Can you be a pp or mother baby nurse without doing l&d?

[studentnurse9806]

I am a student and am interested in doing pp/ mother baby, but am not at all interested in working l&d. The hospital where I did my clinical had a seperate floor for postpartum moms and most of those nurses worked only on that floor, while others were cross trained into l&d and nicu. Just wondering if this is the norm or if it depends on the hospital?? I am located in CT if that helps... thanks in advance for the replies :)

[melmarie23, MSN, RN]

its not possible at my hospital, but we are an LDRP unit. One unit for everything, so the RNs do it all.

If you work for a hospital that separates L&D from post partum/mom-baby, then I dont see why you cant do just the one. Many hospitals still have separate units, so yeah.

[itsnowornever, BSN, RN]

Our hospital is separated, so yes you can do one or the other.

Posting from my phone, ease forgive my fat thumbs! :)

[MKPRN]

Yes, at a bigger hospital you can. A lot of nurses that do L&D start out on post partum.

[kayemmejayRN]

The hospital I work for has an L&D unit and PP unit. We are all crossed trained and we float between the units. When a PP nurse floats to L&D they are usually assigned a post partum mag patient. We do not give them our high risk ante partum or laboring patient.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I've worked in LDRP units, and even then, there have been nurses who just did pp/couplet. So yes, it's definitely possible. I've worked in about 6 different OB units, and there have always been nurses who didn't do L&D, even in smaller hospitals (by smaller, I'm talking 1200 births/year), and even when the L&D and PP units are together.

[Alikatz]

May I ask where you did your clinical? I work in a CT hospital in L&D and our L&D and PP units are separate. So, yes, like others have said it's totally possible.

[PinkNBlue, BSN, RN]

Yep! I do :)

[RN*mommy]

It definitely depends on the hospitals setup. If it's an LDRP, well then you have to do L&D. Hospitals with L&D separate from their postpartum unit would be what you would want to look for. I worked pp for a year and then cross-trained to the special care nursery. I highly recommend cross training once you are comfortable on pp mainly because pp is fluid. One day you can have a floor full of patients and the next week have very few. The hospital where I worked SCN nurses could staff the floor as well...so if the nursery was slow or visa versa, I could bypass low census some of the time.

[k.willow]

I work at an overseas military facility (VERY small, approx 350 deliveries a year!) and even though everything is on the same floor, PP and L&D are very much separate. I work just PP, but that is due to the fact that I'm an LPN. The civilian RN's work both. At larger hospitals, different staff work each unit. Some are cross trained and others aren't. I have seen job postings specifically for PP.

[klone, MSN, RN]

It definitely depends on the hospitals setup. If it's an LDRP, well then you have to do L&D.

Not necessarily. I've worked at facilities that had LDRPs, and there were still nurses who only did PP. Just because the mother doesn't change rooms doesn't mean she can't be assigned a different nurse after recovery.

As others have said, I've also worked at facilities where L&D and PP were all combined on the same floor, even in rooms right next to each other, and there was still a very distinct division of labor between L&D and PP, and while most nurses were cross-trained, there were some who only did L&D and some who didn't know L&D at all and only did PP. In fact, every facility I've worked at has been that way, and I've only worked for one place that had completely separate L&D and PP units.

[studentnurse9806]

@Alikatz I did my clinical at Stamford Hospital. I meant to actually reply to your post but Im not sure how, sorry.