no luck with jobs

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in L&D, Ambulatory Care.

I really wanted to work in labor and delivery.

No luck as a soon to be new grad.

So, my question is, would it be career suicide to work outside of the hospital (eg in a clinic or something)?

I really hate med/surg nursing.

I may end up there.

Any ideas of the type of floor I should try to find (least horrible med surg floor-I hate stuff like chest tubes, etc.).

??

Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.

I find it hard to believe that you can't get a job in L and D as a new grad especially with the nursing shortage! How bout peds?

Are you sure you cannot go to L & D as a new grad? I have heard of many who do (never liked it myself since nursing school).

Have you assumed this or have you actually applied places?

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

Can you go to postpartum or mother/baby and then work on over to L&D? If that's the hospital you want to work in, that might be a viable approach.

Is there another hospital in the area you can apply to?

Specializes in CVICU.

Personally; I do not know a hospital that will hire a new grad for L&D... usually the standard is to do a year in the med/surg area in an acute care facility then you may pick a specialized area and ask your facility to orient you to that area and take any course available to you in regard to that special area and then usually it is PP/NBN and after a while there you can usually float to other maternal areas...Peds/NICU for feeders and growers and then land where you like it the best. Good Luck...med/surg is not that bad and it does give you the groundwork to expand...Have fun..keep pushing you will find your way....:kiss

Specializes in L&D, Ambulatory Care.

I did apply and interview at the hospitals in the area that DO hire new grads.

Now I'm going to look into postpartum, but that is hard to get also.

Anything in maternity is hard to get!

:(

Keep trying, show persistance, work in a closely related area, then let the powers that be know they will loose you to an outside setting if you don't get what you want which is to work L & D. The hospital I started in after graduation needed me more where I was than where I wanted to be... they lost me. I never did get to where I originally wanted to go, but I don't regret that much now since I love my job so much today! I wish I had been more persistant. Sometimes I think hospitals bully us into doing what we don't want to because they are looking out for their own self interests and want to fill positions where they need it most. Keep trying, you'll get there. Sometimes we do things we don't want to, to get where we want to go! Keep you eye on the prize! Good Luck!

Specializes in L&D, Ambulatory Care.

The thing that is so disapointing is that I wanted to work for 2 years, and then go back to school for nurse midwifery.

If I don't have the L&D experience, I will have to go to school without it, or wait longer to go back.

We will see.

They say everything happens for a reason.

But if I end up in med/surg, I will be very rusty, because I've been doing L&D for my senior practicum.

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

Be patient, Melissa, you will get there,but I'd rethink that 2 year time frame, if I were you. Make it 2 yrs (possibly 3) ON L&D, after you've gotten there.

If you don't like Med-Surg, DO NOT work there; you'll hate it, resent it, and be miserable. I don't know of too many hospitals that insist on that, either, unless the community has a plethora of nurses for some strange reason.

If a new grad wants to work in peds or NICU, my advice is DO NOT, PLEASE, WORK THAT YEAR IN M-S!! It just cements all the adult info you learned in nsg school--and makes it HARDER to assimilate a whole new body of knowledge you need for babies and kids. Honest.

Are your NICUs hiring? I would think that would be a great experience for a nurse midwife to have. Or, are you able to move? There are nurse recruiting agencies that will find such positions for you without the year of med-surg, but they can't always get you a spot where you would like geographically....

Specializes in L&D, Ambulatory Care.

I have not looked into the NICU.

There are 2 students in my class doing their senior practicums in the local NICU's, and they will most likely end up there.

NICU is not my thing either, though....

I don't want to work med/surg, and I know I will be miserable. But if I can't get into L&D or post partum, I don't know what other options I have.

Hi Melissa, Just keep trying to get into L&D. I work on-call in a high risk L&D hospital in Minnesota, and they hire new grads out of desperation! The nursing shortage is real out here. I have been in L&D for 17 years, and things have really changed! Now most labors are induced and most women get epidurals! I'm pretty much a drug pusher when I work in the hospital! Gabriele RN

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