Med surg RN turns OB?

MamaCJRN · Sep 14, 2011

Basic fetal monitoring class & NRP are a good start. The more advanced or specialty courses will require some experience in the field. Best wishes!

DebblesRN, ASN, BSN, RN · Sep 14, 2011

Neonatal Resuscitation Program is a must. Also, most L&D units are requiring their nurses to be ACLS certified these days--so it wouldn't hurt if you have ACLS. There are plenty of on-line continuing education modules that you can take geared toward OB/GYN and newborns--taking those and presenting the certificates to a prospective interviewer may let them see you are serious about learning and motivated to be a part of their unit.

I did Med-surg telemetry for 2 years before I started in newborn nursery (wanted L&D but was happy to take whatever I could get at the time). My advice is to be as flexible as possible in the beginning. Take whatever course they want you to take, work whatever shift they want you to work. It is HARD to get a job in OB. It took me years to get in. Good luck!!

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Sep 20, 2011

I wouldn't jump into NRP...it is best to take that class if you have some experience under your belt and most places will have you go to the class as part of your orientation. As someone who is on our hiring/retention, we wouldn't look at that you took any classes, we interview you to see if you are a good fit and also we offer many of the classes as part of our orientation (ie NRP, STABLE, etc). Be yourself and tell me what will make you a good fit into my unit and why you want to do this job.

Call the units you want to interview with and see if they will let you shadow there...we tend to hire the ones that shadow over the ones that just come in for an interview because then we see how this person interacts with our staff, and see what kind of questions they make. You can also pick up a lot by shadowing to if this is a good place to work.

Good Luck!