My experience
During this rotation, I got the most unexpected news ever. I was scheduled to complete my rotation about two hours away from my house. My rotation was in Destin, FL and I was living in Pensacola, FL. My heart literally dropped, but there was actually a good thing to this. I was given an apt to stay, free of charge and it was right next to the hospital. However, things were a lot more complicated than this. At FSU we have weekly rotation meetings with our clerkship director and other medical students and we also have a “Doctoring Class” every Wednesday. This meant I had to drive back home Every Wednesday. I was very stressed because I remember feeling like I was wasting so much time driving, therefore, I decided to use my time effectively and study differently. I used the ACOG videos online and would play those during my drives. Little did I know OBGYN EOR exam was going to be my top score.
A little bit of everything
Before starting PA school, I worked as an OBGYN hall nurse. I had experience assisting physicians and Nurse Practitioners in daily OBGYN procedures and physical exams. I remember during my long hours at work, I would tell myself I would never enjoy being a provider in women’s health. Then once I was in rotations, everything changed, I understood why providers would choose this as their specialty. You get to do a little bit of everything and its pretty fun. You get to see and do ultrasounds, deliver babies, perform surgeries, do a ton of procedures, educate women, diagnose cancer, preventative health, and even a little sprinkle of family medicine. This was simply fascinating to me, I loved how you can go from seeing a patient in the office about a simple yeast infection, then be delivering a baby in the next 5 minutes. This rotation will keep you moving, you are always on the go, and there is so much exciting news and fun things to do, it’s hard to find yourself bored and not enjoying it.
This schedule though
I must admit the schedule for OBGYN can be overwhelming and can be all over the place. Be prepared to work long hours, on your feet, weekends, over night shifts, and tons of on call shifts. I seriously don’t understand how OBGYNS survive this lifestyle, it’s a hard one to maintain a healthy work and life balance. You can be called to deliver a baby any time of the day. I remember one time I was on call and my boyfriend came to visit me, we went out for lunch and I did not expect to be called but YES, I got called and had to rush home to change into my scrubs and go deliver a baby. However, this makes this rotation a little exciting, because you never really know what you will encounter.
Happy and Empowering Medicine
What I loved most about this rotation was educating women and helping them through whatever medical problem they had. I loved teaching the young about birth control and options they had. This rotation gives you a chance to enjoy families’ happiest moments and that was a pretty cool experience. Whether its hearing their baby’s heartbeat for the first time, or delivering their baby, it was their biggest blessing and yet you had the opportunity to be part of it.
Delivering a baby
Because this rotation also has a lot of surgery involved in it, I hope you get to complete it after your surgery rotation. Otherwise reviewing OR scrubbing and sterile technique will come in handy before your first day. Delivering a baby is the most amazing thing to see and be a part of during this rotation. So many mixed emotions can be experienced in that one room, yet you are simply there to do your job and bring a baby to this world. Always introduce yourself to the parents, the nurses and make sure you have goggles and a hair cover. Be quick to grab your sterile gown, gloves, and your shoe covers. At first the scrub tech will dress you up, but I think eventually they expect you to be able to gown up on your own and put your own sterile gloves on. There are some videos you can watch on YouTube how to do this properly. There is way too much blood and fluids during delivery, you need to USE IT ALL.
Things you must know
· You must know the GPA ( Gravida, Para, Abortions ) abbreviations
· Learn the physiology of the menstrual cycle
· Pregnancy – what tests are performed which weeks
· Finding the Cervix, You will get tons of practice
· Measuring the Uterus
Preparing for an EOR
Good news!! Women’s health has probably one of the shortest topic lists of all the exams. Yet, I remember hearing other PA students talk about how difficult this exam was for them. I assumed it was a challenging one, so I did everything I could to be well prepared. This EOR exam ended up being my top score of all my exams. I think a lot of it has to do with how much I enjoyed this rotation and for going that extra mile to prepare. I personally did not feel like I studied so much compared to other rotations. But something that was required for our rotation was reading certain chapters a week in an OBGYN textbook and this probably helped me gain much of the knowledge. I also did all of the ACOG videos while driving, (will share these below). I used the PANCE prep book in women’s health, Smarty PANCE women’s health, as well and did the ROSH OBGYN exam.
ENJOY THESE RESOURCES
*ACOG VIDEOS
*OBGYN textbook
POST EXAM CELEBRATION - SAN ANTONIO TX
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