What would you do?????

bellehill, RN · Sep 28, 2003

A year of med-surg experience is a good idea before you specialize, however I don't know that it would help you with L&D. Those patients are basically healthy except they are pregnant. Organizational skills are something you need to develop and will come after time. Absolutely talk to your preceptor and manager, tell them how you feel and ask them what the best career path is for you.

SmilingBluEyes · Sep 28, 2003

Originally posted by teeituptom
Be true to yourself.. Talk to your supervisor about your goals. Icu/Tele experience really isnt going to help you that much in L and D and womens services.

excellent advice.

Rapheal · Sep 28, 2003

I think you are wise to realize what you want. The best bet is to work within your facility to get to L&D. I wish you the best of luck and hope your hospital will work hard to keep you.

gypsyatheart · Sep 28, 2003

With the nursing shortage, we routinely bring new grads into L&d and NNICU. It's true, we used to follow the old "rule of thumb", and I believed it too, having a good solid yr of med-surg. However, if you're miserable you won't be happy, end up not being as receptive to your learning anyway, you're just counting the days to get out of there.

Most managers now realize it's better to accomodate a nurse, than lose them.

So many "specialty units" now offer new grad preceptor programs...

I would look into any openings within the Women's Health areas, perhaps even speak w/the manager there and see her reaction to bringing a new nurse on board, then I would immediately speak to my manager, privately, and address your concerns. I would definitely point out that you don't want to waste the units time, money, resources and end up not staying! There's nothing more preceptors/staff nurses hate than to orient someone and have them leave when their 6mos-1yr is up!

There are too many options in nursing, and it is too difficult a profession to not be happy doing what you're doing!

I say go for it...make it happen! If there aren't any opportunities w/in your own hospital system, I would start looking elsewhere. YOU are your own advocate in this situation!

Good Luck!

brenzgrove · Sep 28, 2003

I'm a new grad, and feel for what you're saying. Med-surg was never that great or should i say i wasn't a shining star in med-surg, but it was alright. I don't think anyone should settle for alright, or worse, something that they can't stand. I did my 14 weeks of pregrad on a paediatric unit. I would have loved L&D but i heard that in my local hospital it was pretty old school and they didn't let us new girls do much, so i opted for paeds. I loved it, but unfortunately there are no openings right now on paeds. An older nurse is retiring in November, so i will certainly try, but i don't hold my breath. I had such a hard time getting a job anywhere in a hospital, so i knew if i ever did get such a position it would be a med-surg posting. I am going to do that for a year or so part time, spend the other part of the time doing home care while i take some more courses in the L&D area. Don't know yet if i will do the whole perinatal course, seems so frustrating cause i just finished school, but usually its hard to jump into a specialty right out of nursing school. I was told i would have gotten a position in paeds, if they didn't already have so many senior nurses in casual positions, who never come in when they're called. Good luck, It's a hard decision, but there are soooo many areas of nursing you could go into right now, maybe you could stick with your current position for a little while and do some training on the side? Best of luck.