What is so special about working in postpartum???

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

...Because I cannot get a job in this specialty to save my life! I rarely see any job postings for PP in my area and when I do they want experience ofcourse. I've spoken to a few PP nurses and they all have been working in PP for years. There must be something special about it that nurses never leave this specialty.

:sarcastic:

I'm over the babies are cute stuff. I just know that PP is my niche.I love to teach, I would love making parents feel confident to take care of their new born. I want to be able to catch that PP hemorrage or infection. I want to be able to pick up on subtle changes in newborns and intervene right away.

I've had to share days in PP and really enjoyed seeing the day in life of the PP nurses. It wasn't all peaches and rainbows but I still see myself working there.

Okay, vent over....:unsure:

Specializes in OB (with a history of cardiac).

You already said it- there's very little turnover. I work with some nurses who have worked in the birth center for going on 36 years now. It's their niche too.

Though I wonder- and please don't take this wrong, how one can say that any field is their niche until they've worked it? You like to teach, and yes, there is definitely teaching to be done in OB. But when I worked in cardiac, there was teaching too- different kind of teaching, but still there was a TON of stuff to teach. Many of the nurses who have worked in OB have said they get these new grads, or nurses with about one year of experience who say that OB is their dream job, that this is what they're meant to do- and a month or so later they quit because it's not the fairy tale they thought it was. I know you said that you're not about "babies are so cute" and all, and that's good because while OB is generally happy and good, there's a lot of ugly on that unit too- babies getting taken from mom from CPS, babies born to 16 year olds who dress them up 6 or 8 times an hour like a dolly and then whine that the baby is crying and they're trying to sleep/watch cartoons/talk on their phone and while I'm at it- change the baby's diaper. Or the uber rich people with 46 page birth plans that give you the death stare if you pick their baby up.

It's a popular field, I hope you get your foot in the door. Persist and give the managers good reasons why you're interested in it.

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Specializes in OB (with a history of cardiac).

Whoops. Just saw you're already in the field. Awesome! Have fun with it!

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Specializes in Going to Peds!.

I love pp. That's where I work my overtime. I'm night shift though, so it's relatively quiet.

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Specializes in Postpartum, Med Surg, Home Health.

Hi! I wanted to ask you if you can give me an update on how your doing on post partum if you are still there, your thoughts and feelings about it, I want to hear it all! I have been a nurse for almost 6 years, worked in SNF, Case management, Home Health and Clinic for PACE program; and now about a month ago finally got my first acute care position on medsurg/tele. Its super competitive here in Sac, CA so it took me years and years of applying to land a hospital job! And in these 6 years I have only had 3 hospital interviews! Anywhoo, my passion is mother/baby/ob; and I CANNOT WAIT to get into post partum, every single day I scour these blogs to see what others are saying; So please give an update! Thanks!

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Its been over two years since I started and I still love it ! Every day I still look forward to going to work. It has its challenges but such a nice change from ICU.

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Specializes in Postpartum, Med Surg, Home Health.

That's so great to hear! Can you tell me what your unit is like? PP? L&d? Combined? What's your pt ratio? Also what state are you in?

Do you have any stories of your most stressful day or most stressful thing hat happened on your shift? I would love to hear! Thanks! I'm sooo looking forward to working in PP someday soon and actually enjoy coming to work (instead if dreading every day I go to work and being so anxious!)

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That's so great to hear! Can you tell me what your unit is like? PP? L&d? Combined? What's your pt ratio? Also what state are you in?

Do you have any stories of your most stressful day or most stressful thing hat happened on your shift? I would love to hear! Thanks! I'm sooo looking forward to working in PP someday soon and actually enjoy coming to work (instead if dreading every day I go to work and being so anxious!)

We can anywhere between 3-5 couplets, depending on staffing. Just post-partum moms and occassionally we get stable antepartums. It can be very busy at times or very slow. Each day is different so it hard to say what is the most stressful thing or day I've had. I feel like I can handle anything that comes my way as long as I have a great team working with me. Just like any other specialty. You have you good days and bad days.

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