Feeling insulted after job interview

[NellieRN10]

So, I was applying for a clinic position in Occ Med after doing years of labor and delivery...

The supervisor interviewing me asked me if I "catch babies" and said she "always wanted to catch a baby" and tried to convince the prego nurses under her to let her "catch their babies because it wouldn't be too hard". I found this comment to be very insulting and dismissive of all the skills we in labor and delivery have! I felt like she was saying that anyone could do it! Uh, am I being oversensitive? Is this what people really think we do?

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Yep. Let it go. It is just the goofy stuff people say about the whole birth stuff. Don't let the little stuff wear you down.

[samiam7898]

I believe I would feel insulted as well. It takes a special kind of person to be a labor & delivery nurse. It is something I have no desire to do, but what do I know...I'm just a floor nurse :)

[proud nurse, BSN, RN]

A lot of times one specialty thinks another specialty only does something. When I was a school nurse, people thought all I did was put on bandaids. When I worked nights in LTC, they thought all I did was babysit. Now I'm moving onto oncology, I suppose I'll just hang chemo fluids.

I find it insulting too, because she made it sound like it looks fun and easy, let me try. And here we sit in an interview, trying to say all the right things and the interviewer just blurts this out.

[kirsnikity]

Laypeople and even fellow nurses who've never worked in L&D tend to have an over simplistic view of what we do. I'd just the comment go and not hold it against her.

[serenitylove14]

I think she was just joking. Dont get down over that because she was just making small talk. I have heard alot worse so that was fairly minor. Dont let the job opportunity slip from under you because you guys had a small communication barrier/ clash.

[Sezza83, BSN, RN]

What nationality was she? In Australia & the UK midwives use the term "catch" instead of deliver. Even obstetricians "catch" babies here. Maybe she has friends that are midwives? I don't think she was meaning to be insulting.

[NellieRN10]

Thanks everyone. I didn't let it change anything in my interview, I just thought it was a very flippant thing to say about someone's specialty. Nevertheless, I didn't get the job, which I am glad for because it would have been spearheading a whole new direction for the clinic etc...not quite ready for that responsibility!

I would not hold her comment against her, just thought it was a little rude. She is not Australian, just your average middle aged american woman.

[PeepnBiscuitsRN]

My husband doesn't know why I get stressed at my job "after all, you get to play with babies!" Uh-huh, and feed them (ok that's fun, very relaxing) change them, bathe them (brand new babies smell good... do they? Come take a whiff of this little baby all coated in vernex, blood, meconium and ammniotic fluid, try to market THAT as a perfume!) try to get them to latch onto their mom while reassuring the weeping new mother that she CAN breastfeed if she wants to, and NO formula is not poison. BIG FUN!

[SleeepyRN]

Incredibly rude, insensitive and absolutely unprofessional

[SleeepyRN]

But I agree to let it go. When she has her baby, maybe she will see L&D nurses do much more than that. Although she won't see behind the walls the nurses monitoring for decels and so on, and the actions THEY take that gets the OBs or CNMs butts in the room to prevent complications

[yoganurs]

It's true. Anyone can catch a baby. I've watched completely unprepared fathers catch their baby in their home (for example) plenty of times. Of course, those of us who are trained and have been 'catching babies' for years are much more graceful at it ;-)