Returning to Nursing After 2 Year Absence

Thanks for your reply Tiki! You have quite an extensive background compared to me! Working in many more complex avenues than I have......I strictly worked OB doing Labor & Delivery, antepartum, postpartum and Level 3 (i thinK!) Newborn Nursery care. This is the only job I ever held. When OB was slow, us OB nurses were floated to the med-surg floor to "help." I would never take on RN duties there as it wasn't my hired calling, we were flloated to basically be "glorified" CNAs.

I am unable to talk to my previous nurse manager/OB super as the unit has changed drastically since I left....for the worse unfortunately. I still have a good friend whom I talk to and last report was not good. All the great nurses who staffed the OB unit have quit and either are not working at all or went to nursing homes. It was that big of a disaster with administration or ??? Sally is still there tho as she is a single parents, needs her job, loves her job, and was willing to go through the turmoil, I guess. The RN who trained me originally became my OB manager, had problems and stepped down into hands-on OB nursing again, and then quit....which is very unlike her as this particular position she held at the same facility in the same unit for 30+ years....it was her only job.

Thus, the unit I worked for, I don't know if I should even attempt going back as so many awesome nurses (who had the OB-calling) have quit. Administration must be awful and I don't want to get myself into that situation again.

AND I live in a small town with only two hospitals to choose to work OB for and I seriously doubt the other hospital staffing also.

So I am just stuck!

We do have a college nearby, the college I finished my AASN at. They are offering new refresher courses as of Jan, 2003, for new grads wanting more speciality clinical, new grads education for board cert testing, OB refresher and surgical refresher. I know it is my favorite teacher from college teaching these so I would be happy to see her again But I am not sure how long the courses are or the cost. They just sent me a flyer in the mail about them when they started.

I don't fear working with adults at all, or even babies! But the small town factor and memories of what the doctor's expected from us RNs tho is holding me back a bit.....In L&D, us nurses were basically expected to be midwives, especially during "off office" hours, and I did generally work 2nd or 3rd shift. We were told to actually have mom's pushing and not to call the doctor's until the head was crowning, seriously! I once delivered a baby on my own because one doctor was in the nurse's break room having coffee. I can't begin to count how many babes were born and caught by us L&D nurses......We were asked to do procedures that I certainly didn't feel comfortable doing (such as IUP insertion, scalp electrode placement, etc). The docs just didn't "want to be bothered" at nite. Oh, I could tell stories.....

But I truly miss my moms and babes as OB nursing was and is my calling. I just wish I lived in a larger city where the RNs weren't looked at live they had MD after their names also.

So do my fears make a little more sense??

I did apply this week for an ambulatory surgery medical assistant position to get my feet wet again. I thought that this would be the perfect thing bring all my clinical RN skills back. I know that IV placements would come back in a heartbeat, but all the little details....I am not confident about.

Oh, and I live in a state that does not require CEUs, believe it or not! So I only pay my fee and my nursing license is kept current. I use my skills daily in a sense just being a mom, and when my son was born so ill, it was great being an RN and understanding everything well. He had a Hickman in place for about four months and had gancyclovir therapy for two of them. I still had a home health nurse come the first few days of doing that because I was the mom and the patient was my dear son....I didn't want to assume anything! But we got through it.....

I do work at home doing medical transcription and have been a medical transcriptionist since 1990. That's what led me to become a nurse in the first place. I was learning so much, I was just fascinated and wanted to learn more. However, the P&Ps and administration of nursing really took me by shock and what was my ideal (ob nursing) no longer became so priceless to me.

I never gave up my transcription job after all these years and still work at home typing. Fear of going back to nursing again after my absence did have me looking into BSN and MSN programs this past summer also, of which I can do at the local small college I graduated from with my AASN, only it would be ITV courses and internet with some travel to the actual college rarely (whichever program I chose).

Do I sound like I have no idea what to do?? Of course I do!!!! I want to work as an OB RN again but at the same time want to work on my BSN in particular. But college is expensive and an employer would help pay for costs....having my BSN wouldn't change my nursing position here were I live or give me more pay, it would be more initials after my name and a personal goal. Does anyone else have thoughts about AASN vs BSN vs MSN?

So many things to think about......Is anyone else so indecisive?

Dress for the interview, not the job. Smile. Don't put down your previous employer or co-workers. Ask recruiter about turn over in the unit to which you are applying, what type certifications the staff members have, how were they rated by JCAHO, etc. This makes you look more professional and that you want to associate with professional nurses. If you have heard anything good about the facility, mention that ( good orientation, good reputation for cath lab, etc.) And I wish you luck!