recovering and was so pleased to see her discharged on the day I finished the gynecology week. Given the rapport I had with her, she let me do procedures on her that she wouldn’t have otherwise allowed and that to me was very special.

My third and fourth weeks were spent in the clinic seeing gynecologic and obstetric patients. I was able to see patients in the High Risk Clinic, the regular clinic, the gynecological oncology clinic and the diabetes clinic. It was great exposure from a skill building perspective and really helped me to test my knowledge about various medications used, growth marks necessary in pregnancy and annual gynecological testing done each year. With the regular gynecological patients I was able to do pap smears and STD testing and assist my preceptor doing endometrial biopsies. I regularly measured the fundal heights and fetal heart rates during OB visits. Finding the heart rate was not necessarily challenging but at times tricky based on the position of the fetus in utero and how much it was / wasn’t moving. My preceptors knew I enjoyed doing this and encouraged me to do so with each pregnant patient.

During my last week, I was on the labor and delivery floor during the day. I was a part of several more deliveries and able to help deliver more babies, which I loved. Given the serious nature of this field and the care of not only the mother but also the baby, the staff on the floor takes their role very serious. I completely understand this fact but it was challenging for me at first to get through that but once they saw I was passionate about being there and I was happy to help in any way I could they included me. During the deliveries the residents allowed me to draw the ABGs off the cord and to deliver the placentas, which was something that I’d never even thought about doing prior to this rotation. I think the bedside manner I’d learned and grown over other rotations, were especially helpful in this rotation because of the vulnerability of the patients and their families. Many of the families were first time parents and very nervous and eager and it was important for them to understand the realistic scenarios but also to be encouraged.

I really enjoyed the OBGYN rotation and learned a lot from this experience. OBGYN for me was an emotional experience, in the best way. I was able to help bring new children into to the world but also learned a lot about the necessary medical management of doing so in practice. I found it interesting to learn the different drugs each provider used for various treatment modalities. In most specialties you encounter pregnant patients and I feel the knowledge I learned here will be applicable in my career (and also for my friends)!  As I move onto my Long Term Care rotation, I will continue to integrate myself into the team I am working with but also grow my knowledge and skills to be the best provider I can be and ensure I’m providing the best level of care.

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