ICU to OB????

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I have been working in the ICU for the past 9 months. I'm a new nurse. I currently applied for an OB position but turned it down after being rediculed by my co-workers. I regret turning the position down. Granted ICU is an intense area of nursing but I think OB could be just as intense but so much more enjoyable. Could all the OB nurses tell me why they love their jobs so I can weigh my options...... Thanks;)

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Intereseting.. ICU nurses have the same sort of personality delivery nurses need and to your co workers who ridicule you or ridiculed you, let them know that OB nurses are even more trained than they are since we have to deal with OB patients in delivery, which is a high risk area under the best of circumstances with at least one patient that we cannot see but have to monitor anyway, scrub , assist, circulate and recover surgeries and the like...The big fallacy about Maternity is that it is easy with no problems. I was an ICU nurse and fifteen years later, delivery is STILL the scariest ( and coolest) place I have ever worked. Hope you eventually got to OB....

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As an L&D nurse for a long time, I would have to say that I think the general feeling in most hospitals is that OB nurses sit around, rock babies and drink tea. Non-OB people have no idea how intense labor can be, nor do any of them understand how much responsibility there is is monitoring a mother and baby. We really have two patients when we can only really see one! Things can change in a flash just like they can in ICU. Go with your heart as far as what you want to do. Then after you've been in L&D for a while, bring down your old ICU buddies and give them a bad baby. Then see what they think.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I am sure I would not care at all what coworkers immature enough to put me down for a career choice think. I would make the move if that is where my heart led me.

As far as them thinking OB is cake, get used to it. The whole hospital does and it's universal (believing we have it easy). I have gotten past caring what the rest of the hospital thinks. Let any ICU or Med-Surge nurse ride out a postpartum seizure or hemorrhage, or a newborn crumping, and then they see "how easy" we have it. Make your choices boldly and without regard to what others think. Who cares? This is no longer high school!!! (someone needs to tell them that , apparently).

Oh, and by the way, one of the BEST OB nurses I EVER worked with had extensive CCU/Med-surge background. You would be a huge asset to any OB unit. GO FOR IT!

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Thats why we tell the new nurses wanting to get into OB to get all the experience they can before they arrive...Our patients go into pulmonary edema, bleed to death, throw emboli, have heart problems, diabetes and magnify the social problems...MANY OB nurses come from critical care backgrounds..Thats is good because they are going into a critical care background. And lets not forget the larygospasmas and pneumothorax problems of new borns, as well as the significant rise in dehydrated babies with the breast feeding issue and all kinds of stuff (HELLP and toxemia, to name a few)...Yep, go with your heart! Maybe your nurse buddies are feeling a little intimidated at the bravery of your choice..Plus, you would have more patients at one time than they often do, which is something many ICU nurses have a rough time adjusting to when the s*** hits the fan....Good luck.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I wonder if this person wound up following her heart and getting into OB???

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I have been working in the ICU for the past 9 months. I'm a new nurse. I currently applied for an OB position but turned it down after being rediculed by my co-workers. I regret turning the position down. Granted ICU is an intense area of nursing but I think OB could be just as intense but so much more enjoyable. Could all the OB nurses tell me why they love their jobs so I can weigh my options...... Thanks;)
I've worked both as well, and a good ICU nurse is a blessing in a high risk OB environment. That being said, as a nurse please learn to stand your ground, and do what is right for you, not other nurses. Nursing is a profession that is starving for strong leadership, not to be confused with strong faking leadership that puts others down. Good Luck!
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Specializes in Behavioral Health.

Go for OB!!! I was in your same exact postion this time last year. I was a new grad in the ICU...8 months out of school. I was doing well in the ICU, but I just didn't "feel" that it was where I belonged. I bit the bullet and accepted a L&D position and I never looked back.

It was the right choice for me! Your ICU experience will be invaluable. Every time we end up with a hyperemesis patient with a PICC line, on TPN and Lipids...I am the "go to nurse" and I give little mini inservices on how to care for these patients...also when we need to hang a few units of RBC's or in the middle of a PP hemorrhage.

We actually had an ICU nurse float to postpartum the other day. She just took care of the 4 gyne patients we had on the floor and she said she was amazed on how much we ran our tails off....not just rockin' the babies. L&D itself, I feel, is a critical care area...and instead of one patient you deal with two.

Good luck to you!!!!! :) :)

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.
I wonder if this person wound up following her heart and getting into OB???

I wonder too. I didn't realize it was an old post.

:balloons:

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