Obstetrics Tips

1. Befriend the staff and ask if they would be willing to page you for new patients and when your patient needs to be examined or is complete and ready to start pushing (remember, this is not their job, per se).

Initiative

1. Ask your physician if you can interview and evaluate all triage patients.
2. Introduce yourself to patients: "I am student-doctor Smith. I am working with Dr. Clark to take care of you today..."
3. Speak with the physician in advance about your goal of doing as many pelvic exams as possible.
4. Be assertive and vocal in your desire to actually do deliveries.

Learning

1. Make a modified Friedman curve on all laboring patients that you are following.
2. This will help you to understand at any moment the progress, or lack thereof, of your patient.
3. Learn by sitting at the bedside of your laboring patient.
4. Learn fetal monitoring by asking the nurses. Review NSTs of other patients, especially if they are abnormal.