ACLS, l&d vs ob-gyn nursing

[Live In Balance]

I start nursing school in August and I was wondering what ACLS certification is. I am also interested in Labor and Delivery and was wondering how this is different from ob-gyn nursing.

Thanks,

Dana

[Faeriewand, ASN, RN]

ACLS: Advanced Cardiac Life Support. You take this class after you take BLS: Basic Life Support.

I am a nursing student and have completed a rotation in OB.

A few days were spent in Labor and delivery. Helped the mum when she delivered.

The rest of the days were spent in postpartum care. One unit was moms after cesarean birth and other unit was moms after baby was born lady partslly. One day was spent in newborn nursery. :)

Hopefully an experienced nurse will get on here to answer your question better than me. Just thought I'd answer in lieu because no one had replied yet. :)

[luv l&d]

ACLS is required when you do PACU. PACU in labor and delivery would be for post c/s, cerclages, d and c's, anything that requires anethesia. Just re-did my ACLS and for the first time got to do my BCLS at the same time (something I have been complaning about for yrs,why both??) Somebody finally got smart. I am not sure what Ob-gyn nursing is but in our L and D, we do labor, delivery, antepartum, surgery, and some postpartum. Our postparum unit does mother-baby. We just keep the NICU mom's.

[rn/writer, RN]

L&D vs. OB/Gyn varies greatly by hospital. Generally, the smaller the hospital, the greater the chance that the units will be combined. In larger facilities, especially in teaching hospitals, you might find more specialization, and the staff may or may not be cross-trained.

I work in a large urban hospital with separate units for antepartum, L&D, postpartum and NICU. Gyn surgicals will either go to antepartum or a regular surgical floor. We get a surgical patient once in a great while as overflow. There is little to no cross-training although nurses have migrated from one unit to another. We do have internal agency nurses who bounce around, but regular staff members work just one unit at a time.

Smaller hospitals that I am acquainted with have LDRP (L&D, recovery and postpartum) in one unit and one place even combines these with peds. (We have a large Children's Hospital in town and everything but the most routine peds cases get shipped there.) I don't know if I would like the combined approach, but some nurses just love it and say they would be bored by being confined to just one aspect of care.

Probably the biggest factor you're going to run into, then, is what is available to you within a reasonable distance. Will you have a number of hospitals to choose from or do you live in a small town with limited options.

See what you can find out when you do your clinicals. Ask around, too, and find out what friends and family members ran across when they had babies or were hospitalized for other OB/Gyn reasons.

I wish you well in your schooling.