which job to take

[mary78910]

Hi, i am a new RN, just passed board Feb 6, 2007. I have two job offers. ONe med surg and the other labor and delivery. THe labor and delivery is also mom baby/nursery, we do all of it. Now here is the thing, they are both the shift i want. Both very similar pay, but i LOVE labor and delivery, i liked med surg too, especially at this hospital, but labor and delivery is my thing(i think) lol. anyway the med surg job is about 20 minutes form my house, L&D is about 40. I live in Ohio so winters get pretty crappy and lots of snow, so the drive does worry me. But i'm more worried about L&D limiting me. Is this true. I'm told every new nurse should start in MedSurg. Im so confused, i don't know what to do. I was taking the med surg job, went through about 2 weeks of hospital orientation, was off two weeks, during this time i called the manager several times a day, askign when i'm going to start, do i have a schedule etc, she never called me back. I got my check and what do you know it was over 200$ short. IF anything can happen to stop you from doing something it has happened with this job. I was offered the job on a friday about 3, tore my calf muscle same day at about 7. suppose to start orientation a certain day, car wouldn't start. I have a newer car, so this really shocked me. went to a few more days of orientation wham hubby's truck wouldn't start he had to take my car to work, so i missed another day. then we had a massive snow storm and i couldnt' even leave my driveway wihtout getting pulled over because of the roads so i missed the last two days and had to do the following week of orientation. I know maybe i'm making excuses not to take this job, but seriously everything seems to happen when i'm ready to go to work there.

So do you experienced nurses or OB nurses feel limited with being an ob nurse. will i be strictly limited to the ob floor?

Mary

[TazziRN, RN]

If OB is truly what you want, go for it. You can be cross trained to other units later if you like.

[silver0980]

This is coming from an ICU nurse, who truely hates L&D.

I think being a Nurse is very hard...for a multitude of reasons. To make it harder on yourself and do something you are not completely passionate about....it just isnt worth it. Yes, med-surg experience is very valuable, but your nursing degree covers all of it for a reason. If you ever wanted med surg that badly in a few years....of course you could go back, it might be a bit difficult but you could do it.

Bottom line....do what makes you happy. Dont listen to everyone else....go with your gut.

As far as being limited as an OB nurse: my friend works in high risk L&D. They swan/insert invasive lines, their patients, are 1:1, and is considered ICU. They go to the same icu consortium the rest of the icu nurses do. So dont sweat it, theres always more to learn.

good luck

[caliotter3]

Go with your instincts. And it is not a bad idea to strongly consider your transportation issues too. Whichever job you take, it looks like you need to come up with a backup plan for getting to and from work. I would not worry about the question you have about limiting yourself. Everybody gets better at the area they work in. And many people change major areas several times during their career. Don't worry about that. If you want to start L&D, then do so. Good luck with your final decision. If you decide to leave the job you already started at, try to do so on good terms though. You never know that you may need to try to come back.