Is OB easy to transfer from

Ruby Vee, BSN · Apr 16, 2018

Hey all,
I am blessed with being able to pick an area where I want to work for a residency program as a soon to be new RN.
I did not like my OB lecture experience or the clinical. I didn't seem to like the teaching style and not to just blame the teacher at all but I didn't put enough time into it either. I was more focused on the pediatric class that semester and put like 85% into peds and 15% into OB unfortunately.
Anyway so for the NCLEX I've been studying maternity/labor and delivery every day almost. And I find it really interesting! Now what went on in clinical makes more sense and I'm just enjoying what I'm learning and want to do this.
I also am lacking experience in CCU areas though.
For the residency I can only pick 1 area to focus on and I'm conflicted between CCU and maternity. At the end of the residency, I can go before a hiring panel and request where I want to work (not necessarily where my residency was focused on either)
Is it easier to transfer from OB to another specialty unit or even medsurg or better to get CCU experience? If I even wanted to transfer, but I think I would like to, I want lots of different experiences and then become an NP eventually.
Thank you for advice.

Is a nurse residency a job?

For your first job, it doesn't really matter what area you choose to get your experience. You're learning to be a nurse. What you're looking for is a place where the manager is easy to work with, fair and supportive of her staff. You want colleagues who work well together, a comfortable atmosphere and a good preceptor or mentor. The patient population isn't the primary consideration; the learning environment is. Once you've spent enough time on your unit to have become competent (1 - 2 years, and closer to 2), you'll be able to transfer easily to another specialty. If you want LOTS of experiences, Med/Surg or Float Pool are both good options. ED, or ICU in a hospital small enough not to have 9 different specialty ICUs.

I don't believe any area of nursing is a dead end as far as transferring, although I have only hospital experience so I may be wrong there. In any specialty, you're going to learn to be a nurse: how to talk to patients, how to educate familty members, how to communicate with physicians, how to chart (and what to chart), how to communicate with consulting services, lab, X-ray, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, etc. How to take and give report, how to be a good employee and coworker.

Choose the area that you're interested in, learn as much as you can and stay long enough to be competent. You'll be an attractive candidate for transfer as long as you're a good employee and coworker. Let us know how things go.

direw0lf, BSN · Apr 17, 2018

I appreciate the reply Ruby Vee. It surprised me that you said an ICU in a small hospital. I have my choice between a large trauma 1 or a smaller hospital. The smaller hospital just has one ICU. It's closer to where I live, so I liked that, but I feel like it's expected of me to choose the larger hospital. The hiring manager was my clinical instructor and wants me to choose the larger hospital. But if the smaller would be better to learn, that's what I want.

You made excellent points about learning how to be a nurse.

Thank you!

(it is a job yes, it's just being under a preceptor while I work as an RN and I can also attend classes to practice clinical skills and meet with other new nurses)