[AF-NRS]

Originally Posted by jackiannieRN

SHOULD I BE INTIMIDATED BY OB NURSING? I HAVE BEEN CONSIDERING THIS AREA. HMMM ...

dont!! it is a special type of nursing just like ICU and emergency medicine...it's like any other type of nursing...you either love it or you dont!

[mjsobrn]

If it helps do what I did if it is offered.. I was a student nurse extern my last year if school on L&D I did all of the nursing duties under the supervision of a preceptor (with acception of vag exams) it made me more prepared to handle the stresses of being a "new nurse" the down side to it... it took me over a year to shake the stigma of being the "extern"

[tashaLPN2006]

What is the difference of LPN/LVN's in L&D and RNs?? I just graduated and i have applied for a position on a military base for L&D and they take new grads, but have not recieved a call yet for an interview. Just wondered if the LPN's were more "aide" like or if we would get to do a lot of what the RN's do.

[jode1012]

HI! I am getting ready to graduate in May and have a job lined up on the OB floor in our local hospital. I was wondering if anyone could offer some helpful advice or tips to help me in my orientation. Thanks

[mamababynurse]

feel like i have to add my two cents. i am a mom/baby/gyn nurse. i do everything BUt labor and delivery. just want to tell you: in my facility (an HCA facility) I am expected to do EVERYTHING but deliver the baby. I am supposed to be a mom/baby/postpartum nurse and I get everything BUT the actively laboring patient. I get antepartum, even though I am NOT qualified to read a strip, I get gyn patients with multiple issues, to include bilateral PE, hx of DVT, patients withdrawing from drugs, with b/ps 212/119, where I am required to sit one on one at bedside pushing apresoline, I have gottenn patients with thrombocytosis who require special care, can't even begin to describe the patients I have gotten with extraordinary issues that come to my floor, all because their primary doctor is a OB dr. Should I as OB nurse, get lap chole patients? I think not. Should I get patients that require one on one care, sitting at the bedside pushing apresoline, meanwhile I have 3 other patients who require my care, with no tech and no secretary? NO Not only is that unsafe, but it is ABUSIVE. I have been so totally abused to the point where it is dangerously unsafe. All in the name of saving a few dollars.
Bottom line is: DO NOT work for an HCA facility, they are the most severely understaffed system (corporation) I have seen. I have no support from my supervisor and am forced to take on patients that I as a PP nurse have no business messing with. I feel I have been so abused that I have no desire to continue as a nurse. WE get no support from docs or administration and I am tired of being shat upon. Like I am some stupid piece of dirt under the doc's feet. Who needs this? I tell everyone I know, "do NOT become a nurse, you are treated like dirt and get paid so little for the abuse you must endure." AND, dear God, do NOTmove down here from the north, you WILL be sorry. I HATE Florida, theyare the worst paying state for nurses, and they are about the stupidest people I have EVER met. my god, get a grip! To them, it's all about Medicaid and more babies. If you live up north, PA etc, DON"T move down here, you WILL be sorry. I know I am.

I just know that I wish I had never become a nurse. It SUCKS>

[mamababynurse]

Originally Posted by jode1012

HI! I am getting ready to graduate in May and have a job lined up on the OB floor in our local hospital. I was wondering if anyone could offer some helpful advice or tips to help me in my orientation. Thanks

Yep, have some advice. RUN as fast as you can. You have NO idea the kind of patients you will get, if you work in a hospital. You will get, oh gee, hysterectomies, but guess what? they will be 80 years old and have all sorts of cardiac/dvt/respiratory issues. You think, "no, not where I'm working" Well, YES, if you plan on working in a hospital, you will see things you had NEVER planned on seeeing. Women with history of DVTs, women withdrawing from crack (that's a real treat). Old women with a history of some kind of heart thing going on. girls who are having asthma attacks who just happen to be pregnant. YOU have NO idea. It SUCKS. all these things they will not tell you. you think it's all about cute little babies and goo goo gaa gaa? WRONG. they suck you in, thinking it's all hearts and flowers but all it really is is 12+ hours of HELL. I wish I had never become a nurse, cuz it SUCKS...but, good luck to ya hope you do better than I did

[HappyNurse2005]

feel like i have to add my two cents. i am a mom/baby/gyn nurse. i do everything BUt labor and delivery. just want to tell you: in my facility (an HCA facility) I am expected to do EVERYTHING but deliver the baby. I am supposed to be a mom/baby/postpartum nurse and I get everything BUT the actively laboring patient. I get antepartum, even though I am NOT qualified to read a strip, I get gyn patients with multiple issues, to include bilateral PE, hx of DVT, patients withdrawing from drugs, with b/ps 212/119, where I am required to sit one on one at bedside pushing apresoline, I have gottenn patients with thrombocytosis who require special care, can't even begin to describe the patients I have gotten with extraordinary issues that come to my floor, all because their primary doctor is a OB dr. Should I as OB nurse, get lap chole patients? I think not. Should I get patients that require one on one care, sitting at the bedside pushing apresoline, meanwhile I have 3 other patients who require my care, with no tech and no secretary? NO Not only is that unsafe, but it is ABUSIVE. I have been so totally abused to the point where it is dangerously unsafe. All in the name of saving a few dollars.

how can you have antepartum patients but you can't read a strip? who does their fetal monitoring and interprets it?

i am an antepartum/l&d nurse (no postpartum) and we have gotten women with medical issues as well. if it can happen to a woman, it can happen to a pregnant woman. heroin withdrawal on methadone, hip fractures s/p mva, appendectomy post appendix rupture, recently, a sickle cell crisis on pca pump, etc. it is something that isn't always known by new nurses-if you do antepartum, you will have pregnant patients hospitalized for non pregnant medical issues.
i though, think its interesting.

[mamababynurse]

I have to call downstairs to L&D to ask someone to come read the strip for me. If they are busy, it can take quite a while until someone gets to it. Pretty unsafe. Besides, I don't like antepartum. If I had wanted to do that, I would have been a L&D nurse. It's not just pregnant people with issues, it's pretty much anybody with a vagina. Got one last month who came in to the ER with "numb legs". I got her because she had a hysterectomy about a month previously. I am the dumping ground for all the stuff other floors don't have room for. The only thing I have yet to see is a patient with a penis, but I'm sure that's next. And THAT's when I say "goodbye"

[DEB52]

Dear mamababynurse, I am so sorry that you have had such a bad experience in OB nursing. It is really a wonderful place to work in the right situation. We all do have busy, busy days.I have had every type of OB patient. I've never had a GYN patient. I now work on the antepartum unit that you don't like. We take antepartum patients at any stage of their pregnancy. This becomes an issue when the beds are nearly full and one of our MDs wants to send in , lets say, 10 gestational age for a non-pregnancy dx. We try to get them moved to a medical floor so that we will have a bed for a fetus that needs monitoring. But sometimes that's difficult to get the MD to understand. Like HappyNurse said if it can happen to women, it can happen to pregnant women. So we see the whole spectrum of dx's. I wish for you to be able to get into a hospital where you could do mother-baby nursing. But remember that these pregnant women that we are taking care of will someday deliver and then their issues will become yours.

I also wanted to know how you were able to put a mom on the monitor without training. Everyone in our antepartum and L/D has to take basic fetal monitoring, then advance fetal monitoring and then do 4 hr of CEU,s of fetal monitoring every year.

Maybe you should think of going somewhere that you would enjoy nursing.

[mamababynurse]

DEB1

I too hope to find the right place for me. I know it is out there somewhere. Opportunities are very limited where I live. I have thought of travel nursing, but I have two young children I don't want to leave. I can go back to nights, but really dislike that idea. It's just unfortunate for me that I was sold a bad bill of goods. I was told I would be orienting to the nursery, I was told "the secretary is on maternity leave" (there is NO secretary), I was told I "might" have a "few" gyn patients, but, "don't worry, they're all straightforward, stable cases. Nothing complicated." I'd only had maybe two gyn patients before coming to this hospital, and with the hope of landing in the nursery sometime in the future, I took the bait. I thought "sure, I can deal with this". I've been there over a year now and have NEVER set foot in the OR (for Csections), NEVER been oriented to the nursery, and the only gyn patients I seem to get are the ones with MULTIPLE issues.

I realize that today's antepartum with problems is tomorrow's mama who may continue to have problems. I am perfectly comfortable with that, that is what I have been trained to do, that's all I've ever wanted to do. That and transition nursing. That, above all, is my favorite. I was never happier than when I was the one catching the babies, good or bad. There's nothing like it. But again, the opportunity to do that in my area is nonexistent, unless I go back to nights. So, this is the dilemma I struggle with on a daily basis.

If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, please let me know. Right now I seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I watched a labor nurse and learned how to hook the patient up to the monitor. I am in the process of doing just the basic fetal monitoring course, since it seems I will continue to get antepartum patients.