[teresab_2000]

Hi, I have always wanted to be a L&d nurse, but now I am thinking that maybe I need to start out in a different area to get in the basic skills before jumping into L&D. So, is working on a postpardum floor boring or just as difficult to learn as L&D? It's not that I think any area of nursing is easier, I just want to have strong basic skills dealing with OB patients first. maybe I just don't think I could handle L&D . Anyways, please give me your opinion. Will starting out in postpardum yeild an easier transition to OB nursing than L&D?


Teresa

[mother/babyRN]

Hi there,
I came up from critical care to OB, and on our unit we train to all three areas...Post partum, where ever you are, does not have to be boring. People have post partum hemmorrhages and run in to all sorts of complications such as strokes and emboli. Don't forget that post partum in some units ( such as mine) also house gyn and antenatal patients so you might be dealing with pre term labor and all that entails, circlage patients not to mention the experience gleaned by working with surgical patients (c/s and gyn)...Every pt is a potential problem waiting to happen. Anything you learn on pp you will carry to delivery and back. AND might be a good idea to get skilled in recognizing different social situations when you have time to assess them more thoroughly than in delivery when so much is going on at once. Best thing to do is get used to all three areas and when and if you do get to delivery ( or the nursery, for that matter), NEVER relax or feel comfortable. If you ever do feel it is no big deal in delivery, then it is not a place you should be....Good luck to you whatever you elect to do...

[fergus51]

Amen mother/babyRN!

Postpartum can be a great learning atmosphere and there is a lot to learn and teach! It's especially helpful to have a background in PP if your L&D unit ever changes to LDRP rooms. It also gives you a chance to talk to moms who can give you opinters on what worked for them while in labor.

[mother/babyRN]

Fergus51,
Sounds like you have been there too! Then you might agree with me when I mention that sometimes a patient may have the audacity to rupture membranes or go in to labor while on post partum when delivery is out straight and then the POST PARTUM nurse is charged with managing that patient! Always a trip in all three areas and sometimes it is a pretty bumpy one..Right???

[fergus51]

DEFINITELY AGREE!!! All our antepartum moms are on PP and they love to go into labor when we are super busy in L&D!