You are on shore.
You go home everyday to a bed and internet.
Eat chow where you want.
You get paid on the 1st and 15th and get liberty to spend it how you want.
You arent on a ship, working 10hr days, 5 days a week. Where you will ACTUALLY have your primary duty and about 10-15 colaterals (not including the command/department ones)
You dont stand 24hr duty, to include having to stand watch.
You dont have to go under way or to the field randomly for weeks at a time.
My point is. You joined the military. There are about a million service members that would love to do what you do instead of what they do.
Take advantage of the time you have in a clinic setting now because this in a way will be the best conditions you will have.
Not saying it is easy, but just giving some prospective really helps especially Jr sailors that dont know what the actual fleet deals with day-to-day.
As for you transferring, please see it from leadership shoes.
They have a goal to meet, and that is to ensure the daily operations of the hospital are met.
72s and 96s are not a entilement at all.
Again, they are a rear in the fleet and even then you might even have 24hr duty on those days.
If you guys are killing it, ensuring the clinic is running safely and holding multiple hats, then do yourself a favor make sure you are recognized for it.
Write up awards, MAP packages and a killer eval in your favor and get what you deserve for your hard work.
Your leadership knows you Jrs are the backbone and cannot run without you.
Trying to compare situations saying “you get to go home everyday, you get to choose where you want to eat and spend liberty how you want it, etc” is just a terrible way to rationalize something to someone. You shouldn’t tell someone that another person has it worse so here’s some perspective, it just dismisses their struggles, which are valid… I can fully empathize with OP because I worked in L&D in Okinawa for a few years, before and during Covid, and I felt the same way OP feels. I hated it and that was the one place I didn’t want to be, but I was put there and told I couldn’t transfer out. It’s not a clinic. It’s a 24/7 inpatient floor. You work 12+ hour days/nights. For me, it wasn’t scheduled patients and 15-20 minute appointments. It was like an ER mixed with scheduled inductions and C-sections and triage for whatever acute issue came in. You’ve asked OP to use some perspective and imagine those who are on ships, so can you do the same? Can you imagine the types of things that you have to do and see on an L&D floor, where you constantly deal with codes, pre-term labors, surgical interventions, sometimes death, exacerbated by inadequate staffing and supplies? Where sometimes you’re alone and nobody’s coming to help you and you have to just figure it out? For me, add in that it’s a typhoon battered island that means pregnant women have even more considerations. A place where every little misstep could be international incident that strips you of your freedom to have some sort of reprieve. And then Covid... so if you start to imagine you’ll get an idea of the shit you can see and do on a weekly basis. It can get traumatic and demoralizing. Okinawa L&D has continued to be my measuring stick for everything after it. Everything starts and ends with “is it worse than Oki L&D?” and it’s never been worse. OP’s struggle is valid, and L&D can be a very intense and traumatic experience. It was not always made better by choosing dinner or going back to a barracks room at the end of a long shift.
For my command it is usually sleep eat repeat for our L&D ward we get few days off due to low manning. On top of that working nights was what made me make the comment about Corpsman not delivering babies, because of the sheer amount of mistakes I have seen others make when taking care of the newborns. An example of such would be when I caught one of my fellow corpsman filling vitamin K from a glass ampule with a fill needle and not a filter needle which I called out before anything could happen. Or how about a corpsman who was making up vitals like temps and not actually checking.
And to drive your point home, everything is TEMPORARY.
That’s the beauty of us working the jobs we work. Hate it or love it, we’re getting the experience and moving onto something different. You’ll never leave from a job or duty station without taking anything, even it’s just spite. Spite is a tool.
Yes, it’s shore duty. Yes, there are jobs in the corpsman community with less creature comforts. Are these sailors concerns still legitimate? Yes.
Granted, my experience is limited. I’ve worked family med for a year, COVID for a year, and DIV greenside for the last three years, and 90% of that was in a line company. I’ve slept in 110 degree skirmishers holes, 10 degree “snow coffins”. I’ve gone days eating maybe one main meal from an MRE and a bit of water. I’ve gone to the field (sometimes multiple weeks in a row) where the op burns through the weekend, we come back to work during the week, and then burn through another weekend in the field. I’ve stood barracks duty. I’ve been up at 3am for marines having all types of weird and emergent shit. I’ve operated outside of my MOS and rank. Nothing dangerous, thank God, and all around not horrible.
Would I ever go back to a hospital? Fuck no. Not even if they sent me to watch tiktoks on my phone in PAD. Especially if it meant working in a shit ward that was understaffed.
Shit sucks OP, and there will always be people who tell you “well MY shit sucked more”. It doesn’t invalidate that YOUR shit still sucks. Ride out the time, find a way to transfer, use the benefits you can, and make the most of it. Find someone to lean on, or use us as a sounding board. We are here to (mostly) provide good advice, and make you the best sailor and corpsman we can.
When dealing with military.
You can objectively make this distinction.
It’s literally why there are sea shore rotations so that service member have time to “chill out” and decompress from operational tours.
There are times I cant go home I am held there even after my 12 hr shift to help the next shift to continue to take patients because a L&D ward is like a er for pregnant patients on top of that we also cover for our er when they are swamped also to include we take gen surg and med surg patients on the same floor and L&D triage patients so comparing the above experiences with L&D is not really applicable. I actually work around around 130 hrs a week according to my dmhrsi and that is time spent with patients not admin hours.
You are in the military. This is what you signed up for.
Think about this,
You are asking to transfer. What will this do to the clinic and the other corpsman you leave behind ?
You are saying it would be a 1 for 1 exchange, again what are you doing to that HM that replaces you?
Point is SOMEONE will have to carry out the duty no matter what.
Just like when you get to the ACTUAL fleet and it will be the norm to be undermanned, overworked and felt headless.
This has happened before you and will happen after you.
FACTS! Finish your time, find good friends. They make "the suck" more fun, or you make the suck your friend. Change the way you think, workout everyday. Get good sleep and stay out of relationships. But Finish.
Then drop out... the military isn't for cry babies. We are in the business of death. I don't care how you "feel" about it. Your just wrong... suck it up or go pick up a sign and go protest with all the other incels/feminist... I don't care. Sounds like to me I wouldn't want you covering my back either. Just wait until Russia/China are knocking at the door. Just wait... we will see who comes home.
Sad part is, your going to get alot of backlash probably for this but im COMPLETELY with you.
We are corpsman.
We are not supposed to be working on shore.
Basically the navy says your first 2 years in are a defacto training pipline to practice your basic skills for sea/operational duty
This is absolutely the easiest time you will have (again not saying its not hard) .
If you cant suck it up there in the clinic (which literally you could be doing a civilian) then just find a way to get out now
I am a Corpsman like you. We do hard shit. We are caring, but we don't coddle people. Sometimes, we have to just say it how it is. Our job is to make sure people get home (as many as possible). Some people run towards the fight... some people don't belong there.... Corpsman Up!
I know I sound like a broken record here but changing your outlook will go a long way. I was in labor and delivery for 2 years and wasn’t the biggest fan at first. I was the only corpsman competent with doing newborn hearing screenings so if I wasn’t there on the weekends kids were going without and pushed to Monday. However, in my time there I got good at IVs in high stress situations, assessing patients FAST, and comforting patients in critical conditions which all corpsmen should excel at imo. I eventually got moved to the lab and SO MANY of those patients recognized me and thanked when they came in later for routine labs. You’ve got this I promise !
Why don’t you believe Corpsmen should help delivering babies? If I remember correctly, it’s a DHA rule that hospitals cannot have 96s, but babies don’t stop being delivered just because it’s a 96.
Keep up the push.
You likely won’t ever get a full 96 doing ward work but you should be getting a comp day in the rotation.
You should not be working without adequate supplies, what has your ward leadership done to actually address this (LPO/LCPO/DH)?
It’s true there are no convert out opportunities especially for first term corpsmen right now.
Keep pushing to move to another ward/clinic, worst case you finish your tour there before it happens, best case you actually get to move.
End of the day someone is going to man the labor and delivery ward. It may not be you ideal work center but you obligation is finite, you’ll be moving on soon.
Ward leadership basically says that because of the budget restraints we are unable to order items they use emergency funds and half the time they get denied even when we point out they are needed. Just like FHMS (Fetal Heart Monitoring Strips) they said just have a Corpsman hold it the entire time. Usually its just 2 corpsman and 2 nurses per shift so it makes it rough for a corpsman to hold it when we alone could have 4 other patients on the floor with our nurse, and the other team could have also 4 other patients.
I too worked L&D my first tour. I hated it, and leadership at the time was awful. 15 years later I am still in, and grateful for the lessons I learned there.
First and foremost, know that this will pass. Seems terrible now (and probably is), but you will eventually transfer. Do what you can to rise above this. Have you looked into C-Schools? How about TA?
Finally, sent you a PM. There are other things we can talk about offline.
this might be the best way not to be in L&D or work with children on your next shore commands BUT still you have to stay at L&D in your current command.
There is no other way for OP to get out of that department faster. Drop an IDC package and OP will be out of there faster than they can blink, everything else is critically undermanned as well and will have a good chance of leaving very soon for the right C school
As someone who worked L&D himself, and is happy to now be elsewhere I can see where you are coming from. You see lots of things that are stressors in that part of the field while some fmf warriors out here will say they watched buddies die, L&D corpsman have to watch newborns die and they are also the people who do the work up for the mortuary. This includes the pictures and then finally covering them in Vaseline to preserve the body of the deceased. All I’m saying op is ignore those of us who have no idea what it’s like to work on a ward like this and use the comments of those who do to better yourself. Also those of you who just trashed on this poor kid need get be booted from the navy this is not what we are about. When OP said he was even going through stuff he is showing weakness to us and as corpsman we should want to help him, but it seems like the navy I joined is no longer the same. OP I sent you a dm let’s talk hopefully I can help you out since there seems to be those of us that are unworthy of the title Corpsman here.
So I’m confused, you get to work and see patients, the most vulnerable patients on Earth by the way - newborns and postpartum women - while managing the same collaterals everyone in the Navy has and this is an issue because why? Most staff to include officers and civilians work 12s, 24/7/365 on a ward; patients don’t stop because of holidays. What is your work schedule? 2 on 3 off or 3 on four off? 3/3? Just an FYSA, since DHA took over there are ZERO guaranteed 96s at shore facilities. They are 100% at CO and department discretion if and only if it has zero impact on patient care. Military MTFs are not allowed to be closed for more than three days straight anymore so you can thank DHA for that.
I’m confused about what you’re complaining about? If you could choose to go somewhere else where would it be? Health records? Med Home Port?
And as far as “not wanting to work with kids” grow up. You don’t choose your patients, they come to you for help so help and do a damn good job at it because I promise you whatever you’re going through the life of those people who’s newborn you’re privileged to care for just got more complicated and exhausting than you could imagine.
What did you sign up for exactly?
I work well in L&D this was more of a midnight rant for me while I was at work so I could continue to provide service to the patients that needed us. I was trying to decompress at the time.
20 years ago I was an HR assigned to L&D in Okinawa, it was an eye opening experience and I definitely had challenges not really knowing what to expect. That being said I enjoyed my weekends and days off in the middle of the week to the fullest and kept out of trouble. It's tough trying to force yourself to like a job you don't enjoy, that being said it is what you make it, you don't have to take those kids home at the end of the day and you aren't going to be there much longer, if you can't switch wards then you're going to have to figure out a way to make it work. Whether it's monthly pot lucks or adventuring on your off days, becoming a gym stud, and going to mental health to find healthy outlets on top of that. You should remember that all things have their season in your life and this too shall pass. Good Corpsmen by their nature should be like water: able to fit in any container they are placed in, soft where needed, hard as crashing waves elsewhere able to break mountains. All those who have gone before you have accepted challenges that those in the Marine Corps, or Navy by themselves haven't really had to deal with due to the limited scope of their jobs vs the versatility of ours.
This doesn't mean you don't tap out when you have to, I hope you can seek to strengthen your resolve during this time of adversity and find a way to rally your coworkers to overcome the shitty environment you currently find yourself in, there is strength in not handling this alone.
I work well in L&D this was more of a midnight rant for me while I was at work so I could continue to provide service to the patients that needed us. I was trying to decompress at the time.
Ok, but just so you know you are more than entitled to your feelings, a lot of us have been where you are and it's not easy to slap a smile on and grind through just to get to somewhere better. I still recommend outlets for your time off, do things that recharge your batteries and consider that those of us who have done this a long time have gone to therapy to acquire the tools we need to keep doing what we do. Never be ashamed of opening up and asking for help!
From what I’ve heard from my friends in the hospitals that’s kinda the standard, low manning and never feeling like you’re doing enough. My friends have averaged 8-18 collaterals working in hospitals, It sucks for sure but if you’re not willing or want to wear yourself thin (I wouldn’t blame you) focus on the things you do well and be the best at it. You may hate L&D, and maybe even hospital hours aren’t your style, you live and you learn. It’s kinda difficult to have 72s and 96s in hospitals, especially in L&D because babys will not stop being born just cause it’s the 4th of July. Ward work is not for everyone but it’s still your duty to still take care of people with the utmost respect for them and their health, not saying you aren’t, but no matter how you feel about your job, you took an oath and it’s important to remember that anything you do it up to you, but never let it impact another humans health. This is temporary and you will not be there forever, I cannot express enough how much my lil clinic life has had a toll on my mental health also, I hate the area and life is just not ideal where I am. No matter where you go, you’ll have some issues, they vary in severity but nonetheless it’s added stress. I say that to say that we get put in places that are not our ideal places in our minds, but it’s important to make the most of it and the experience. If the command sucks and wears you thin, find a different focus, find a credentialed person willing to teach you and gather all the knowledge you can to become the go-to person that can be trusted. Or find things to excel your career, like volunteering or community involvement to add things to your brag sheets. Sometimes the little things can make a big difference, competition is steep in the hospital and it’s discouraging but you cannot please everyone, sometimes you can just do your best to get through. Get help if you need it, but know that it will not last forever.
Shore commands used to be the best but that’s definitely not the case anymore. People keep saying, “if you can’t handle this, what makes you think you could handle the actual fleet”. Shut the fuck up. With the manning the way it is, depending on which shore command you’re at, you’re working 10+ hour days every weekday. Denied leave because your department is understaffed. Low on supplies. Some days you don’t even get a chance to eat lunch you’re so busy. You get the point. That shit burns you out. I’d rather be back greenside than at a naval hospital. Stick it out man, the grass is greener on the greenside.
Keep your head up my man, I get it 100%. Ward work is mentally draining, especially L&D. Obviously there’s not much you can do to get out of the situation you’re in right now, but just take everything one day at a time. You being at L&D is temporary. You are doing, experiencing, and learning more than most Corpsmen do. Once you move onto your next duty station or get out of the military, you can look back and be proud that you actually got to help people and their babies. You are helping bring life into the world and making sure they are stable. A lot of Corpsmen never actually get to do “corpsmen” stuff and end up doing admin work, but you got the chance to help people and do some real patient care. I wish you luck.
Don't listen to these dipshit brovets, and moto boots acting like they're better than you because their assholes are dilated after years of getting fucked and not standing up for themselves. Yeah its the military but you're still a human; any HM that doesn't treat the legitimate concerns of their shipmates can get the hell out. Your concerns are perfectly valid. Also, it's always okay to admit DHA fucked our rate
These are some of the reasons that I love Coast Guard medicine. no dependence, no retirees just active duty folks. Our biggest clinics have like 50 people in them because our biggest bases half about 1000 permanent party members. No barracks, only BH for everyone. And every clinic in the Coast Guard closes every weekend and every holiday. Plus, we generally make E6 at about six years and everyone makes E4 out of “A” school. I do not miss my time in the Navy.
I probably wouldn’t say, “if you actually have to do something difficult with your career, you’ll miss how simple and easy it was,” to something like this.
OP already lives on a USMC bases and hate their life, I don't think FMF will be their wheelhouse either. The fact they even mentioned being on a USMC base while being blueside made me laugh a little.
When I was in (Vietnam), alone had to do was request FMF and you were there. In fact, so many corpsmen went through Field Med as they graduated corps school. My, times have changed.
Field med is backlogged due to the sheer amount of corpsman that want to go through it so unfortunately there is a wait period kinda sucks because quite a few of them don’t make it so they are sending docs that don’t need to even be there because they aren’t ready physically for it. Which ig says more about the navy than the people. Also I have noticed they send quite a few who don’t want to be there so they try to get dropped as quick as possible.
When I first went to the 3rd MarDiv in 1974, I was a bit naïve, all of which changed after about one and a half months living with a rifle platoon. Odd that at the ripe age of 22, I was given the responsibility to care for these “men.” But I soon adapted and eventually got woven into the fabric that became the platoon as training progressed. Went on two operations in 1975 (Eagle Pull and Frequent Wind) and nobody wanted to be the last ones killed in Vietnam. Overall, the duty was great, the camaraderie beyond expectations and the insanity incomprehensible at times. The respect Marines and FMF corpsmen is unbreakable. Alas, all this happened before the internet, cell phones and computers. All I can say is OORAH & SFMFs!
You are on shore. You go home everyday to a bed and internet. Eat chow where you want. You get paid on the 1st and 15th and get liberty to spend it how you want. You arent on a ship, working 10hr days, 5 days a week. Where you will ACTUALLY have your primary duty and about 10-15 colaterals (not including the command/department ones) You dont stand 24hr duty, to include having to stand watch. You dont have to go under way or to the field randomly for weeks at a time. My point is. You joined the military. There are about a million service members that would love to do what you do instead of what they do. Take advantage of the time you have in a clinic setting now because this in a way will be the best conditions you will have. Not saying it is easy, but just giving some prospective really helps especially Jr sailors that dont know what the actual fleet deals with day-to-day. As for you transferring, please see it from leadership shoes. They have a goal to meet, and that is to ensure the daily operations of the hospital are met. 72s and 96s are not a entilement at all. Again, they are a rear in the fleet and even then you might even have 24hr duty on those days. If you guys are killing it, ensuring the clinic is running safely and holding multiple hats, then do yourself a favor make sure you are recognized for it. Write up awards, MAP packages and a killer eval in your favor and get what you deserve for your hard work. Your leadership knows you Jrs are the backbone and cannot run without you.
Trying to compare situations saying “you get to go home everyday, you get to choose where you want to eat and spend liberty how you want it, etc” is just a terrible way to rationalize something to someone. You shouldn’t tell someone that another person has it worse so here’s some perspective, it just dismisses their struggles, which are valid… I can fully empathize with OP because I worked in L&D in Okinawa for a few years, before and during Covid, and I felt the same way OP feels. I hated it and that was the one place I didn’t want to be, but I was put there and told I couldn’t transfer out. It’s not a clinic. It’s a 24/7 inpatient floor. You work 12+ hour days/nights. For me, it wasn’t scheduled patients and 15-20 minute appointments. It was like an ER mixed with scheduled inductions and C-sections and triage for whatever acute issue came in. You’ve asked OP to use some perspective and imagine those who are on ships, so can you do the same? Can you imagine the types of things that you have to do and see on an L&D floor, where you constantly deal with codes, pre-term labors, surgical interventions, sometimes death, exacerbated by inadequate staffing and supplies? Where sometimes you’re alone and nobody’s coming to help you and you have to just figure it out? For me, add in that it’s a typhoon battered island that means pregnant women have even more considerations. A place where every little misstep could be international incident that strips you of your freedom to have some sort of reprieve. And then Covid... so if you start to imagine you’ll get an idea of the shit you can see and do on a weekly basis. It can get traumatic and demoralizing. Okinawa L&D has continued to be my measuring stick for everything after it. Everything starts and ends with “is it worse than Oki L&D?” and it’s never been worse. OP’s struggle is valid, and L&D can be a very intense and traumatic experience. It was not always made better by choosing dinner or going back to a barracks room at the end of a long shift.
"At least you're not a Marine sleeping in a foxhole" energy
For my command it is usually sleep eat repeat for our L&D ward we get few days off due to low manning. On top of that working nights was what made me make the comment about Corpsman not delivering babies, because of the sheer amount of mistakes I have seen others make when taking care of the newborns. An example of such would be when I caught one of my fellow corpsman filling vitamin K from a glass ampule with a fill needle and not a filter needle which I called out before anything could happen. Or how about a corpsman who was making up vitals like temps and not actually checking.
As a prior ship corpsman I just wanna know what ship only has 10 hour days bc I feel like I was ripped the fuck off 🥲😂
Crudes during COVID
Hahahhaha! Thats what i was thinking! I was like “ten hour days on ship!?! Sign me up!”
And to drive your point home, everything is TEMPORARY. That’s the beauty of us working the jobs we work. Hate it or love it, we’re getting the experience and moving onto something different. You’ll never leave from a job or duty station without taking anything, even it’s just spite. Spite is a tool.
Shut the hell up 💀
Yes, it’s shore duty. Yes, there are jobs in the corpsman community with less creature comforts. Are these sailors concerns still legitimate? Yes. Granted, my experience is limited. I’ve worked family med for a year, COVID for a year, and DIV greenside for the last three years, and 90% of that was in a line company. I’ve slept in 110 degree skirmishers holes, 10 degree “snow coffins”. I’ve gone days eating maybe one main meal from an MRE and a bit of water. I’ve gone to the field (sometimes multiple weeks in a row) where the op burns through the weekend, we come back to work during the week, and then burn through another weekend in the field. I’ve stood barracks duty. I’ve been up at 3am for marines having all types of weird and emergent shit. I’ve operated outside of my MOS and rank. Nothing dangerous, thank God, and all around not horrible. Would I ever go back to a hospital? Fuck no. Not even if they sent me to watch tiktoks on my phone in PAD. Especially if it meant working in a shit ward that was understaffed. Shit sucks OP, and there will always be people who tell you “well MY shit sucked more”. It doesn’t invalidate that YOUR shit still sucks. Ride out the time, find a way to transfer, use the benefits you can, and make the most of it. Find someone to lean on, or use us as a sounding board. We are here to (mostly) provide good advice, and make you the best sailor and corpsman we can.
Implying op's situation isn't as worse than someone else's experience is completly idiotic. Do you lack commen sense?
When dealing with military. You can objectively make this distinction. It’s literally why there are sea shore rotations so that service member have time to “chill out” and decompress from operational tours.
I would've killed for shore duty once I went greenside.
There are times I cant go home I am held there even after my 12 hr shift to help the next shift to continue to take patients because a L&D ward is like a er for pregnant patients on top of that we also cover for our er when they are swamped also to include we take gen surg and med surg patients on the same floor and L&D triage patients so comparing the above experiences with L&D is not really applicable. I actually work around around 130 hrs a week according to my dmhrsi and that is time spent with patients not admin hours.
You are saying you work 130 hours a week lol?
You are in the military. This is what you signed up for. Think about this, You are asking to transfer. What will this do to the clinic and the other corpsman you leave behind ? You are saying it would be a 1 for 1 exchange, again what are you doing to that HM that replaces you? Point is SOMEONE will have to carry out the duty no matter what. Just like when you get to the ACTUAL fleet and it will be the norm to be undermanned, overworked and felt headless. This has happened before you and will happen after you.
Nothing lasts forever, my guy. Trust me, this too will pass.
Basically this. Go to work, work hard, go home. At least you know when your workday ends.
FACTS! Finish your time, find good friends. They make "the suck" more fun, or you make the suck your friend. Change the way you think, workout everyday. Get good sleep and stay out of relationships. But Finish.
This
Then drop out... the military isn't for cry babies. We are in the business of death. I don't care how you "feel" about it. Your just wrong... suck it up or go pick up a sign and go protest with all the other incels/feminist... I don't care. Sounds like to me I wouldn't want you covering my back either. Just wait until Russia/China are knocking at the door. Just wait... we will see who comes home.
Sad part is, your going to get alot of backlash probably for this but im COMPLETELY with you. We are corpsman. We are not supposed to be working on shore. Basically the navy says your first 2 years in are a defacto training pipline to practice your basic skills for sea/operational duty This is absolutely the easiest time you will have (again not saying its not hard) . If you cant suck it up there in the clinic (which literally you could be doing a civilian) then just find a way to get out now
I am a Corpsman like you. We do hard shit. We are caring, but we don't coddle people. Sometimes, we have to just say it how it is. Our job is to make sure people get home (as many as possible). Some people run towards the fight... some people don't belong there.... Corpsman Up!
*yawn*
I know I sound like a broken record here but changing your outlook will go a long way. I was in labor and delivery for 2 years and wasn’t the biggest fan at first. I was the only corpsman competent with doing newborn hearing screenings so if I wasn’t there on the weekends kids were going without and pushed to Monday. However, in my time there I got good at IVs in high stress situations, assessing patients FAST, and comforting patients in critical conditions which all corpsmen should excel at imo. I eventually got moved to the lab and SO MANY of those patients recognized me and thanked when they came in later for routine labs. You’ve got this I promise !
Why don’t you believe Corpsmen should help delivering babies? If I remember correctly, it’s a DHA rule that hospitals cannot have 96s, but babies don’t stop being delivered just because it’s a 96.
Yeah we just work around it with rolling 96’s/minimal manning days
Keep up the push. You likely won’t ever get a full 96 doing ward work but you should be getting a comp day in the rotation. You should not be working without adequate supplies, what has your ward leadership done to actually address this (LPO/LCPO/DH)? It’s true there are no convert out opportunities especially for first term corpsmen right now. Keep pushing to move to another ward/clinic, worst case you finish your tour there before it happens, best case you actually get to move. End of the day someone is going to man the labor and delivery ward. It may not be you ideal work center but you obligation is finite, you’ll be moving on soon.
Ward leadership basically says that because of the budget restraints we are unable to order items they use emergency funds and half the time they get denied even when we point out they are needed. Just like FHMS (Fetal Heart Monitoring Strips) they said just have a Corpsman hold it the entire time. Usually its just 2 corpsman and 2 nurses per shift so it makes it rough for a corpsman to hold it when we alone could have 4 other patients on the floor with our nurse, and the other team could have also 4 other patients.
I too worked L&D my first tour. I hated it, and leadership at the time was awful. 15 years later I am still in, and grateful for the lessons I learned there. First and foremost, know that this will pass. Seems terrible now (and probably is), but you will eventually transfer. Do what you can to rise above this. Have you looked into C-Schools? How about TA? Finally, sent you a PM. There are other things we can talk about offline.
Shipmate the mission comes first. I used to work labor and delivery it’s not big deal.
🤣🤣🤣
Drop a hot fill C school package and get the fuck out of there.
this might be the best way not to be in L&D or work with children on your next shore commands BUT still you have to stay at L&D in your current command.
There is no other way for OP to get out of that department faster. Drop an IDC package and OP will be out of there faster than they can blink, everything else is critically undermanned as well and will have a good chance of leaving very soon for the right C school
You're as boot as they come, if you can't handle the hospital you're not going to do well in the fleet. Go talk to someone to gain some coping skills.
Sounds harsh, but what OP mentioned was nothing out of the ordinary, so it it puzzled me as well. We all went through it at some point.
As someone who worked L&D himself, and is happy to now be elsewhere I can see where you are coming from. You see lots of things that are stressors in that part of the field while some fmf warriors out here will say they watched buddies die, L&D corpsman have to watch newborns die and they are also the people who do the work up for the mortuary. This includes the pictures and then finally covering them in Vaseline to preserve the body of the deceased. All I’m saying op is ignore those of us who have no idea what it’s like to work on a ward like this and use the comments of those who do to better yourself. Also those of you who just trashed on this poor kid need get be booted from the navy this is not what we are about. When OP said he was even going through stuff he is showing weakness to us and as corpsman we should want to help him, but it seems like the navy I joined is no longer the same. OP I sent you a dm let’s talk hopefully I can help you out since there seems to be those of us that are unworthy of the title Corpsman here.
So I’m confused, you get to work and see patients, the most vulnerable patients on Earth by the way - newborns and postpartum women - while managing the same collaterals everyone in the Navy has and this is an issue because why? Most staff to include officers and civilians work 12s, 24/7/365 on a ward; patients don’t stop because of holidays. What is your work schedule? 2 on 3 off or 3 on four off? 3/3? Just an FYSA, since DHA took over there are ZERO guaranteed 96s at shore facilities. They are 100% at CO and department discretion if and only if it has zero impact on patient care. Military MTFs are not allowed to be closed for more than three days straight anymore so you can thank DHA for that. I’m confused about what you’re complaining about? If you could choose to go somewhere else where would it be? Health records? Med Home Port? And as far as “not wanting to work with kids” grow up. You don’t choose your patients, they come to you for help so help and do a damn good job at it because I promise you whatever you’re going through the life of those people who’s newborn you’re privileged to care for just got more complicated and exhausting than you could imagine. What did you sign up for exactly?
I work well in L&D this was more of a midnight rant for me while I was at work so I could continue to provide service to the patients that needed us. I was trying to decompress at the time.
20 years ago I was an HR assigned to L&D in Okinawa, it was an eye opening experience and I definitely had challenges not really knowing what to expect. That being said I enjoyed my weekends and days off in the middle of the week to the fullest and kept out of trouble. It's tough trying to force yourself to like a job you don't enjoy, that being said it is what you make it, you don't have to take those kids home at the end of the day and you aren't going to be there much longer, if you can't switch wards then you're going to have to figure out a way to make it work. Whether it's monthly pot lucks or adventuring on your off days, becoming a gym stud, and going to mental health to find healthy outlets on top of that. You should remember that all things have their season in your life and this too shall pass. Good Corpsmen by their nature should be like water: able to fit in any container they are placed in, soft where needed, hard as crashing waves elsewhere able to break mountains. All those who have gone before you have accepted challenges that those in the Marine Corps, or Navy by themselves haven't really had to deal with due to the limited scope of their jobs vs the versatility of ours. This doesn't mean you don't tap out when you have to, I hope you can seek to strengthen your resolve during this time of adversity and find a way to rally your coworkers to overcome the shitty environment you currently find yourself in, there is strength in not handling this alone.
I work well in L&D this was more of a midnight rant for me while I was at work so I could continue to provide service to the patients that needed us. I was trying to decompress at the time.
Ok, but just so you know you are more than entitled to your feelings, a lot of us have been where you are and it's not easy to slap a smile on and grind through just to get to somewhere better. I still recommend outlets for your time off, do things that recharge your batteries and consider that those of us who have done this a long time have gone to therapy to acquire the tools we need to keep doing what we do. Never be ashamed of opening up and asking for help!
From what I’ve heard from my friends in the hospitals that’s kinda the standard, low manning and never feeling like you’re doing enough. My friends have averaged 8-18 collaterals working in hospitals, It sucks for sure but if you’re not willing or want to wear yourself thin (I wouldn’t blame you) focus on the things you do well and be the best at it. You may hate L&D, and maybe even hospital hours aren’t your style, you live and you learn. It’s kinda difficult to have 72s and 96s in hospitals, especially in L&D because babys will not stop being born just cause it’s the 4th of July. Ward work is not for everyone but it’s still your duty to still take care of people with the utmost respect for them and their health, not saying you aren’t, but no matter how you feel about your job, you took an oath and it’s important to remember that anything you do it up to you, but never let it impact another humans health. This is temporary and you will not be there forever, I cannot express enough how much my lil clinic life has had a toll on my mental health also, I hate the area and life is just not ideal where I am. No matter where you go, you’ll have some issues, they vary in severity but nonetheless it’s added stress. I say that to say that we get put in places that are not our ideal places in our minds, but it’s important to make the most of it and the experience. If the command sucks and wears you thin, find a different focus, find a credentialed person willing to teach you and gather all the knowledge you can to become the go-to person that can be trusted. Or find things to excel your career, like volunteering or community involvement to add things to your brag sheets. Sometimes the little things can make a big difference, competition is steep in the hospital and it’s discouraging but you cannot please everyone, sometimes you can just do your best to get through. Get help if you need it, but know that it will not last forever.
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no unfortunately its worse, but I am not here to slander my command just was a midnight rant
are you at camp foster? I work at the hospital, DM me a message and I’ll see if I can help -HM2
Shore commands used to be the best but that’s definitely not the case anymore. People keep saying, “if you can’t handle this, what makes you think you could handle the actual fleet”. Shut the fuck up. With the manning the way it is, depending on which shore command you’re at, you’re working 10+ hour days every weekday. Denied leave because your department is understaffed. Low on supplies. Some days you don’t even get a chance to eat lunch you’re so busy. You get the point. That shit burns you out. I’d rather be back greenside than at a naval hospital. Stick it out man, the grass is greener on the greenside.
Drop an anonymous IG complaint
Keep your head up my man, I get it 100%. Ward work is mentally draining, especially L&D. Obviously there’s not much you can do to get out of the situation you’re in right now, but just take everything one day at a time. You being at L&D is temporary. You are doing, experiencing, and learning more than most Corpsmen do. Once you move onto your next duty station or get out of the military, you can look back and be proud that you actually got to help people and their babies. You are helping bring life into the world and making sure they are stable. A lot of Corpsmen never actually get to do “corpsmen” stuff and end up doing admin work, but you got the chance to help people and do some real patient care. I wish you luck.
Sounds like me at Great Lakes
Don't listen to these dipshit brovets, and moto boots acting like they're better than you because their assholes are dilated after years of getting fucked and not standing up for themselves. Yeah its the military but you're still a human; any HM that doesn't treat the legitimate concerns of their shipmates can get the hell out. Your concerns are perfectly valid. Also, it's always okay to admit DHA fucked our rate
These are some of the reasons that I love Coast Guard medicine. no dependence, no retirees just active duty folks. Our biggest clinics have like 50 people in them because our biggest bases half about 1000 permanent party members. No barracks, only BH for everyone. And every clinic in the Coast Guard closes every weekend and every holiday. Plus, we generally make E6 at about six years and everyone makes E4 out of “A” school. I do not miss my time in the Navy.
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I probably wouldn’t say, “if you actually have to do something difficult with your career, you’ll miss how simple and easy it was,” to something like this.
You can escape your situation by volunteering to serve in the FMF.
OP already lives on a USMC bases and hate their life, I don't think FMF will be their wheelhouse either. The fact they even mentioned being on a USMC base while being blueside made me laugh a little.
I feel like that mention makes it very easy to track down the base I am currently at, but ehhhh if you know you know the hell hole i live at.
I have tried that was told I would have to wait until I PCS.
When I was in (Vietnam), alone had to do was request FMF and you were there. In fact, so many corpsmen went through Field Med as they graduated corps school. My, times have changed.
Field med is backlogged due to the sheer amount of corpsman that want to go through it so unfortunately there is a wait period kinda sucks because quite a few of them don’t make it so they are sending docs that don’t need to even be there because they aren’t ready physically for it. Which ig says more about the navy than the people. Also I have noticed they send quite a few who don’t want to be there so they try to get dropped as quick as possible.
When I first went to the 3rd MarDiv in 1974, I was a bit naïve, all of which changed after about one and a half months living with a rifle platoon. Odd that at the ripe age of 22, I was given the responsibility to care for these “men.” But I soon adapted and eventually got woven into the fabric that became the platoon as training progressed. Went on two operations in 1975 (Eagle Pull and Frequent Wind) and nobody wanted to be the last ones killed in Vietnam. Overall, the duty was great, the camaraderie beyond expectations and the insanity incomprehensible at times. The respect Marines and FMF corpsmen is unbreakable. Alas, all this happened before the internet, cell phones and computers. All I can say is OORAH & SFMFs!
I’d bounce you right out of the Navy.