Responsibilities: To follow the nurse and observe.

Knowledge: Post pardom is just about managing pain. The mothers are asleep a lot of the time and you have to document changes in them.

Best: The best thing that happened was that I got to go in one patients room.

Worst: The whole thing was amazingly boring. I had a new nurse to the unit and she really had no clue what she was doing yet because it was her second day.

This week was bad because no one was awake, and the person I was following had very little responsibility.

Tech: The only thing I got to see was the charting that looked complicated and the nurse was having some trouble with it. I also got to see a bed.

Diagnostic: I saw a women coming back from a blood or urine test. I didn't see that much as there weren't that many mothers, and the ones that were there were asleep.

Therapeutic: Instead of waking patients up for tests you are suppose to let them sleep. The women are given vitamins and pain meds.

Diseases: They can have vaginal bleeding or an infection from the c-section incision. They can also have their organs shut down during pregnancy or pneumonia.

Med terms: Hysterectomy- the removal of the uterus. Morphine- a strong fluid painkiller.

When I walked in it was super quiet until about 10 minutes in when the construction workers made as much noise as humanly possible. I was amazed at how the mothers could sleep through it. There was barely any nurses, and the one I shadowed was a new one who had only 2 patients. She charted the whole time as well as tried to discharge a patient, but kept messing up. The only other equipment I got to see was a hospital bed. We only got to see one of her two patients and she didn't even need us

The job of a PP nurse looks extremely easy as a large majority are healthy young women who really just want to be left alone with their babies. The communication skills I observed was the nurse asking another for help during charting. We went to give the one mother vitamins, but she had taken her own from home before we got there so we left her room. They occasionally get hysterectomy patients but they control their own morphine pumps.

The knowledge I gained from this is that I for sure am not going to be a PP nurse. She couldn't tell me anything I didn't know except that when the new mothers start farting they can be discharged. If a women has a child that is in the NICU the mother will be discharged before the baby and has to go home without her child.She also told me that they will either use glue or tape to keep the c-section incision closed kind of like an arts and crafts project.

I thought I would get some educational value out of it but I was sadly mistaken. It is a branch off of the field I look to pursue though it is not the branch I want to go to. It seemed to me that it is a super easy job that the nurses from other units go to too get a brake. 'Twas not a fun time.

GC: Gerontologists are doctors that have specialized in the care for the elderly as well as the end of life process. (dining)