So.
I gave my first pelvic exam on Monday.
!!!!!!!
The women’s health students take a lot of classes together with the midwifery students, because there is a lot of overlap in our scope of practice. Pelvic assessment is, of course, one such area of overlap. The midwifery student practice pelvic exams on each other, whereas the women’s health students learn with GTA’s, gynecological teaching assistants. I started hearing about this a year ago from people who were further along in the program than I, and explained to be a little bit about the peer pelvic exam debate. It sounds to me that the midwifery students have tended to be more touchy-feely, while the women’s health students have historically been more uptight? I don’t know. Regardless, the midwifery students get to practice on each other hella times in the lab, while we only get one shot. It was kinda making me go “eek!!” that I’d be practicing this just once before I’d be expected to go examine actual patients.
The women who came in to teach this session were so great! Apparently this group has been teaching pelvic assessment for like 30 years at different med schools and nursing schools, so they really know their stuff. The session was structured so that two students were paired with two instructors. We started by talking about our own experiences giving and receiving pelvic exams, and the one instructor demonstrated a pelvic exam on the other. Since these women have done this a billion times, the woman receiving the exam could show us with her hands exactly what was going on in her vagina, which was SO helpful. The examination movements are so small that there’s pretty much no way to tell from the outside what’s going on. The women were also both very familiar with their own anatomy, so they could show us exactly where to find their ovaries and exactly which way their uteruses were pointed.
The whole experience was much more educational than I anticipated. It was really great to practice on a person who could very specifically tell and show me what to do. They gave us a lot of instruction and feedback on technique and word choice when we’re talking to our patients. The pelvic exam I gave on Monday was more thorough than any I’ve ever received, and included a LOT more narration. I recognize that providers cultivate their own styles for examination, and it’s unrealistic to expect something quite so thorough at every appointment, but I’m so glad that I’m starting with this foundation. I fully intend to offer mirrors to all my patients so they can get familiar with their amazing reproductive organs.
And I palpated both ovaries and a retroverted uterus. I AM SO EFFING STOKED.
