High Risk L&D question

[JPatchouli]

I have been a labor and delivery nurse for 7 years. I have been working in the same place that whole time. During that time I have done lots of "normal" and of course there is nothing better than a beautiful delivery! But I have also cared for plenty of women with GDM, IDDM, PIH, Preeclmapsia, morbidly obese, twin gestation, PPROM, PTL, pylo, PP hemorrhage, drug addicts with no prenatal care, etc.

We do level 2 maternal care and have a level 2 nursery. Anyone under 34 weeks gets shipped if appropriate. Not to say we don't keep antepartums under 34 weeks, because we do that too.

A while back our hospital built a brand new facility and split campuses leaving us and our nursery behind and taking EVERYTHING else 5 miles away. Essentially leaving us as a freestanding birth center, with the same pt population we have always had.

I want to start traveling soon. My recruiter keeps asking e how much high risk experience I have and has put me in for a couple of positions that are at Level 3 & 4 facilities where I would love to work and gain more experience, but I sure don't want to misrepresent myself. He asked me yesterday, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest risk, how much high risk experience do you have? I honestly don't know how to answer that and am looking for any guidance.

Thanks for reading this far, hope I'm making sense.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I've worked in a facility like yours, and I've worked in true high risk facilities (where women are shipped in from the surrounding states to deliver). I would call it "middle of the road" high risk, so I'd give it a 5. If you tell them that the NICU that's attached to your facility is a level 2, that will give them a pretty good idea of the types of patients you are skilled at caring for.

[JPatchouli]

Thank you so much for your reply! Very helpful.