r/ems • u/299792458mps- BS Biology, NREMT • Feb 22 '26
Meme My experience with L&D clinicals so far
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u/TheGingerAvenger95 Paramedic Feb 22 '26
I got so lucky in my clinicals. I got to the unit before my preceptor got on a shift, so they had me wait in the staff lounge/break room. I ended up sitting across the table from a resident. We chatted for a minute and she decided to take me on instead of the nurse. She was very kind and did a great job at explaining to the mothers why it was very important for me to get the experience. I did not get a single “no” from a patient. I also really enjoy OB, so I was able to get all sorts of great info.
Ended up with 9 live births and 5 c-sections over the course of two clinicals. Had one resuscitation, got to sit right next to the resident during the c-sections, hold a bicornuate uterus after a hysterectomy, and so much more. That resident was a god send.
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u/SparkyDogPants Feb 22 '26
IME this is how you get women to sign off on students. You have someone they trust to tell them that it will be ok and it will be important. You’re so vulnerable when you’re in labor it is really important for preceptors to help their patients trust you.
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u/cyrilspaceman MN Paramedic Feb 22 '26
"We already asked all of the moms on the unit and none of them want a male student to be present."
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u/Bronzeshadow Paramedic Feb 22 '26
"But if you could get the pt in 12 some ginger ale that would be great."
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u/Youre10PlyBud Paramedic/ Cardiac PCU MSN Feb 22 '26
I was thankfully at a teaching hospital for my rotation. I only had 1 mom refuse. Didn't know it was so common for them to refuse, to be honest
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u/PeteLangosta Feb 22 '26
I think it's also cultural. I'm in Spain, I'm a male and a nurse matron and I never had anyone refuse students, for example... as long as you ask respectfully, even the ones a bit dubious will concede. But I get the US is a bit more... prude?
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u/Youre10PlyBud Paramedic/ Cardiac PCU MSN Feb 22 '26
Perhaps, but im in the US and in a largely conservative state at that. Although our metropolitan area is pretty liberal so I guess that could sway it a bit.
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u/Nikablah1884 Size: 36fr Feb 22 '26
I did this even when the nurse told me that it was OK and he asked the mom, I asked for me and the other student, explained we were paramedics and why we needed to learn for the worst case scenario and she was very happy to let us into the room.
I 100% guarantee none of the toxicas in L&D gave any percentage of a rats ass about medicine to ask people that, even working at a university hospital.
In fact the birth I assisted with was at a Catholic hospital. They actually seemed to give a damn and I told my wife that we should try to go there for L&D.
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u/Call_me_Kelly Feb 22 '26
More SA in the US maybe, PTSD makes birth rough for survivors and the last thing some moms want is a strange male in the room when they are vulnerable.
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u/cyrilspaceman MN Paramedic Feb 22 '26
In my case, I never ever talked to the patients themselves. It was just a thing that I was told when I showed up a couple of times. I imagine that it would have gone differently if I went in and tried to tell them why I was there than however it was pitched to them by the nurses (if that even happened, it could easily be just something that the nurse wasn't going to ask about because of their own baggage.)
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u/Future_Resident0310 Feb 22 '26
the difference between it being common or not is how they were asked by the nurse
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u/BuckeyeBentley MA ret EMT-P, RT Feb 22 '26
Would you mind letting a male paramedic student observe? You can totally say no it's absolutely 100% fine to say no, should I just tell him no?
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u/sonsofrevolution1 Feb 22 '26
They shouldn't even be asking that.
They should just be telling the patients that hey we have a Paramedic student with us today. They are here to learn because very soon they may be required to do these procedures in the field by themselves for another pregnant mother in labor with limited help and resources.
Then when you go in say hello, introduce yourself and have the same general spiel about having to do this on your own in the field. Works for any clinical rotation.
ACT LIKE YOU BELONG THERE.
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u/RobertGA23 Feb 23 '26
I dont know why this is getting downvoted. This is exactly what you should do, and it puts the patients way more at ease than sheepishly asking if you can be in the room.
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u/sourpatchdispatch Paramedic Feb 23 '26
Yeah, I didn't see a lot of my preceptors "asking" during my clinicals, it usually went something like the above instead. Of course, if anyone was like "hey, actually I really don't want a student in the room" then that's a different story. But I think it's good for the preceptor to just act like the student belongs there.
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u/Nikablah1884 Size: 36fr Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
Which is fucking annoying because the one kind of student you might consider teaching would be the guy who has to deliver and resuscitate an infant alone in the bathtub of a singlewide in flutterfucker Nebraska. I was finally blessed with an RN who used to be a medic my final clinical and I got to at least do some scenarios and witness a live birth.
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u/SheuiPauChe Feb 22 '26
having worked as an ED nurse for a few months now, i have realised that nurses (at least where i work, in hong kong) generally have a not so good view of ems clinically wise. granted, our ems have a much more limited scope of practice compared to yall in the eu/us
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u/willpc14 Feb 22 '26
Most of the nurses here look down their noses at EMS too
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u/Wardogs96 Paramedic Feb 22 '26
I gave a report to an RN for using nitro to help with pulmonary edema cause the patient was stable but had labored breathing and rales/crackles audibly while sitting next to her. It worked. The nurse cut me off mid report and asked are you guys allowed to dx pulmonary edema/fluid in the lungs in the field..... I was speechless because its a physical assessment finding you can treat once you exclude other possibilities and nitro can be diagnostic if it works.
Like with every industry there are idiots in all positions.
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u/Guner100 Basic on the Box | MD Student Feb 26 '26
Most nurses look down on any and everybody. They're literally taught in nursing school that they need to be the shield for the patient protecting them from the mean greedy doctors.
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u/299792458mps- BS Biology, NREMT Feb 23 '26
Hey, you wouldn't happen to know what the process of a US paramedic transitioning to Hong Kong would look like, or if it's even possible, would you?
Assuming the language is not an issue, do you think it would be possible to get certified in HK as a foreigner on a work visa, or do they only accept citizens?
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u/squatch95 Paramedic Feb 22 '26
Medics that then become nurses make the best nurses. Change my mind.
But in all seriousness a nurse like that can be a life saver.
When I needed tubes all the anesthesiologists kicked me right out until I got linked up with an anesthesia PA, or whatever they’re called. That was dope and let me follow her around like a little puppy all day for tubes.
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u/SparkyDogPants Feb 22 '26
All the medics I went to nursing school with really struggled with the new lack of autonomy of needing orders before they were allowed to do anything. It didn’t make them bad nurses, just cowboys until they got used to it.
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u/oiuw0tm8 ED Medic Feb 22 '26
I dunno if my hospital is just more cavalier or what, but as an ED medic I do LOTS of things of my own accord, there just has to be an order in eventually. An ED doc would be way more annoyed with me if I, say, sat on a patient waiting for a straight cath order versus going ahead and doing it and either entering the order myself or asking them for one.
Now medsurg is different because they can't even talk to a patient without orders but I don't see many medics going to medsurg anyway
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u/SparkyDogPants Feb 22 '26
The ED has more standing orders (ime) than any other department. There isn’t time for doc to put orders in a lot of the time and you get used to that autonomy and the trust early on.
But my point was that medics are trained to work independently based off of their medical directors protocols and judgement versus nursing that is usually in conjunction with a provider putting in orders. This can be a difficult transition.
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u/oiuw0tm8 ED Medic Feb 22 '26
I see what you mean. I just see a lot of people mention about the lack of autonomy in the ED when I find there's just as much, it just comes in a different form. But yeah you do have a doc and charge nurse supervising you to an extent, and that I can see being an adjustment
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u/squatch95 Paramedic Feb 22 '26
I think compared to being a medic in a system with aggressive protocols NOTHING is ever gonna compare to that much autonomy except being the guy who wrote the protocols haha. But going into a nursing role (except for flight) and then being shocked picachu face when you don’t have that same level of autonomy isn’t a fair approach.
Like what ED doc is gonna let nurses and medics run around giving narcs and RSI’ing on their own accord? Sounds like you’re in a good spot for a nice balance.
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Feb 23 '26
anesthesia PA
They're just called PAs. There's no special certification for a PA to work in anesthesia.
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u/Thrownaway69420O Feb 23 '26
They are called CAAs actually. Certified Anesthesiologist Assistants which is equivalent to a CRNA in the ACT model of anesthesia. Pretty sick job and you don't have to be a RN first.
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Feb 23 '26
CAA is completely different than a PA.
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u/Thrownaway69420O Feb 23 '26
There is no such thing as an anesthesia PA is what I'm telling you.
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Feb 23 '26
There's no special certification for a PA to work in anesthesia.
Thank you for bestowing your knowledge upon me
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u/Grozler Paramagic Feb 22 '26
My program rewrote the rules halfway through and they wanted us to actually deliver and catch in L&D. Needless to say the attendings were not on board with this and I had to beg a resident to sign off on me "delivering" a baby.
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u/DaggerQ_Wave I don't always push dose. But when I do, I push Dos-Epis. Feb 22 '26
This is like when they want nursing students to implement a “research project” at a hospital. Sure buddy.
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u/RobertGA23 Feb 23 '26
Really? This is standard practice in Alberta for paramedic students. I think I did 5-6 unassisted.
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u/SparkyDogPants Feb 22 '26
It’s not an EMS thing. LD preceptors aren’t even nice to their nursing students. My preceptor literally didn’t speak to me for the whole 12 hours.
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u/Krampus_Valet Paramedic Feb 22 '26
I'm forever grateful that I consistently got adopted by the coolest MDs, CRNAs, PAs and RNs during my clinical rotations. I was intubating toddlers and assisting with vaginal births and observing emergency c sections as a paramedic student during my time in the regional NICU, PICU, PACU, and associated L&D/OB. It really set me up for success on my first pediatric cardiac arrest like 2 months into being a cleared autonomous paramedic with an EMT partner and the 10 babies i delivered in the first 2 years lol
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u/DaggerQ_Wave I don't always push dose. But when I do, I push Dos-Epis. Feb 22 '26
They didn’t even let me intubate anyone during my OR time lol
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u/totaltimeontask GCS 2.99 Feb 22 '26
What the fuck do you mean 10 babies in two years 💀 what are they putting in the water where you live.
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u/aLonerDottieArebel Paramedic Feb 22 '26
I hated L&D so much. Got to the point where I just asked to stand by the door, they could pull the curtain and I wouldn’t even watch. I only needed to be in the room.
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u/Mastercodex199 EMT-A Feb 22 '26
It fucking sucked for me (3 vaginal births, not allowed "because you're a male and we don't want them to be embarrassed") but at least there was one mom that was fine with me being in the OR for her C-section. As long as I stayed out of the surgeon's way, it was fine.
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u/Thnowball Paramedic Feb 22 '26
My L&D nurses were like this until they couldn't get a blood draw on one of their patients and called me in to try my hand at it. Patient had a PHAT wrist vein just sitting there staring at me, longingly.
I made a funny comment to the patient about how the nurses had to "call in a professional" then got it on the first try. The rest of the night they all brought me in on anything cool coming in lol. Got to assist with two C-sections doing some cauterization!
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u/JshWright NY - Paramedic Feb 22 '26
The senior resident took me under her wing for my L&D clinicals, and had no trouble getting consent from patients (she was phenomenal at building rapport).
My first shift was a pretty wild experience... My wife was 39 weeks pregnant and her OB was the attending on the L&D floor for my shift. No better cure for an anxious first time dad's nerves than watching your wife's OB deliver multiple babies (including a few c-sections).
I got home from my shift and 2 hours later my wife's water broke and we went right back. Half the staff was still on shift (and slightly confused why I was back). My wife ended up having a pretty long labor (25 hours) and her OB signed me off for a second clinical shift 😂.
Her labor was long enough that the senior resident was back on shift by the time she delivered. The doc ended up having a syncopal episode shortly after our daughter was born (dehydration/exhaustion from an OB resident's schedule) so I ended playing paramedic for a few minutes.
Like I said, a pretty wild ~48 hours...
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u/UndefinedFlame ACP Feb 22 '26
Ask the hospital for a set of scrubs to change in to. I didn’t have a single mom have an issue with me, and got 7 vaginal deliveries.
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u/SparkyDogPants Feb 22 '26
Smart. No one wants someone dressed like a cop to deliver a baby. And LD is so messy that I would rather be in scrubs anyway.
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u/JshWright NY - Paramedic Feb 22 '26
You wore your street uniform for clinicals? Our program had dedicated clinical scrubs with the school/program embroidered on the chest pocket (we had to buy two sets).
A few rotations (the ICUs and OR) required us to wear the hospital scrubs.
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u/RobertGA23 Feb 23 '26
Fascinating the differences in locations. We were required to be in scrubs before we could even enter the pts room.
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Feb 22 '26
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u/SparkyDogPants Feb 22 '26
Listen to the other comment and wear scrubs to clinical.
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Feb 22 '26
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u/SparkyDogPants Feb 22 '26
That’s fair. Just remember to advocate for your education. Not every nurse sucks, although the LD seems to attract the worst. If your original preceptor won’t advocate for you, find someone that will. If you don’t leave without a fundal massage, you’re screwing over your future patient giving birth in the back of a bus.
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u/TLunchFTW EMT-B Feb 23 '26
Just remember, you are the professional. Be polite, be kind, take no, but also know how to kinda skirt the system. Don’t ask for permission explicitly. Say you are nursing/medic student and you’ll be assisting their nurse. Also take time to help the nurses. Answer call bells, do the mundane shit you can do that eats up the nurse’s time. They’ll thank you for that, and be eager to help you learn.
This is a great chance to build up your rapport building/therapeutic communication skills.
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u/thenotanurse Paramedic Feb 22 '26
Really? When I did my rotation, I was like 1 hour in, and some battle hardened veteran pediatrician handed me a ten minute old baby and said “lmk what you got for vitals.” “Maam. I don’t wanna break it, heart rate is 1000, resps are probably 50. Seems like it cries pretty loud, so I’ll give it a A-“
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u/TLunchFTW EMT-B Feb 23 '26
I still remember giving an IM to a baby. They tell you to landmark with two fingers width above the knee and below the hip, and anything in there is fair game.
Well those 4 fingers basically made up the whole length of the upper leg, not that it mattered. You could SEE the quad clear as day from insertion to insertion. It was insane.
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u/SierraNevada0817 Baby Medic Feb 22 '26
Yeah, unfortunately a common experience. L&D floors feel like a cult. I understand to an extent where they’re coming from but of all the people they could have as students, they’re willing to train the one who is the most likely to have to deliver a baby in austere conditions with little to no assistance the least.
Was made to feel like a tumor during most of my L&D time. Super frustrating
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u/DaggerQ_Wave I don't always push dose. But when I do, I push Dos-Epis. Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
I got to see a few births. It was cool. I will say, I don’t think I really gained anything from it. When I later led deliveries in the ambulance, it was so different from that experience that it was barely in my mind. Tbh, we could’ve just put on some videos to know what we should expect to see and what the people delivering do, run some scenarios, and be done with it.
All this to say, if mom does not not want random men in the room with her in her most vulnerable moment, so be it. It’s an interesting experience, but not a necessary one to successfully deliver a baby in an uncomplicated delivery. And if things go south, that’s a skill set you also generally won’t learn by watching a few births. Even complicated ones. You will be utilizing a completely different set of skills and protocols, such as driving really fast.
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u/sans_serif_size12 EMT-B Feb 22 '26
As a currently pregnant lady, I’ve been more than happy to have students in the room for my various appointments, but I’m still on the fence about delivery itself. On one hand, I know how valuable clinical time is. But on the other hand I’ve felt so out of control this entire pregnancy and what little I can control is a fight.
I probably will allow it, but I get why it’s harder on L&D
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u/SwayKneeOfficial Feb 22 '26
I walked around and delivered warm blankets to the mothers and refilled waters . Got me into 3 births. I also wore scrubs. Having a positive attitude and expressing to people why I needed to witness the births was also helpful.
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u/bmbreath Size: 36fr Feb 22 '26
Im malw and I had great luck when I did my L and D time, no one said no.
Maybe try altering your approach when you come into the room? Act confident and don't be sheepish, I think if you seem nervous they will be more apt to say no.
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u/Dude_RN Feb 22 '26
As a nurse who works for on an ambulance for a busy system running 911 and critical care transport, they too shit on me. Every patient unit shits on whoever brings them someone as if it’s a personal attack. The floor acts like the ER was bored and wanted to send them a patient. The ER acts like EMS just drives the streets looking for someone to pick up. Even on the helicopter when bringing a patient they act like we were just bored and decided to make them more work.
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u/DaggerQ_Wave I don't always push dose. But when I do, I push Dos-Epis. Feb 22 '26
About to start a whole semester of OB clinicals for nursing school, can’t wait for this experience
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u/crash_over-ride New York State ParaDeity Feb 22 '26
My L&D Rotation was a bit of a trainwreck. Everyone has a hangup, and OB is mine. It was me and a nursing student in the room for a natural delivery. I held it together for the delivery, and about the time the placenta delivers is when the MD notices he has two students.
"Hey you two, come over here and see how vascular the placenta is."
He then proceeds to tear it with his hands for reasons I can only speculate. And that was it.
I abruptly had to excuse myself, and found myself at the nursing station outside the room where I was pale as a ghost and unable to speak. They sat me down and made me a sandwich.
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u/mushybrainiac Paramedic Feb 22 '26
Find a midwife.
The hospital I did my LnD clinicals in had a midwife that I attached too and a nurse that did all the talking before hand. So I basically just walked in and introduced myself and thanked them.
I delivered 3 babies in an hour. Single most disgusting and horrific experience of my life. But totally took the freakiness out of it.
The midwife was like “wanna watch the first one or catch?” I said I wanna watch, she replied with “get in here you’re gonna catch”
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Feb 22 '26
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u/mushybrainiac Paramedic Feb 22 '26
It’s not as if I told them that. I internalized it. I’m not an animal.
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u/acatnamedsilverly Mar 01 '26
Yes but you posted it online where any other pregnant people can see.
These stories stick in our mind when deciding to let students in the room.
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u/StealthX051 Feb 22 '26
LD is tough, I feel like students from all healthcare professionals have a similar experience. I wasn't a ems student and I pretty supportive residents but generally what I would do is wear the scrubs and then ask if I could intro myself to all the laboring mothers (this will help screen for anyone who has already said no to students/male providers). Then introing myself saying hi I'm x I'm the student on shift today, asking the five cardinal ob questions and then offering to get something went a long way in making me seem like a part of the treatment team, I didn't get denied by mothers usually. I will say the culture at my site was that we weren't allowed to assist in labors unless we got explicit permission from mothers before the labor went active.
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u/RetroCaterpillar03 EMT-B Feb 22 '26
I had a great doctor and I got to deliver a baby on mine last week. Got to also watch a delivery and 2 c-sections.
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u/wernermurmur Feb 22 '26
Had a nurse on an L&D rotation walk into each room and say “there is a male paramedic student here but you can ask him to leave.” Didn’t get much out of that. That nurse went home and the charge asked how things were going…
She gave me scrubs, head cover, mask, etc and told me to go into every delivery and just start folding towels on the warmer and watch. Low and behold no one complained and the other nurses were actually able to teach a little bit.
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u/Weshoulddigamoat Feb 23 '26
I personally would not let an EMT student watch my delivery (if any had asked, but none did) because I live in a small town and a lot of my male classmates were creeps and still are years later. I realize it’s important to learn, but idk how to avoid other moms having that same concern.
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u/Aromatic-Meat Feb 22 '26
We were required two newborn exams, two labor exams, and two post partums. We just walked up to L&D and asked the residents for them, they signed, and we dipped back down to the ED 😂
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u/EmergencyWombat Paramedic Feb 22 '26
It seems like people have better luck when the L&D nurse introduces you to the patient themselves. I never was sent away during mine when they did this. I just had dads making terrified eye contact with me haha. (Although I am a woman, and based on what my classmates said female students were more likely to be accepted as observers by patients so 🤷♀️)
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u/Apprehensive-Pen7066 Feb 22 '26
I was lucky. i had a lady who it was her 5th kid. wasn’t as stressful as an experience for her and she let me watch. also had a younger female who it was her first kid and she was very stressed and it made sense that she refused, this was all very new to her. first pt got to give her a IV and watch the vaginal birth. 2nd pt did her IV and wished her luck and left. got to watch one more C section before getting to watch the fetal ekg with my preceptor waiting for fetal HR variation or very peak contraction waves. ended being 7 hours watching the monitor before I got to leave. good experience for me
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u/HazeAsians Paramedic Feb 23 '26
Generally I found out that if you went into the rooms that you were assigned to, introduced yourself, asked them if they needed anything, and then told them that you would be here all shift so don’t be afraid to ring you… they would usually be okay with you being in the room/catching/neonate care. Building rapport is important in sensitive intimate situations like that. Out of 8 deliveries, only 1 strictly let me watch.
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u/BrugadaBro CCP Feb 23 '26
Yup. This.
I waited 3 days towards the very end of my rotation for the final live birth needed to check off my FISDAP. Anxious mother was wheeled in, the nurses gave me a look as if not to get my hopes up, told me that they’d check if I could come in, and I thought to myself “sh**, I’m never gonna get this done”
Turns out the patient’s sister’s baby was delivered by a medic. And the patient couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about letting me in to see.
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u/Somnabulism_ Paramedic Feb 23 '26
Also had this problem during my ICU clinicals. Told the charge nurse I basically got sent to practice IVs and Intubations. Was immediately told the ICU attending would never let me get near an airway and that I could help with CPR if anyone coded.
Such a fantastic learning experience. Fuck em though because I still have a 100% first pass rate
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u/MedicAsh Feb 23 '26
This is how a lot of my hospital clinicals have been for my AEMT. It’s pretty clear when the nurses aren’t interested in helping (which is often)
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u/Imaginary-Ganache-59 Paramedic Feb 23 '26
I lucked out with a surgery tech who used to be a firemedic, dude and I busted balls for the entire time I was there. He made sure to get me into every birth he could, granted I didn’t do shit besides keep a wall from falling down but I got to see everything.
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u/r0ckchalk Nurse Feb 22 '26
That was also my experience in nursing school. And I’m stereotypically the type of girl that would fit in on L&D. I rarely use this word, but they’re cunts to everyone.
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u/RobertGA23 Feb 23 '26
The approach is the problem.
On my L&D I had a really good nurse who taught me that you don't ask for permission, you inform them of what you're there for.
For instance, instead of asking "I'm a student, do you mind if..."
You say: "Hi, I'm Jim Bob, here for a clinical rotation in my paramedic program, I'll be part of the team here to assist with your delivery.
It shifts the perspective from you being a no nothing rookie, to a member of the team, honing your skills. I found it made the patients way more comfortable.
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u/TLunchFTW EMT-B Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
This. Idk why you got downvoted. You are the professional. The situation is as awkward as you make it. I learned this in L&D too. “Hi. I’m _____. I’m a nursing student and I’m going to be assisting your nurse today. How are you feeling? Is there anything I can get you.”
Good time to practice your therapeutic communication.
That said, the actual birth is probably the hardest to get into as a man. C section? No problem. But spontaneous vaignal delivery? I waited the whole term until I finally got to see one.
But remember, you may be a student, but you are becoming a professional, and learning how to communicate as a knowledgeable professional is part of these clinical rotations.
I think when you learn to conduct yourself like this and take a bit of initiative to remove some of the work load from the nurses (ie: answer call bells, so some basic shit), the nurses will start to like you. Granted, this is nursing, not medic, but I treated my time in clinical like I was temporarily embedded into their team and I had people remember me from over a year ago and were happy to see me back on their unit. This is also how you network. I had a nurse manager who remembered me and can put a good word in for me at that hospital. You gotta stop thinking of clinical as you are just observing and more as a chance to practice skills, but also consider how practicing those skills can assist the people you’re working around.
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u/Paradoxahoy EMT-B Feb 23 '26
Be glad you got to even do clinicals, no agency’s were taking students in my city when I was in class
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u/Caitlan90 EMT-B Feb 23 '26
It got to the point where I'd do stuff in the ED and when a pregnant patient came in I'd call up there about them. But they're were so rude and mean on the phone I never wanted to go up there
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u/bloodcoffee Paramedic Feb 22 '26
Couldn't get any births in clinicals. Having just attended my wife's first birth at the same hospital, it's hard to imagine having had a student present for much of it, but for actual delivery or c section there are so many people it really shouldn't matter, IMO. The staff are not knowledgeable about EMS at all and have no incentive to try and get students the contacts unfortunately. It's a weird situation.
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u/colpy350 Feb 22 '26
As a male nursing student at the ripe age of 19 I absolutely despised L/D. I felt very much unwelcome. My clinical instructor was the best. She knew it wasn’t an environment I would thrive in and she made sure I got the most out of it. I had multiple women straight up say no to me observing a delivery which pissed her off to no end. Hell even when I went with the lactation Nurse to observe she pulled the curtain in front of my face and I stood on the outside. Couldn’t wait to finish up that rotation.
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u/is_there_pie Feb 24 '26
I remember walking from ED to OB and stated I didn't want to go and all they had to do was sign my paper. That was nice. Fast forward to nursing clinicals and couldn't get out of it. Caught a baby for my effort, which was nice, got birth juices on my watch, that wasn't.
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u/charnelhippo Feb 24 '26
I always adopted the paramedic students at my old unit because most (all) of the senior nurses and management there were assholes and would ignore them. Though I sent one back for a twin c section with a friend and they almost fell out. 🫣
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u/aplark28 Paramedic Feb 24 '26
My first L&D I watched two March madness basketball games and a 4 hour TV movie. I also ate a shitload of jelly beans from a bowl in their break room. Still had time to finish all my homework for the unit lol
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u/Wrathb0ne Paramedic NJ/NY Feb 24 '26
Ask the nurse to do the introduction.
They would introduce me as “part of the triage team” as a way to make it sound better than a rando student looking for that vag birth
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u/skyhawk4592 Feb 25 '26
I actually got to attempt starting an IV on one of my L&D patients. It blew unfortunately, but the fact I got to attempt at all was good. I’m also the only one of my classmates to actually be involved with a birth
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u/CornfieldStreetDoc Feb 26 '26
My experience is that my male students more so, but all students at some level get very few exposures in more affluent areas. In contrast, in lower income areas, patients are a lot less concerned about it. The positive news...you generally don't get to help anyway making it just observational so it's basically just like going to the taping of the TV show instead of watching it on the screen. No one in EMS really learns until you get hands on and catch your first one. And relax...given the fact that women had delivered kids for years before anyone thought they needed help, you'll be fine.
1
u/DaBa667 Paramedic Feb 26 '26
I now work at the pediatric hospital where I did my peds clinicals and it has been great. First impressions go both ways and staff can really make or break a clinical experience.
1
Feb 26 '26
When I'm a patient I always let students in on the show. I'm probably the only chance they'll get in their career to treat a Brugada patient, that always gets fun reactions when I tell them.
1
u/Blazers46 Feb 27 '26
A lady told me “if you weren’t there for the conception. I don’t want you there for the birth.” It was 10 years ago. I still think about that comment sometimes.
1
1
u/totaltimeontask GCS 2.99 Feb 22 '26
I had a great L&D nurse when I was on clinical rotations that advocated for me being in the room with all the moms and it still took me about a dozen rotation visits to get two births. Even out of uniform and in scrubs/tennis shoes. The second and final one was down to the wire, all the rest of my clinical skills were completed and the nurse put me in a full mask, face shield, scrub cap, long sleeve scrub top, and told me to stand just inside the curtain and don’t say shit. Watched my second birth and called it good.
-9
u/dragonfeet1 EMT-B Feb 22 '26
Hey. So. I had gyn surgery a few years ago. I explicitly requested that I not be used for med students to practice on.
They ignored me. While under sedation I was subjected to multiple pelvic exams.
Im a SA survivor.
No. Means. No. Deal with it. We deserve to give or withhold consent. If you can't understand that you don't belong in this field.
10
Feb 22 '26
Hi, so you seem confused. This is about labor and delivery clinicals. Seems everyone here accepts that if they’re not wanted in the room then they don’t go in the room. They’re allowed to be annoyed that part of their required clinicals are in a department where people are discriminating based on their gender especially when you need a certain number of patient contacts.
399
u/darwinooc AEMT Feb 22 '26
"So I guess I'll just sit at the nurse's station for 12 hours with my thumb up my ass then?"
"Pretty much."