Eager and Willing.. but very confused!

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Hi everyone! After having a beautiful girl on Jan 3rd I decided that I needed to finally pick my future career and stick with it! Well, in my l&d experience there was a horrible nurse, and a really great one! It made me sooo overjoyed every time she came into the room. Id love to have this kind of impact on people during the most special time in their life. Ive never considered nursing before (dont know why) and im sooo confused! I dont know the difference between neonatal nursing and being a L&D nurse- or are they the same thing??? Ive been reading up all night, but I havent been able to get any real answers as to the responsibilies of this area of nursing. I read about a "nursery nurse" and that sounded like a great job to have. Anyway, can someone (or everyone) please email me! I have a million questions to ask and the best way to get answers is to go straight to the source!

*** If my nurse is anywhere out there ~ thanks so much, you made everything much more enjoyable!***

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I'm not either type of nurse, but they can be awesome.

Neonatal nurses take care of newborns up to (Bear with me, I can't remember) either 28 or 30 days old. You see a lot of neonate nurses in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care).

L&D stands for Labor and Delivery, the period from when you arrive at the hospital to when/if you are transferred to a postpartum room.

Postpartume nurses take care of mother and/or baby until discharge.

Some hospitals have moms stay in one room during the entire stay, from labor through discharge and the nurses do L&D, PP, and take care of the babes when they are in the nursery.

Others have them highly specialized. L&D nurses do just that, then PP nurses take care of mom and babies (couples). Some hospitals break it down even further, and have nurses strictly for the babies, and another nurse for mom.

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You should note that neonatal is often divided up into healthy nursery babies and sick babies in the intensive care. In a healthy nursery you will do certain procedures like blood work or giving antibiotics. In the NICU you will be looking after very sick babies, and some stay a LOOOONNNNNGGGGGG time. I think the oldest baby in our unit is over 6 months old. There is no cut off at 28 days, they stay as long as they need to.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

You MAY want to remove your email address from public view. If you wish people to contact you personally, we have a PM feature here at allnurses.

I highly recommend you use THIS as a means to convey personal information such as your email address. In any given day, 1000s of unknown people are viewing here and we have had some very scary, sick types stalk some.

Please be careful what you divulge here and on other PUBLIC discussion boards.

That said, I am a labor/delivery/newborn with 6 years' experience. If you want any help or need anything, please feel free to PM me!

Best wishes in your career choice/plans. Take care.

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Some units are NOT separate. I work in an LDRP unit which means that we do labor/delivery/nursery and post partum,also. In other words, we ahve to be competent in all three areas.

It's a wonderful concept and so much more family centered. If you want to have an overall impact on the entire family, look for an LDRP unit.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Originally posted by BETSRN

Some units are NOT separate. I work in an LDRP unit which means that we do labor/delivery/nursery and post partum,also. In other words, we ahve to be competent in all three areas.

It's a wonderful concept and so much more family centered. If you want to have an overall impact on the entire family, look for an LDRP unit.

Same here. LDRP is THE ONLY WAY TO GO for ME! I love it.

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How funny, I have no recollection of posting this... 8 years ago! I have been an LPN for 6 years and have returned to this board for tips on the LPN to RN programs in the area. Turns out I love home health but I am still itching to get into the mother-baby portion of nursing. I spent time in the step-down NICU in clinicals in school and I loved it.

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