Helpful Information For New L and D Nurse

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Hello everyone! I recently graduated nursing school in August and just received my first job as an RN. I have been hired onto the L and D floor (my absolute DREAM JOB). I was told during my interview that nurses without experience usually aren't even called for interviews let alone actually hired, yet somehow the decided to hire me! That being said, I want to know as much as I possibly can know before I start. Are there any resources or books I should buy that can help me? I went to the NCC website for the EFM certification and read about that, but didn't know if that was recommended for someone in my position? Should I go ahead and knock that out?

Any advice is GREATLY appreciated! Thank you in advance!!!

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Your employer should be investing the time and money to get you certified in EFM, NRP, STABLE, etc. I wouldn't invest any money in anything at this point as that should be taken care of and you will end up paying out of pocket for what your employer should be paying for.

Personally, I'm a fan of L&D blogs. Even in some of the blogs that are purely anecdotal and not intended to "teach", you can learn a lot.

Tales from Labor & Delivery

Adventures of a Labor Nurse – The Highs and Lows of Labor and Delivery

Cervix With A Smile – Walk the floor with an L&D Nurse!

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Awesome!! Thank you!

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Congrats! I started as a new grad in L&D myself, and love it so far. :)

Here are some of the resources I love:

AWHONN is the professional organization - it is expensive to join, but they offer a monthly payment plan and send 2 journals in the mail. I think I pay $17/month, and enjoy reading the journals so have found it worth it. (We do get some journal articles from them from our educator, but just a couple every few months.)

NICHD definitions for fetal heart tones. I keep a copy of this in my binder and think it's an awesome resource

https://www.nccwebsite.org/resources/docs/final_ncc_monograph_web-4-29-10.pdf

A few free fetal tracing quizzes:

EFM Tracing Game

Medical student made this online lecture about cervical assessment, personally I found the pictures very helpful in visualizing when I was still figuring out vag exams. click on "lecture" towards the bottom, and you can click around to what you want to see/hear:

Intrapartum Cervical Assessment Clinical Skills Lab

They will arrange for you to have classes in NRP, fetal heart monitoring, etc so no need to worry about that on your own.

I would recommend googling around for a free NRP study guide 7th edition (just because the book is very long so the study guide has condensed info for referring back to) or flow sheet. I do have a couple of links but they are for the old edition (6th) and most hospitals are starting to work in 7th edition in practice now, so don't want to link something that might have obsolete info.

I got the book "Fast Facts for the L&D Nurse: Labor and Delivery Orientation in a Nutshell" before I started but found it to be too basic.

Personally if you are looking for books, I would instead recommend:

Mosby's Pocket Guide to Fetal Heart Monitoring

Intrapartum Management Modules (kinda spendy but a good overview of lots of topics)

Your educator may have books you can borrow too! There are certain things I like to have for my own library though.

Good luck!!

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Specializes in Ortho/Med-Surg, L&D, Observation/ER.

Congrats! L&D was my dream job too and it took me 4.5 years to finally get there. Our unit typically doesn't hire new grads either (with a few exceptions, like students who precepted there and were great). I was terrified when I first started that I was going to hate it, but I love it. Elevense has some great tips. I would also ask a lot of questions to who ever you are orienting with and others. I would definitely be proactive in your orientation. If you see something going on that you want to do, speak up and ask if you can be a part of it. Don't be afraid to ask for help if you don't understand something or don't know how to do something. I am sure you will do awesome. Congrats again and good luck!

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