I am a new grad.. and worried about working on such a small unit

[Srees]

Hello.. I am a new grad and have been offered a GN position in Women's Services at Methodist Hospital in Houston TX in the Medical Center. It is for couplet care, and after 6 months we get to pick if we would like to go neonatal route or L&D route. I am thinking right now I would love L&D. I dont really want to go the neonatal route. I am worried because there is a very low pt census at this hospital in L&d and neonatal because there are other hospitals so close (Texas Childrens, Womens.. etc). I am scared that I will get called off to come in and work with out pay. It is a 14 bed L&d unit and the time I went to visit there were only 8 nurses on the board. The nurses said it is usually really slow all the time. Should I be worried? Should I take this job offer?

[klone, MSN, RN]

How many deliveries do they have per month?

[klone, MSN, RN]

Okay, just looked at the stats - they have approximately 90 births/month. That's not THAT slow. Honestly, if you really want to do L&D, I would take the GN position, put in enough time to get good L&D experience (and with a small hospital, the nurses usually get a lot MORE hands on experience), and then see about transferring to one of the larger hospitals in the Methodist system, such as Sugarland, San Jacinto, or Willowbrook.

I started my career at a smallish community hospital that did about 100 births/month. I learned SO much in that role. Because I was on nights, with no physicians present in house, I became adept at vag exams, applying fetal scalp electrodes, and during my 5 years there, I had more than a dozen RN deliveries. I then transferred to one of the big hospitals (4000 births/year) with residents, student midwives, and the nurses really aren't allowed to do anything, because the students and residents need the experience.

So you may find that starting out at a smaller hospital will give you a wonderful foundation in L&D skills.

[Srees]

Thank you so much for sharing that. That makes me feel a little better. Is it hard to work nights on such a small unit?

[iPink, BSN, RN]

If offered, take the job. L&D isn't easy to get into and experience is valuable especially for a GN. Get your experience and then after 1 year you can do PRN at the bigger hospitals (if possible) to get your foot in the door.

[Katie71275]

That actually sounds fine. Where I work, we do anwhere from 60-90 a month, but we get LOTS of outpatient visits. You will probably be pretty busy with that many. We staff with 3, maybe 4 patients a shift and it can be feast or famine. We are high risk OB so we get the worst of the worst of the patients.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Got my start in a small rural Oklahoma hospital that had much lower numbers of deliveries. We became very adept at lady partsl exams, ruling-out, placing internal monitors, and precipitous deliveries. Also gained skill in newborn nursery, and starting IVs on those newborns, and stabilizing them for transport to a higher-level care facility. Starting small does NOT mean small skills. You will be very, very skilled working in a smaller hospital. No residents around makes it so you have to do that stuff.........vag exams, etc. It's a good place to learn, I think, and hone a variety of skills you can take with you wherever you go. And were it me, I would choose L/D. I loved it.

I wish you the very best.