The first rotation of the night shift KU OB clinical group was a huge success. Students came to clinical every night with a positive attitude, eager and excited to learn specialty assessments, medications, documentation and nursing care for patients in Labor and Delivery, Mother-Baby, NICU and PICU. The nurses on these units were just as eager and excited to teach students about their specialty. It was also special to be able to have a former student from my first year as a clinical instructor be a nurse preceptor for two of my current students in the NICU.

There never seemed to be a dull shift for us, without something exciting happening somewhere. Students got to experience the full-moon night shift phenomenon, with a full house on the labor and delivery floor and some challenging cases, including a shoulder dystocia delivery with activation of the neonatal response team. This led to a conversation about how all the maternal-child units have emergency simulation training annually to practice and prepare for these exact situations.

Students were able to see so many of the complications they learned about either in class or through their DPC prep assignments as well. For example, a student had completed her DPC prep work on pre-eclampsia. During her shift, a patient came in through the ED after having an eclamptic seizure, and she was able to participate in all the assessments, interventions and nursing care for this patient.