First Day at Women's Health Clinical 💗 ✌️{(.)} 🤰
So excited to share with you all that I officially have started my clinical rotations for my women's health sub-specialty this semester. I am working under a OB/GYN, so I am getting to see women across the lifespan (teens, pregnant mothers, postpartum women, women trying to conceive, post-meopausal, etc. etc.). My preceptor has already thrown me in a bit and allowed me to do a few bimanual exams (one finger in the vagina, the other hand palpating over the abdomen to feel for the uterus) and clinical breast exams.
So far on the first day, I was able to watch several pap smears, bimanual exams, breast exams, abdominal ultrasounds (as young as 14 weeks and as old as 40 weeks and 2 days!), transvaginal ultrasounds (helped to visualize cysts and fibroids that a few women had), postpartum follow ups checking cesarean section scars, follow ups after hysterectomies and fibroid removals, and nexplanon insertion (really can't wait until I have the opportunity to place one myself at clinical!). I also had the opportunity to perform Leopold's Maneuver (4 palpation maneuvers) on the woman at 40 weeks gestation and get a feel the presentation of the baby (whether it's vertex, cephalic presenting, where the spine is, fetal parts, and to find the location of baby's heartbeat so we can listen with the doppler). There were also some interesting cases that I had never encountered before such as a woman with an inverted nipple (apparently her normal), performing a breast exam on a woman with a left breast mastectomy, a protruding globular mass from a woman's cervix (preceptor thinks it's a fibroid).
All in all, I am excited to be able to see more and perform more skills in a field I love so much! I'll update y'all at the end of the semester and definitely let you know how much more I have been able to see and do and learn! Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Meagan