Ob-Gyn Week 1 - Night Float

We get to spend one week in the Triage area (aka Emergency Room) of the women's hospital during our Ob-Gyn rotation. This happened to be next for me after a great clinic week. We had lecture from 4:30-5:30ish and worked from 6pm-5am ish for the week. We worked with the same team for the entirety of the week (I worked with a different person every day at the clinic). We had a fantastic team that week - the residents and interns were great teachers and my fellow medical student (a 4th year that was sure she was going into Ob-Gyn) gave some very useful advice about rotations in general.

I spent several nights working in the Emergency Room during my first 2 years of medical school. My community mentor was great and I loved the variety of cases I got to see in the ER then. The night float week was no different. I got to see patients with a variety of complaints - some presenting with pre-eclampsia, other with bleeding in their first trimester (and understandingly being very scared by it) and then there were the mothers that were very close to delivering their baby and were feeling as if they were having contractions. It was always sad to inform the mothers that their contractions weren't regular enough and that they would have to come back another time. They were not yet in labor. Yet, the pain that some of these women were in was quite unbearable for them. It is amazing how a husband's or family's support went so far in relieving this pain.

Another great thing about the night float week was that I got to scrub in on emergency C-sections. Before this week, I had never scrubbed into any surgery. I had never seen a C-section done. I had never seen a baby being delivered. And by the end - I had seen 3 C-sections and helped with 2 deliveries. Oh how amazing it is to be a part of bringing new life into this world. The feelings that I went through when were simply amazing. I felt very lucky. As disgusting as the thought of amniotic fluid and blood all over the room is, the joy of hearing that new born baby was simply priceless.

In a nutshell, the week flew by. And I couldn't have asked for a better night float week. My sleep schedule was all messed up by the end but that didn't matter. I had learned a ton and I had developed great rapport with the residents that had taught me that week. Most importantly, I saw C-sections and helped deliver babies!