help getting into mother/baby unit

[Schmoo1022]

Hi,

I have worked LTC for several years, but have been always interested in post partum. It is very difficult to get a position at my local hospital. What could I do to make myself more marketable? Any advice?

Thanks!

[randomramblings]

With the nursing shortage, I was able to jump from psych to mother/baby without a problem even though I had no real experience. I was certified in Fetal Heart Monitoring while I was a senior in college, though, so I think that helped. I'm sorry to hear it's been difficult for you. Maybe that's a good sign that the unit is run well and so there's not a lot of turnover!

There are only 2 things I can think of that might help. One is transferring to pedi and getting in that way. A lot of hospitals have a maternal-child health floor that includes maternity, pedi and the NICU. If that's the case, you can be cross trained to one or two of the other specialties.

The other is signing up for classes through the hospital that are relevant to maternity. Things like NRP (neonatal resuscitation-ACLS for newborns, basically), Fetal Heart Monitoring, that sort of thing. If class size is limited they'll probably restrict it to those who already work in maternity, but otherwise they shouldn't say no.

Good luck either way!

[RN1981]

There was a MASSIVE L&D shortage at my hospital so I started there. I ended up hating it and they slid me through to Post-Partum instead. So try to get into any OB/GYN field you can or maybe Peds then perhaps you can transfer later on.

[dettwiller5]

I would suggest calling the nurse manager on the unit and asking to shadow a nurse for a day. That way, you could get to know the unit and have access to the nurse manager.