Sarah Lavonne: Hi. I'm Sarah Lavonne, and I'm so glad you're here. Here at Bundle Birth, we believe that your life has the potential to make a deep, meaningful impact on the world around you. You, as a nurse, have the ability to add value to every person and patient you touch. We want to inspire you with the resources, education, and stories to support you to live your absolute best life, both in and outside of work, but don't expect perfection over here. We're just here to have some conversations about anything birth, work, and life, trying to add some happy to your hour as we all grow together. By nurses, for nurses, this is Happy Hour with Bundle Birth Nurses.
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Sarah: Last season, we asked you to call in and give us your questions on things that you want us to go over on the podcast. I know online we basically have stories on Instagram, maybe a reel here and there. Maybe you can catch us in a class. I hope you can catch us in a class. The pod, to me, is such a unique opportunity for us to have these quick hit moments and for me to be able to rant about whatever it is, and so I'm so excited to answer a couple of your questions today.
There's a theme amongst these questions, and so this episode, I am going to give you my tips for new Labor and Delivery nurses, whether you are new or your experiences are great, even for experienced nurses to know. If you haven't sunk in on some of this, you'll either nod and be like, "Yes," or be like, "Ooh, I agree," or maybe you disagree.
If you disagree or agree, send us an email. We'd love to hear from you. We read every email that comes in. It's so fun to be able to connect in that way. I know we've always said that on the pod. It's hard because you can't comment down below. What I'm going to do is I'm going to play for you somebody's voice that wrote in asking a question, and then I will answer it. It really is related to being new.
Speaker 2: Hi. I'm an experienced nurse that's moving to L&D and starting a fellowship in two weeks. I was wondering if you guys could do a podcast for nurses new to L&D, just tips or advice. I've gotten a lot of negativity from people in my department, and just having to ward off that kind of stuff. That would be really cool if you guys did. Thanks so much for all you do.
Sarah: First of all, for all of you out there that maybe listen to this podcast and are considering coming to Labor and Delivery, maybe it's always been your dream, just know that everybody has their opinions. We have our opinions as well. Myself, I'm like, "I would never be a fill-in-the-blank nurse." I can't see myself in the ICU. I definitely can't see myself in regular med-surg. Bless you all. I've had the privilege of only ever doing Labor and Delivery.
For those of you that are interested in Labor and Delivery, we know this about every specialty that not every specialty is for everyone. This is where I would just say, in general, to hold everything with a grain of salt, that you only know you best. You also are the co-creator of your life. If you want to join us in this community, we are so excited to have you and so excited to welcome you on whatever Labor and Delivery unit that it is.
The other day on Instagram, I had done an Ask Me Anything, and someone had written in and said, "What's the best advice someone told you when you were new?" I actually answered. I was like, "Literally, I remembered no specific advice anyone told me. I felt like I was drowning in my favorite body of water. Most of my orientation was all clinical. Do this, don't do that. This is how you do this, chart that. I was so desperate for any positive reinforcement, and most of it came from my patients," is what I said in my response to that.
Then, of course, I was like, "What would I say to you with the best advice?" I gave you three things which I'm going to give you today. I'm actually going to expand that beyond and give you my three things. I'm going to give you Justine's tip because I did ask her this question, of course. Then a few of you actually wrote in and gave some advice based on your experience. I think all of the above is so incredibly relevant, and it's also really unique and not necessarily what you would expect when you're thinking about new advice.
I think about give yourself grace, which is so true. Give yourself grace. Here's my bonus. This is my first thought is that Labor and Delivery has this reputation of like, "Oh, you just like hold babies all day." I don't think most places in the hospital understand the acuity that we deal with, the critical thinking that's required, the uniqueness in that you are super autonomous.
Labor and birth, I've said this a million times, but labor and birth is so incredibly fluid. It's flex and flow. You can be going one direction and then be going the opposite direction, all of which is normal. You can go from completely normal to completely abnormal and be in an emergency in one second. It's just like a complete wild, crazy ride. For those of us that love the adrenaline and love the excitement, it's the perfect place for that.
A lot of times, Labor and Delivery ends up cross-training in ED. I have a ton of friends from ED came to Labor and Delivery and vice versa, and so they're, to me, the most similar types of units. It's a wild, crazy ride. One of the misconceptions I think people think is that, "Oh, it's an easy specialty." The reality is, Labor and Delivery, you have to wear the hat of every single type of nurse in the hospital, other than geriatric, I suppose. [chuckles] Maybe a rehab nurse.
Even then, you may have a patient that has some sort of limitation, and you're dealing with that alongside their labor, their birth, their high-risk pregnancy. You're an OR nurse. You're a PACU nurse. You're a NICU nurse. You stabilize for the ICU. You're a med-surg nurse. You're a regular labor nurse. You're an antepartum nurse/regular med-surg nurse. Really, if anybody comes in with any comorbidity, that could be cancer, now you just became an oncology nurse.
I love that about our specialty. I love the opportunity for learning while also it being so niche and so specialized that you get a little bit of everything. Also, for instance, this is so selfish of me, I am not a pharmacology girl. That was my least favorite class in nursing school. Our pharmacology that we deal with in OB is so minimal compared to so many other specialties.
I think about ICU, I'm like, oh my God, so many drips and so many pills if they aren't intubated, and all the different formats and TPN. Oh my gosh, it just goes on and on and on. We just don't do that. I love the limitations that Labor and Delivery gives and I also love the excitement and the plethora of experiences, plus the really good stories, and I love the connection. If you're considering Labor and Delivery, that's what you're getting yourself into.
Now, as far as my tips go, I do have some tips. Obviously, there's the standard ones. What I said on Instagram was my first tip, and this comes from precepting, especially our new grad nurses. If you're an experienced nurse and you started a million IVs, you probably are feeling totally fine about this, but I don't know about you. You can let me know if you relate to this.
When I am starting an IV, IVs are my favorite skill, if I have any doubt in my mind that I am not going to get the IV, I will not get it 100% of the time. It's just like, you know when you're setting it up, and you're looking at the vein, and you're like, "Yes, I got this," and you feel 100% confidence, and you go for it, and you get it, versus you're like, "I think, I don't know. I'm not sure if I'm going to get this," and you just wing it because you think you're hoping that you're going to get it, or you actually think you're going to get it, but you doubt yourself, almost 100% of the time, I would miss it with my IVs.
My number one tip for IVs, this is so incredibly random, I have other Labor and Delivery nurse-specific ones coming, but if you believe that you're going to get your IV, you will get the IV the majority of the time, and if you doubt yourself, it affects your ability to place the IV. That's tip number one.
My second tip is, and I'm going to read this one to you because I think how I wrote it is a good summary, is that when I was able to detach from anticipating emergencies, I did my job better, and I was able to respond better. Still stressful, stay ready, but constantly freaking out about what could happen creates our own suffering. Respond to what is and what you're actually seeing while assessing all the time.
I think if someone would have told me this-- this really goes for any specialty of nursing, but especially in Labor and Delivery because things can change so quickly. Especially when you're first learning fetal monitoring, if you haven't taken the basic fetal monitoring class, take that. That'll help calm your nervous system because what you're doing is you're watching the fetal monitors, and you're like, "Oh my God. Wait. Is that a D cell? Is that the start of a D cell?"
You're anticipating everything that can go wrong, particularly, I will say, with the fetal monitoring and D cells. I joke that I would hear D cells in my sleep. I'd come home and be like, "Boom, boom. Boom, boom," and you're like, "Oh my God, heart attack." As you're anticipating those emergencies, we want to stay ready. That, to me, is where your education is so incredibly important. When I was new, I read the entire AWHONN Perinatal Nursing book prior to starting because, one, I'm a psycho like that, and two, it helped me feel like I could have some semblance of control.
By knowing and having read it in my mind when I heard things or when I saw things, they were much, much more familiar that I owned my education; I still own my education, that's why I'm such a nerd and why I'm here today, of saying, "I'm going to know this stuff as much as humanly possible," understanding that there are lives on the line. Especially if you're coming from another specialty, it's easy that the more you do this, the more you sort of get a little more lax on that front. I wanted to control what I could.
The other thing that I did that I found super-duper helpful that no one told me that I found, in theory, way too late, they still did it, but it would have been nice to know ahead of time, is I found the policy and procedure manual. If you haven't looked for it, go look for your policy and procedure manual. It may be printed, meaning I'm assuming it's on your intranet as well. Go find what policies already exist for all the different things that we do.
When I found this manual, I was like, "What in the world? This thing has existing the whole time?" I printed them all off. I took them home. I studied them. I turned them into notes. I made my own badge buddies because what a policy and procedure manual is, is literally your step-by-step guide to doing everything: How to hang MAG, how to give pitocin, how to titrate pitocin, what to do in a seizure, how to encourage breastfeeding. It is a step-by-step guide.
I know that not every hospital has a policy and procedure manual. If this is something that you don't have, this is something that, first of all, it's a legal safeguard, and second of all, it is, to me and was to me and still would be to me, one of the most helpful resources in orienting to a new unit. Go find your policy and procedure manual and prep your mind.
There's only so much you can do in anticipation of emergencies, but if you know that you know your NRP, you know your ACLS, if your hospital doesn't require it, I strongly, strongly encourage you to get ACLS certified because people code in our units. We have to be able to initiate those codes until help arrives with the code team.
Do that education, fill your mind, know the protocols, know what resources are out there, know where to get answers to your questions, and then know that emergencies will happen. All you're doing is creating your own suffering by anticipating and going everything that could go wrong versus-- what I found was I was missing the human being in front of me.
Your job as a nurse is to assess the patient, get to know them to figure out their demeanor, see what the dynamics are to promote physiologic birth, to set the mood in the room, to promote physiologic coping, to provide continuous labor support if you can, to obviously assess the fetal monitors and respond to those changes that are happening in the body.
Often what I was taught, even back in the day, this is now years ago, was all the charting and where supplies are. You need to know that and you're going to feel overwhelmed by that. The more that you can continue to focus on what you know, what you see, and creating and becoming the best assessor of all time, you're going to be able to look at the patient and be able to tell your brain, "This is normal," or you're going to say, "This isn't normal." The best nurses are ones that can recognize normal from abnormal and abnormal from normal, and then escalate up the chain of command afterwards.
To me, it's this combination of knowing as much as humanly possible, do the classes, do our mentorship program, come to move. There's so many resources we have online. AWHONN is an incredible resource. There's books out there. I'll link our Amazon book list down below. Learn physiologic birth. The only way for you to know normal from abnormal is to understand the physiology of birth and own that in your practice. That is not something that likely your hospitals are going to provide unless they've partnered with us. If they haven't partnered with us, but you would like to, we would love to work with you.
When you can function out of that lens, know normal from abnormal. When you are seeing normal, tell yourself, "This is normal." I will respond when it becomes abnormal if it ever becomes abnormal. The majority of the time, you're not looking at seizures and codes and AFEs and uterine ruptures and cord prolapses, but you will be ready. You stay ready to be able to recognize, "Now something is off," because the more experience you get, the more you have that experience to bank your brain from in your assessment skills.
I'm going to read you this tip again. My tip for this one is detach from anticipating emergencies. You will do your job better and be able to respond better. It's still stressful. Stay ready. Constantly freaking out about what could happen creates your own suffering. Respond to what is happening and what you're actually seeing while assessing all the time.
All right. I'm going to give you Justine's, because I just texted her and was like, "What do you got for me? What's your biggest tip?" She said, "To admit what you don't know so imposter syndrome never has a chance to grow." An imposter syndrome could be a whole episode. We've talked about that throughout the various seasons of this podcast. It is so easy to feel like you don't belong and feel like you're a fraud.
I will say that, to be honest, if you don't feel that way, I would find it more abnormal than feeling that way. I felt that way for a very long time. I still feel that way in doing this job. I'm like, "What am I even doing? How did I even get here? Am I really the best person for this? Do I really know what I'm talking about?"
I would say that very easy, that imposter syndrome, those little side comments that maybe your coworkers make or maybe your ex-coworkers make from the unit that you're moving to, it's so easy to let those judgments, that negativity creep in. What I'm hearing here is, is to be able to admit what you don't know.
I remember being new. I started with one other labor nurse. She was the smartest person. I think she came from Yale. She had this super fancy degree and was super smart, asking all the right questions. I just felt like a dumb dumb the whole time. Mind you, I kept up. Luckily, I spoke Spanish, so that put me ahead. She really challenged me by her demeanor of how she approached learning and how she knew everything. I felt like that was how I had to be as well.
Let's be honest, I'm a pretty confident person in general, especially the older that I've gotten. When I know something, I'm pretty stubborn. I am very convinceable. If you have an argument and you want to go into it, I love having those conversations. Once I've made up my mind about something, I'm like, "Yes, I know it. This is what I know and prove me wrong then."
I think what I'm hearing here, and I totally agree with, is that especially when you're new, for you to take the stance that you do not know, and if you don't know, don't act like you know. Don't lie about it. The reality is that your preceptor, your new unit, your manager, everybody, when you are new, no one is expecting you to know anything. You almost set yourself up for failure if you act like you know or you say that you know. Then they're going to assume that you know what you're doing. You're going to have set yourself up to not be able to ask those questions.
If I were to start again, I would walk in and almost go the opposite direction, like I have no idea. Then when you know something, say, "This is what I know. Can I clarify with you," understanding that especially in Labor and Delivery, so much comes from the experience. I believe that's true in other units as well.
Because of the fluidity of labor and birth and how one thing could be true here and another thing could be true the opposite, and they're both just as relevant, is a very, very weird place to go. It really does take a significant amount of experience to feel comfortable and to feel like there's this art to it. It's this sensation. It's the feeling. When you don't have that feeling, you're grasping at anything you can possibly get at to feel that sense of control.
If you approach it as a learner, one of the phrases that we use in mentorship that you learn in our first month of mentorship is, "I'm not stupid. I'm just learning." That came out for me in my orientation where I felt like people were talking to me like I was stupid. I'm literally sitting there desperate like a sponge. I'm like, "I want to know everything. I've already read the perinatal nursing book. I've done all the classes. Please tell me. Please help me feel confident. I want to be really good at this."
If you're listening to this and you're a preceptor or you're a manager or you're another coworker and you're seeing those new people come in, take a moment right now and remember what it feels like to be new, remember how challenging that is, remember that we all felt overwhelmed. Us eating our young, us being unkind, us deciding that somebody is going to make it or not, whether you like them or not, please stop. It's not helpful. We already are strained as a nursing workforce. We're already burnt out. We're already dealing with morale issues coming in a future episode probably.
No matter who you are, whether you're new or experienced, preceptor or not, you have the capability of setting the tone on the unit, especially for our new people, so that they don't hate their lives. We all want work-life satisfaction. We all want to come to work and love what we're doing. We want to love our coworkers. It makes or breaks the situation. What we can control is our own attitude. That's my little soapbox for all of us; that we would be aware of our attitudes with our new people and all of us really need to be admitting when we're wrong.
I have currently a manager texting me. She's an assistant nurse manager at a very large system here in LA who was one of my mentors. She's like, "Can I throw this back at you? I don't really know the answer to this. It's about funnel exams. What is the protocol? Is it the two-hour mark because of postpartum hemorrhage risk or is it five checks of the funnel checks?"
We're having these conversations, but you have to have your community of people that you can ask. That's something, if you are new, cultivate an attitude of learning where you're not-- This leads to my next tip in a second. Cultivate an attitude of learning where those around you see you as teachable, see you as eager to learn. They're going to be more likely to help you learn, to answer your questions, to not put you down if you don't come across as a know-it-all.
This leads me to my most, I don't know if it's my most, but I'm going to say it's one of my biggest tips that I wish I would have known. If you are a part of mentorship, you remember in the first class we talk about unit culture, we talk about bullying, we talk about provider relationships, and give you strategies for that.
Me and Justine are having this conversation, and we both have this massive epiphany. The epiphany was, this is embarrassing to say, but go with it, is that, oh, providers are people too, [chuckles] which is so silly. Of course, there are people, too.
A lot of times, what happens is because of the hierarchy of the hospital system and because of unit culture and different badge types and whatnot, that instead of being collaborative, we create our own suffering in our relationships. What I wish someone would have told me, going to a new unit, this is whether you're new to Labor and Delivery, you're just moving departments, is, the relationships that you make with your coworkers can make or break your experience.
One, you want your work life. You want to show up and be like, "Oh, thank God you're on," or, "Yes," to that charred nurse, and actually enjoy your coworkers. You spend more time with them going through potentially traumatic, hard, invigorating experiences together that no one else gets. You want to be able to have those relationships. What I will say in addition to all of that is that your ability to build personal relationships with the nurses, with the staff, that means EVS, that means your techs, that means your assistants, that means your CNAs, if you have them, or your front desk people, that everybody adds value to the patient experience and to your life. Get to know people's names, learn about their families, and then additionally, to your providers.
Often, I was afraid of the provider. I'd be like, "Ooh, I don't want to mess up anything, or I don't want to bug them." Especially starting on nights, which a lot of us did, I worked nights pretty much my whole career, but to call a doctor in the middle of the night, they're not always the kindest. Actually, there's a podcast coming on that of working with our providers and what to do when you have conflict and whatnot. That relational capital will set you apart for a long-lasting, more positive, and more, I'm going to use the word persuasive career.
Hear me out here. As you can imagine, if you are assessing and you are doing your absolute best, and you have that relationship with your provider, those of us that know we know, and you know this from other specialties too, and you call them, and you say, "Hey, Dr. So and So, I'm concerned. I need you to come in."
You barely even need to say anything else because you have that trusting relationship. They know exactly who you are. You've built that trust between the two of you. They're like, "I'm on my way," versus. "Who are you and what are you seeing?" and getting skeptical and feeling like, "I don't trust that your assessment is accurate," or whatever. Obviously, this comes with time. Obviously, this comes with various experiences together.
I'll tell the story. Bless him. This doctor actually passed away and he was amazing. He was so incredible and also feisty. I had a patient of his. I was new to this hospital. He had three sons and wanted to go to their soccer games, which is valid. This patient came in, and she was scheduled for a repeat C-section, but she came in in labor. I sit down with her, and I'm like, "Hey, what's your plan?" She's like, "I'm scheduled for a C-section, but actually, I really want a vaginal birth."
We have this whole heart-to-heart. I built rapport with her. I'm like, "She clearly wants a VBAC." This hospital did VBAC. We had 24-hour with multiple anesthesia on staff all the time. I'm like, "I'll just call your doctor." I call the doctor, and I'm like, "Hey, I'm talking to her." He is like, "Great. I'll come on in. My sons have a soccer game in a little bit. We'll get the C-section over." I was like, "Actually, she really wants a VBAC." He loses it on me.
I'm just listening and thinking to myself, "Why is this about me?" He's like, "No. You manipulated her to think that she wanted a vaginal birth. I've had a relationship with her forever. There's no way she wants a vaginal birth." I'm like, "All I'm saying is I sat down with this lady, and now that she is here, I am hearing that she wants a VBAC." He's like, "I'm coming in for it." Anyway, he's like, "Then maybe if she wants to VBAC, I'm going to go to this soccer game." He goes to the soccer game and comes in four hours later.
In the meantime, this was my bad. This is where I went wrong, and I should have updated him. This is where I learned my lesson. I had a conversation with her, and I'm like, "Let's just have him check you when you come in, and we'll just have a cutoff. If you're actually in labor and your cervix is changing," at that time, I had checked her, which I did not have an order for, but it was just like, he wasn't like, "Go ahead and check her and see what she is." I was like, "I'm going to assess. I'm going to see where you're at."
I check her. She was two. Then maybe three or four hours later, I check her right before he comes in, and she's four to five. She's excited. She's laboring. She's thrilled. She wants her VBAC. It's clear. We've had this conversation. My bad was that I didn't alert him to the plan that we had discussed. Please alert your providers to the plan that you discussed. Again, I was new and didn't know any better. He shows up, and I catch him in the hallway, and I'm like, "Yes, I checked her. She's made change. She's four to five. She's super excited about it."
Mind you, I was trying to advocate for this patient's wishes. It was crystal clear that she was excited about a VBAC, but she was feeling pressured by him into a repeat C-section. Long story short, he is furious with me, completely furious with me, and just like, "How dare you create a plan and not include me?" By the way, I did not have the relational capital. He barely knew who I was. I was just trying to help this patient.
He comes in. He's got an attitude. It becomes a whole thing. He's giving me the cold shoulder. Sure enough, by the way, pat on my back, this lady went on to have a VBAC, had a beautiful experience, and all is well, was very happy about it. He got to go to his soccer games, and we avoid another C-section. It was what it was.
As we know, and I will just acknowledge all of us, that so often when we are having these conversations with providers and we are advocating for our patients, it's not because of us. It's not because I don't want to go to back. I have to labor with this lady for the next few hours. It might sometimes be easier. I don't mind the OR. Sure, let's knock it out. I genuinely don't care so long as it's what the patient wants. Often we personalize and we attack each other's opinions or act like it's my issue that I was pushing her to have a whatever when this had nothing to do with me.
Also remember that when you're new or if you're having these arguments, and again, I'm coming back to talk about provider relationships because I have a lot to say, and I'm going to give you some tools and resources for having these discussions and building these relationships, buti n those moments, remember that it's not about you. Ask yourself, "Is this because I'm pushing my own agenda or is this because I'm trying to do the right thing?" If you're trying to do the right thing, let it go. The issue is beyond you.
Back to my story on provider relationships. I didn't really know this guy. I pissed him off and we were not friends. [chuckles] Every time I had a birth with him after that, he would give me the cold shoulder and be like, "Oh, you," and had a grudge, which, by the way, is so silly because this patient had a beautiful experience and I advocated and it worked out. What's the big deal? It was what it was. We're all human here.
Now fast forward to probably six months later, I had another patient of his that all signs led to nothing wrong and, this is like the longest story ever, but all of a sudden she was perfectly normal. She got an early epidural, which I really didn't encourage back then, but I just had an intuition about it and this patient wanted it. She got her epidural, lay her down. I just changed her chucks because that's what we do. We keep them clean and dry. She's like, "I feel like another gush of fluid." She'd been ruptured.
I look, it's bright red vaginal bleeding. She was a VBAC. My response time was I had gone into that shift and you know you'll learn this, especially when you're new and you get more experienced that I just had this pit in my stomach that something was going to go wrong, but I didn't function anticipating that. I just was on top of my game and like, "It's normal, it's normal, it's normal," and then it wasn't normal.
I pressed the Staff Assist before the heart rate even responded. I hit the pit. I was unplugging her and moving her down towards the OR by myself before anyone could get there in the emergency. As you can imagine, I talk fast, I move fast. I'm like, ta, ta, ta, ta,o n top of it. I was out of that room to the point where when the charge nurse saw that I was staff assisting, which I wasn't like a boy who called wolf, and that I unplugged the monitor.
By the time they got there, they were like, "Something is very wrong." I just knew something was very wrong. It was way too much bright red vaginal bleeding. I had just assessed her. Then, of course, the heart rate started to drop. I unplug her. We're moving to the OR. We get in the OR and she's still bleeding. The heart rate is still down. We end up crashing this patient thinking it was a uterine rupture. She's a VBAC.
Sure enough, it was a ruptured vasoprevia. A vasoprevia is where one of the vessels, the baby's vessels, artery or vein, is traversing the membrane instead of a part of the cord. The umbilical cord should protect the vessels, and then that goes into the placenta, but one of those vessels goes off to the side. What had happened was she was ruptured, but her bag of water broke a little bit more and broke into the vessel.
What happens is, the baby is actually bleeding out. Those babies, a ruptured vasoprevia, is a horrific emergency, horrific. It can result in neonatal death very quickly, and you need to respond extremely quickly, but again, none of us even knew this was not diagnosed. Because of my response time, and because of my intuition, and because I was experienced and the team trusted, we crashed her, and we saved this baby's life.
This baby came out white. They did a very quick blood transfusion. This baby is perfectly fine. They came back years later thanking me and whatnot. It ended up being a beautiful story, but it so quickly, to the point where when we debriefed the case, the attending that was on, because it was, of course, this other guy's patient, but he was outside the hospital, that when the attending was debriefing it, he looked at me and flat out said, "If you wouldn't have moved as quickly as you would have and we would have hesitated for another 30 seconds, it could have been a very different outcome." He said that in front of this attending.
All of that being said was after that case, he came up to me and he thanked me. He said, "Thank you for your nursing care. I'm so grateful for you." He'd also been with this client for now two pregnancies and whatnot. It instantly built rapport. You best believe that after that, if I called him and I was like, "Hey, doctor, blah, blah, blah, blah." We were best friends. Maybe not best, best friends, but we were buddies. He trusted my assessment. Yes, it took time. It took me showcasing my skills.
My skills were there because I knew I'd never had a ruptured vasoprevious. We didn't know what was going on. I knew she was a VBAC. Everything was normal until it wasn't. I responded as quickly as I possibly could. The teamwork was amazing. I didn't do it by myself. In fact, I have to shout out to that team. You know who you are if you're listening. That was an insane case. When we looked at the placenta afterwards, we were like, "Oh my gosh." You could see just the vessel broken in half.
This tip really is build those relationships with your provider, showcase your skills, know your stuff so that when there is an emergency, you can continue to build trust with your providers, and also, hold some space that when you don't know, you don't know. It's okay to ask for help. It's okay to say, "I've never done this before. Could you help me?" That is a safe nurse.
Even that applies to after orientation. Your orientation won't give you everything. It will not train you enough that you're going to feel amazing about it. That's also where, again, I invite you to our mentorship program. It's currently closed, but you can join us in July. Continue to do your continuing ed and find those classes that are going to fill in the gaps for you for the things that you're not getting on orientation.
You could also read. You don't have to come to one of our classes. Open the AWHONN book. Open some of their critical care books, the fetal monitoring book. Come to basic fetal monitoring. All of the information is out there. You just have to start to continue to ingest it so that you can showcase your skills, build rapport with your providers. Then when you're at the nurse's station, sit down and ask them, "Hey, I'm new here. It's so nice to meet you."
This is where that networking piece comes in that you may not be at a networking event, but networking at the nurse's station. "Do you have kids?" After your first case with the provider, come up and say, "Thank you so much. Wow. I really appreciate how you--" fill in the blank and give them an actual true compliment. Don't just make up something. Or, "I'd love to learn from you. I saw that you did this. Could you explain to me why? I really want to understand."
Even some of the catering, I would do this too of like, "I noticed that you wanted this. Is that something you want in the future? I'll make note for it for future deliveries with you." Those little nuggets. Brené Brown talks about putting the marble in the jar. You're adding that trust factor. You're building rapport so that you have that rapport to pull from that if something goes wrong, and it will.
This world of OB, there's no way we can avoid conflict. Emotions are running high. People have different opinions. Lives are on the line. We all want the same thing. That's where I will leave us today, is that always remember that we all want the same thing, that we want good outcomes. We want a healthy mom, healthy baby, healthy birth memory, hopefully, and that we are all on the same team.
Very quickly, what ends up creeping in some of our units is this us against them or a writing of each other's story or a lack of collaboration or we decide that they're a bad person or whatever when we just don't know. Don't act like you've been in somebody else's shoes when you've never been in their shoes. I don't want to act like I've been in yours when I don't know what you've been through either. If we can hold space for one another, choose to be a team, communicate with one another, build those relationships, it's going to set you up for success in the future. That was a ranter.
I'm going to come back. Like I said, I will be back and I will read off some of your tips and comment on those. Then I have two other voice audios that I'm going to play for you. One is related to how to prevent burnout for new nurses and the other one is about getting hired, how to set yourself up to get hired in Labor and Delivery?
If you have specific advice, you want to continue the conversation, please email us at nurses@bundlebirth.com. If you're not a part of our email list, join our email list. That's the quickest and easiest way to, one, stay in the loop with everything happening with us, but also I give you free education every single month on the first of the month. It's called Our buzz.
I also give you OB in the news and any research updates. You can scroll to the bottom and I give you what happened over the last month. It's a quick and easy way for you to stay up to date in your practice, get those little quick hits, see what's interesting to you, know what's going on in the culture of birth, stay up to date and informed. Our goal, as always, is to help empower you to not feel helpless, hopeless, or alone, but give you the tools to build that confidence so that you can live in an empowered way that you can leave your shift at work and come home and live that thriving life.
Thanks for spending your time with us during this episode of Happy Hour with Bundle Birth Nurses. If you like what you heard, it helps us both if you subscribe, rate, leave a raving review, and share this episode with a friend. If you want more from us, head to bundlebirthnurses.com or follow us on Instagram. Now it's your turn to take what you learned today, apply it to your life, and take a deep breath. Go get to know one of your coworkers. Go build a relationship to be just a little bit deeper, just a little bit more trusting. We'll see you next time.