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"Women's health" vs "ob/gyn" rotation


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Regarding the women's health clinical rotation... I've noticed that some programs will have students rotate exclusively at an outpatient ob/gyn clinic where they learn about pregnancies, sexual health, etc. However, other programs also include inpatient experiences and allow students to assist with active labor and delivery, and relevant surgical procedures.

 

If I go to a program that only has an outpatient "women's health" rotation without the inpatient experiences, will I be at a disadvantage? I don't even know if I want to go into ob/gyn as a specialty, but I'm kind of disappointed that I won't necessarily obtain that training. Is labor and delivery a skill that can just be learned on the job, after PA school? 

 

Thank you!

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I did an inpt OB rotation and we rotated between clinic, L+D, and OR.

I think the OR and L+D components are failry important. you can do pelvic exams and the rest of the outpt stuff on an fp rotation or in the ER. it's L+D and the OR that sets the rotation apart as a specialty. I delivered a few babies on L+D and first assisted a bunch of c-sections. I learned about epidurals. this actually has come in handy as I have delivered babies in the ER and been on medical missions where we did crash c-sections with local + procedural sedation.

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That sounds really cool... at first I thought the women's health/ob/gyn rotations were all the same at different programs as part of the PA education guidelines. It was only when I started diving in and reading the actual curriculum descriptions that I realized there's a reason why some programs call it "women's health" and others say "ob/gyn". 

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is usually one of the problem rotations for programs.

Since PAs are lightly represented in the L&D arena, there is somewhat of an assumption that the emphasis should be on more outpt female health, which is more likely going to fill a FM PA's day or being adept at pelvics which can be a big part of an UC or EM PA's day.

E is correct though, best to get that L&D experience including the regular delivery and the csection along with gyn surgery. 

The dirty secret is that this can be extraordinarily difficult to obtain.

Even in teaching settings, particularly male students are left out quite a bit due to patient's preference.

It boggles my mind that a practice will take a student and then be ok with a patient wanting a student out of the room. 

Doing a pelvic on a sim unit is so much different than the real thing.

How is a student going to reach their objective when no one wants to see the student?

F'ed up.

Good luck.

G Brothers PA-C

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I had very little in pt ob/gyn on my rotation besides a few consults we had.  Everything else was in a clinic.  So most of my experience with OB came from my ED rotation.  Now working in ED I have had a steep learning curve w/ OB pts.  I have just been forcing myself to pick these pts up and having to go to my colleagues for advice when things get sticky.  Bottom line - it is better to have OB experience on your rotation, but ultimately you can still learn this "on the job" later on and be fine.

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  • 3 weeks later...

My school calls it "Women's Health" but my rotation was inpatient Ob/Gyn where I rotated through clinic, L&D and OR. I was able to assist during procedures and deliver babies. They usually sent males here because in this practice 3 out of 5 doctors were male. Just because a school doesn't call it Ob/Gyn doesn't mean they don't have any good rotations available. If that's important to you, you can always ask to be placed in one that has it all.

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My school calls it "Women's Health" but my rotation was inpatient Ob/Gyn where I rotated through clinic, L&D and OR. I was able to assist during procedures and deliver babies. They usually sent males here because in this practice 3 out of 5 doctors were male. Just because a school doesn't call it Ob/Gyn doesn't mean they don't have any good rotations available. If that's important to you, you can always ask to be placed in one that has it all.

some newer programs just don't have enough ob sites and make many students(including most of the men) do "extra fp". it's not the same.

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I am in my OB/GYN rotation right now. Having a great time.

 

My current schedule is:

Monday and Wednesday is the Women's Health Clinic. I am doing well woman exams, pelivics, paps, G&C, wet preps, IUDs, implants, post partums and education all day. This had been great because I am now much more comfortable with these things and get to apply these new skills in the ER. I have learned that ER staff love it when somebody else can do the pelvic exams. :)

 

Tuesday in Thursday is the OR. Here I am doing 1st Assist with C-sections, BTLs, ablations, hysterectomies, etc.

 

Friday is a 24 hour shift with Labor & Delivery. I typically get to do 3 vaginal deliveries and one C-section per shift. Lots of triage work here.

 

 

The only area where some of the patients object to me (a male) doing the exam is the well woman clinic. I'd say 20-30% don't consent.

Honestly, I was dreading this rotation, but am getting so much out of it.

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