Is L&D for me????

can'twait2B1 · Jul 26, 2007

Well I am a new RN grad myself (was an LPN prior) and I have been wondering the same thing, I am interested in L&D but as I have spent my whole nursing career in Med surg it is a scary step. But for you my advice would be go ahead and start your nursing program, you will get some clinical experience in each area and that will help you decide what you want to do. When I was in LPN school I was gung ho L&D but when I got finished I decided that I liked med-surg, lots of experiences there lots of change in type and age of patients, I do recommend a year in med surg for for new grads, as it was recommended to me by a nurse whom I trust very much and I have never regretted it. Just take your time and start the process for school sometimes it takes a while to get into a nursing program. Everything else will fall into place, you don't have to decide what dept you are going to work in right away, and when you are finished and you pick one that doesn't mesh well with you then try another thats the beauty of nursing . Good luck to you!

JoniL&DRN · Jul 27, 2007

hi everyone,
i'm seriously considering going into nursing and i'm really interested in l&d. i'm not in school yet but once i do go back i'll be around 40 since i want to stay at home with my children and then start my 2nd career after that!
here are my questions:
1 - is it possible for a new grad to start immediately in l&d or do i have to do med/surg first? it is certainly possible, but it is dependent on the hospital you work for and/or the area you live in
2 - will it be more difficult starting right in l&d without having any other experience?this may or may not be the case... again depends on where you are
3 - is it hard to get a position in l&d right out of school? i'll have a bsn degree. see #1. a bsn is usually a nice bonus but still most of our rn's are adn's
4 - if you're an l&d nurse do you love your work or find it stressful and challenging?i am nurse intern (graduate in december) and i have worked l&d for 2 years. i love my job (mostly) and went to school specifically to work l&d. it can certainly be stressful. it is definitely challenging and it is almost always exhausting! of course i'm just coming off of a 3 day stretch of noc's and were were short staffed all three days with july being our busiest month. i'm still waiting for the sensation to return to my lower extremities.
5 - what is the average age of l&d nurses? would an early 40 something be out of place? the average age on our floor is probably early to mid 30's but there are certainly nurses in their 40s-50's and 20's. age really isn't a factor here except that the 'older' nurses tend to not want to work the noc shift, and that is usually where you start. we have a great team and everyone of every age brings something different to the table.
thanks in advance for all your responses.

i wish i could give you more specific answers but most of them vary from hospital to hospital. here (in ca) you don't need 2 years med surg right now but ehn that changes every few years. l&d is an awesome place to work and i absolutely love my job (i really do) but i think it is a place that would be beneficial to work in some other capacity first (maybe as a doula). nursing school i don't think gives a very clear picture of what it is really like, as it's such a limited time and usually students don't end up in the thick of an emergent situation. it is a higher acuity unit than people tend to think. we tend to only retain about 1/2 of our new hires and most of them say it's just too stressful or not what they thought (they come in with images of pink cherubs and smiling happy families... not always the case). it is a beautiful miracle everytime a baby is born, but some nurses would rather not deal with screaming laboring mothers (and occasionally they do scream). when things go south they usually do so rather quickly and sometimes with a very bad result. i think of it this way, when you work in icu with sick people you expect them to be sick... when it happens on a unit where people are "healthy", it's a shock and can be very upsetting. of course, this also depends on what area and type/size of hospital you work in, but decels and stat c-sections happen everywhere. l&d draws a crowd that doesn't mind a little adrenaline rush here and there.

all that being said... if you think l&d might be for you then the only way to find out is to go for it! don't let your age intimidate you... pretty much everyone on this board will tell you that nursing students come in all ages (up to their 60's). nursing is a later in life career for many people. i stayed home with my kids too and started pre-reqs at age 30 when my youngest was 3, and the program when he was in kindergarten. it hasn't been a cake walk but as i tell my patients... all the good things in life rarely are :)

best of luck to you in all you do. i followed my heart and it was the best thing i ever did. :heartbeat

33-weeker · Jul 29, 2007

I am an ADN/RN. I got into an acute care women's health residency right out of school (like an internship). This allowed me to work in specialty areas as a new grad. We rotated through the whole women's floor, had to pass a fetal monitoring course/test with 80% score or better, etc....

I thought I wanted L&D, but ended up getting hired for nursery. Honestly, after seeing what L&D nurses have to deal with - especially depending on the type of clients they get - I am glad I didn't go the L&D way. I am much happier in nursery.

Another thing that affects this is that over the years I have read a lot and learned a lot about the benefits of natural birth. I just couldn't work in an environment where I had to do things I don't believe in day after day.

Sometimes what you think you like is not what you like once you actually do it or at least see it for what it really is.

My hat is off to all you who love L&D.

JoniL&DRN · Jul 29, 2007

Another thing that affects this is that over the years I have read a lot and learned a lot about the benefits of natural birth. I just couldn't work in an environment where I had to do things I don't believe in day after day.

This is also something to consider. I will admit that this is a problem for me sometimes. When I see docs implementing intervention after intervention it makes me cringe.....on the other side of the coin though, when it's great it's really great and I can always educate and empower through my practice.

33-weeker · Jul 29, 2007

This is also something to consider. I will admit that this is a problem for me sometimes. When I see docs implementing intervention after intervention it makes me cringe.....on the other side of the coin though, when it's great it's really great and I can always educate and empower through my practice.

True. When I was younger and less likely to just speak my mind and tell off a doctor or give the patient too much information about what bad things their doc was doing the them, I might have been able to do it. But I'm too old and set in my ways now. Biting my tongue when I attend deliveries long enough to catch the baby is as much as I can stand. I do need to keep from losing my job. I have three kids to feed. :lol2: