Is it hard to transfer from mother/infant (postpartum) RN position to pool nursing?

[brista]

Hi All, I'm currently in my first job search as an RN and have a strong lead for a mother/infant (postpartum) position, which I'm thrilled about! However, in the next few years I want to do some work as a pool nurse (I love the flexible and dynamic nature of the job). Will it be hard for me to do that? I was thinking I could always complete some CEUs in telemetry or whatever else I may need before making that change...am I right?

Basically, I want to hear from anyone who has insight into this, especially nurses who have gone from L&D nursing or mother/Infant nursing to pool nursing or another specialty. I want to know if my taking this position would limit me to only L&D or postpartum units in the future. I'm at the beginning of my career! Thanks in advance!

[brownbook]

I assume pool nursing is what we call float nursing where I work.

Any hospital I have worked in desperately wants and encourages nurses to work in the float pool. (I guess that is where you come up with pool nursing.) I think even with just "limited" mother/infant postpartum experience a hospital float pool would welcome you. A decent well run float pool would have you orient to the different units.

The telemetry training would certainly help.

[SierraBravo]

OB is fairly specialized and, unfortunately, you won't be exposed to many of the things you would be exposed to if you worked on a med/surg unit. However, I agree with brownbook and think that by furthering your knowledge beyond OB you would be a good candidate for the float pool. I would imagine that there would be some orientation to the units you would work on. But be prepared, med/surg is a whole different world compared to working in OB.

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

In my area I see a lot of hospital do "pediatrics, Maternal/child health, L&D" float pool that is separate from the "critical care float pool" and the "med-surg float pool", so that may be an idea.

HPRN

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

If you want to do float pool then perhaps you should start out in medsurg. Postpartum is highly specialized.