How Do I Get My Foot In The Women's Services Door?????

NurseBlueEyesRN · Jul 2, 2008

these questions are for anyone working in any of these units (l&d; mother/baby; nicu); especially managers. ....
i'm a nursing student, and i'm one week away from the end of my externship in mother/baby. i'm very interested in these three units, and some of the nurses on my unit suggested i go into med/surg first.....for more experience....but i want to hear what you guys think.....
how prepared would i be for l&d or nicu after working in mb?
i think any experience you get in this area will be helpful, and our unit is ldrp, so we do labor and delivery, postpartum, and motherbaby care. so, if you end up on this type of unit, you'll have that under your belt.
what kind of experience do managers in mb, ld, and nicu prefer?
i didn't go straight into l/d after graduation, i worked as a float nurse, so gained alot of med/surge experience, some work in the icu, peds, and postpartum units. i believe that all of these experiences (even though not directly related), helped with my general assessment skills (even though most pregnant women are healthy, some are very, very sick), working with doctor's, orders, organization, prioritization, etc. my manager was very impressed with my experience, and commented more than once on that. so even if you don't go straight into women's care, any experience is usually good experience. the thing i lacked was any charge nurse experience (because i didn't have a home unit), so that was one thing i needed extra help with (setting up staffing for the next shift, making assignments, etc).
do you agree that med/surg would set a good foundation for any of these??

good luck with your externship!

jadu1106 · Jul 2, 2008

Hi I work on Postpartum, our mother/baby unit is separate, meaning, babies have their own nurses, and moms have their own nurse. I actually did my externship and internship on the postpartum floor before failing my boards. I was also told maybe I should start out on a med-surg floor. But my preceptor saw how much I really enjoyed womens services--she has been a nurse for almost 30 years, and has pretty much done every type of nursing except ICU--she said to me, if I truly enjoy what I'm doing and if I see myself possibly still doing womens services say after 5, 7, 8, 10 yrs from now, then to keep doing what I'm doing. Yes I won't get to hardly start any IV's, or insert many foleys (mostly removing and straight caths), but while I was interning, I saw just as much, from removing IV's and foleys, to teaching, breastfeeding (which is a huge issue, and many times time-consuming, but very well worth the time), blood patches due to spinal headaches, and the occassional IV start if someone's IV infiltrated or got started on IV abx. So it may not be as much as say ER or med-surg, or PCCU, but I still got a lot of experience. So if womens services is truly what you enjoy and where you wanna be then go for it!!!!

Wish you all the very best! :)

smbmlt · Jul 7, 2008

I think working in Med-surg is soooo beneficial. I would work so hard, 7-8 patients, giving tons of meds. It helped me in L&D, I was more comfortable, I knew what hard work was and didn't take it for granted like some. You do forget it, if you dont use it, but working on L&D/Post. is what I love and I'm satisfied.