Any RNs out there ......

[moose31]

Hey I was just wondering any ones experience out there who works as a registered nurse being preggers, I work 12 hour shifts on a very busy med/surg unit barely sit down luck to get 30 min lunch break worried whats gonna happen when i get pregnant. Any one out there been through it/going through it.
My main concern is being on my feet that long, my back hurts at the end of the day NOT being pregnant!
and the smells with morning sickness..... some of the things i encounter daily already make me nauseaous cant imagine if i were preggers.
Any advice/ Wisdom ?
THANKS

 

[binxyboo]

make sure you read you local policy on working while pregnant.
I was entitled to a couple of extra 15 min breaks. I also made sure that I had a risk assessment done ASAP which included the obvious things like not attending patients to Xray dept, not dealing with cytotoxic drugs etc, but also things like, avoiding violent patients and minimising the amount of manual handling if at all possible.
I was also able to change my shift pattern to short shifts, so I ended up working earlys and lates rather than long days.

 

[Tilliepink]

It was definitely hard on my legs/hips I'm sure you already have good shoes but if not I'd definitely invest in some good ones. I just made sure I stayed well hydrated, and did my charting as I went along this way it gave me sit down breaks.
As for the gross things and morning sickness it didn't seem to affect it much, but during the pts meal time I'd often get nauseous from the smell.