liam project

Liam Nolan, a nursing student at the University of Tampa, shares his experiences working in the labor and delivery unit at St. Joseph's Hospital. He assisted mothers during vaginal births, using therapeutic communication and administering medications. He supported mothers and fathers through the birthing process, offering comfort measures like background noise or music. Liam observed different birthing preferences, including one patient who chose not to use pain medications due to religious beliefs. As a nursing student, Liam was not able to administer medications during labor. He explains the designated chain of command and communication plan in the birthing unit, involving registered nurses, charge nurses, surgeons, and doctors. After birth, Liam witnessed the postpartum care of the baby, including umbilical cord clamping, cleaning, weighing, and skin-to-skin contact with the mother. The baby also received medications and underwent a newborn assessment. Liam found the experience to b Hi, my name is Liam Nolan. I am a junior at the University of Tampa and I'm studying nursing. Some specific roles and responsibilities that I had during my first time in the labor and delivery unit at St. Joseph's Hospital. For a vaginal birth, I was able to assist multiple mothers during their birthing process. This included using therapeutic communication, administering medications, and just overall being there for them during this tough time. Some ways that I was able to use the therapeutic communication with this birthing mother to ensure that she felt supported and informed was standing at her bedside, telling her when to stop and start pushing, and just overall being there for her, talking her through the struggles that come with the birthing process, making sure she was comfortable, and as well as the father in the room. If he was not feeling well or he did not want to assist his wife, we would try to use this type of communication to ensure that they were safe and just getting their mind off of the whole idea. Some specific comfort measures or techniques that the mother of the birthing process expressed interest in, again, was the therapeutic communication and then also having the TV on or background noise like music and just overall trying to get her mind off of it, especially if they didn't want to take pain medications or if they just were having trouble and going into long-term labor and having it for multiple hours. So based on the different birthing processes that I was able to witness, every mother and patient is allowed to select their preference in their pain management. I was able to witness one patient who did not want pain medications at all as they had come up with their own plan at home as they were of a specific religion that they did not believe in these medications and wanted to do this totally on her own. She was very strong. She went through the whole process and she loved the outcome of giving birth. Another patient I was able to see an epidural be placed, which is a needle into the spinal canal where this is a temporary paralytic as it paralyzes your lower extremities so you don't feel as much pain when pushing. So at UT I was not able to assist with implementing these preferences because as a nursing student we are allowed to complete certain skills that we were checked off on our first semester in the nursing lab, but administering medications to a woman in labor does not meet our criteria. We are allowed to administer meds but during this time it's very hectic as the parents want the baby out, they want the whole process to be over, so this was under the impression of the registered nurses in the hospital as well as the surgeons and doctors of this specific patient. So that leads me into the designated chain of command or the communication plan that everyone should be aware of during the birthing process. This consists of myself following the lead of the registered nurse that I am shadowing for the day at clinical and then that registered nurse follows the chain of command with the charge nurse of the specific unit and then that is just for the nurses so then there's also a whole nother chain of command that has to do with the surgeons, the doctors who are the ones delivering the baby, and also in addition to the patient care technicians that work under the nurses there are just a lot of different responsibilities on each unit that medical professionals have to be aware of. The post-birth responsibilities that were used such as like the postpartum care immediately after delivering, so once the baby is delivered the umbilical cord is clamped and cut by the father and if not if he doesn't want to do it then the surgeon will do it and immediately after the baby is cleaned and then usually they are weighed and then put directly on the mother's chest for skin-to-skin contact to regulate the temperature of the baby to make sure that they are safe. Then a few hours after birth the baby is given a series of medications such as erythromycin eye ointment to prevent the spread of gonorrhea and a vitamin K injection so their blood can clot at a normal rate without being in the mother's womb anymore. In addition they're also weighed and they are their length is taken and just the first newborn assessment is done checking an APGAR score which is the appearance, grimacing, position, activity, and reaction time of the newborn to make sure that they are healthy and nothing is wrong. And then lastly after the birth honestly I felt like it was very eye-opening. I saw multiple births in my time at on the labor and delivery unit and I was able to talk patients through it one of their hardest times of their life arguably so I thought it was very cool to be able to see this as a nursing student and it was definitely not the experience I expected it was much more real and to like be in the room it's nothing like it was or you will see on TV or anything but it was definitely very eye-opening and a great experience.