Can someone answer some questions about becoming a OB nurse?

ChristineN, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2006

Hi, I too hope to be an OB nurse (or post partum, GYN etc). All you need is a R.N. which you can get in two-three years. However, if you have a BSN, that will also work. You can even get specialized and become a nurse-midwife who would handle alot of the doctor responsibilities. :)

amybethf · Jul 8, 2006

iwannabeababynurse said:
I'm not for sure if I'm posting this in the right section. But maybe someone might be able to answer my questions. I was wondering what kind of nurse is able to be a ob nurse? Is there anything special that you have to do in order to be one? How long do you have to go to school for it? You see that is what I'm wanting to go to school for.For anyone that can answer my questions I really appreciate you taking the time to read this and replying!! Thanks!!!

Question - have you declared nursing your major? If not, u need to select a school and figure whether you want your associates or bachelor's in nursing. There are pre-req's to take as well as a pre-entrance nursing test that gets u on a wait list. Once u are in the program u do rotations in peds, ob, med-surg and psych. The adn pre-req's are generally bio, a & p I & 2, chem, 2 eng, 2 psych and some other general ed requirements. If you are considering a bsn, there will be more classes. Talk to a counselor at the school u select and they can help u set a plan in motion.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2006

To answer your question is:

(1) you first have to go to nursing school to get a license to practice nursing. It may be either as an lpn or and rn. The length of school programs varies so you have to contact each individual nursing school you are interested in for specific information

(2) once you finish nursing school and get your license you look for and get hired to a job in an obstetrics department of a hospital or work for an obstetrician who is willing to train you to work in this specialty. It's that simple. This is how all nurses who work in obstetrics (ob) start out.

This is a link to the website of the association of women's health, obstetric and neonatal nurses which is one of the professional nursing organizations of ob nurses. You may not be able to get much information that is usable to you from this site because you are not a member, but I thought you should know that the organization exists.

https://www.awhonn.org/

Visit https://www.awhonn.org/page/Students It is nursing career information specifically written for students (that's you!).

At the bottom of the page are popular links for prospective student nurses to explore. Several that I frequently recommend to people looking for information about nursing are the discover nursing site by johnson & johnson (http://www.Discovernursing.Com/) which has oodles of information about nursing and how to become a nurse as well as the different specialties in nursing, and the college board site (http://www.Collegeboard.Com/ ).

The college board site is a wealth of information about going to college. Don't be intimidated when you first access their home page. They are the organization that makes the sat and clep exams. The website, however, also has a large area devoted to educating prospective college students on how to find a college, what the application process is all about and much, much more that you need to know about becoming a college student. By clicking on the very first picture above "For students" you will be whisked away to another page of links to all this information about: college board tests, planning for college (you really want to check this area out even though you have already graduated from high school), finding a college, applying to college, and paying for college. There is even a box at the bottom left that says "Where to start? Start here." which is a link to the same information in the planning for college section. Explore any and all links provided within pages. I spent 2 hours one night just browsing through all the information at this site. I guarantee you will get answers to about 95% of all your questions about getting started in a college here.

I also strongly suggest that you do a search and find the homepage of the website of your state department of education. By doing a little bit of searching on the site you should be able to find information about how to get into college, career guides and financial aid. The website of your state board of nursing which you can link into from allnurses (see "Links" at the top right of this page) should have a complete list of all the lpn and rn schools in your state so you can see what schools are close to you. Even if you think you know everything, you don't know everything.

In case I didn't make it clear, you are most likely going to have to go to college to become a nurse, especially a licensed nurse.

Here are some other links to check out about a career in nursing. I've included information about lpn as well as rn because I saw from an earlier post that you were interested in lpn as well.

so_buggie · Jul 11, 2006

I'm also confused like "Iwannabeababynurse". I too want to work in the OB. I am in school going for my BSN. I understand that a BSN is a 4 year degree. Once i get my BSN and i graduate college, do i need to take an RN test? Or is a BSN higher than a regular RN and therefore i wouldn't need it? I'm confused on the whole degree process. Can someone please explain to me what the difference is between a BSN and an RN? (Is it just that it's a higher degree and I will be able to do more things?)

cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN · Jul 11, 2006

ADNs and BSN have to take the same NCLEX test in order to receive their license to practice.

midcom · Jul 11, 2006

so_buggie said:
I'm also confused like "Iwannabeababynurse". I too want to work in the OB. I am in school going for my BSN. I understand that a BSN is a 4 year degree. Once i get my BSN and i graduate college, do i need to take an RN test? Or is a BSN higher than a regular RN and therefore i wouldn't need it? I'm confused on the whole degree process. Can someone please explain to me what the difference is between a BSN and an RN? (Is it just that it's a higher degree and I will be able to do more things?)

You are already in school going for your BSN & don't know these things? I would have thought you 'd have found that out before you even started.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2006

OK. Here's the short of it. There are two kinds of licensed nurses: LPNs (called LVNs in some states) and RNs. RN is a higher designation than an LPN. In order to become either of those you HAVE to go to a nursing school that teaches you to be either of those kind of nurses. Some of these schools are done by vocational programs and some are done by colleges. Most RN schools are in colleges, but not all. You have to finish LPN or RN school before you are allowed to take what you will hear referred to as "the state board" , NCLEX, or LNCLEX which is the examination to test your knowledge of nursing. If you pass it, the state you live in will give you a license and you can then start looking for jobs as a licensed nurse. You cannot work as an LPN or an RN without that license. The only exceptions are in certain states who allow nurses who have graduated from nursing school and are waiting to take their LNCLEX/NCLEX or state board exam that allow them to work as interim permittees. Not all states do this, however.

Now, if your nursing school is within a college, the college will have specific rules about what you have to do to successfully complete that program of study. Most LPN programs have what is called a certificate program which is nothing more than a specified list of classes that the LPN students must complete and pass in order for the college to say "yes, you graduated from our LPN program". RN programs that are offered through colleges usually require that the student earn an AA degree or a Bachelor's degree along with the nursing--depends on the college. The majority of RNs are trained in AA degree programs. The next largest group are BSN (Bachelor's in the Science of Nursing). The difference is in the total number of credit hours of college classes they must take to meet the requirements to graduate.

An AA nurse and a BSN nurse can both do the same work if they are hired as staff nurses in hospitals, nursing homes, or doctor's offices. The only difference is in their level of education. BSN programs tack on a few extra bonus classes that AA degree nurses aren't likely to get. They also require more liberal arts class requirements than an AA program. BSNs are more likely to be considered as more favorable candidates for supervision and management positions by bosses because they have gone through the rigors of a bachelor degree education and because they have usually received more leadership training in a bachelor degree program. (For instance, for my bachelor's degree I earned 264 quarter hours of credit. That's a lot of classes!)

No one is going to work as an OB nurse anywhere until they become an LPN or an RN first. Unless the hospital allows nursing assistants to work in OB, you have to become a licensed nurse first. The way you do this is to find a job working on an OB unit (or an ICU unit if you want to be an ICU nurse) where you are given on the job training for this specialty. There is no special OB school. The only school you need to go to is general nursing school to begin with (see the first paragraph).