New Grad L&D goals

labordude, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2019

FIRST and MOST importantly, don't do any or all of these things at the expense of your nursing education overall.

AWHONN's Introduction to Fetal Monitoring is a good start:

https://www.awhonn.org/general/custom.asp?page=IntroOnlineCourse

Get a copy of Lisa Miller's Fetal Monitoring book

https://www.amazon.com/Mosbys-Pocket-Guide-Fetal-Monitoring/dp/0323401570

Get some more training (online and a lot of them are free) on lactation.

Get your ACLS. Not EVERY hospital requires this for OB, but can't hurt.

If you can get in as a tech on OB during school, that will help you more than anything else because then you will be a person and not a paper. I like to see how people are going to work because I can train someone to be a great nurse, but I can't teach them how to be a good teammate.

If your school does a preceptorship or intensive at the end, try to get into OB, postpartum, or antepartum so they can meet you ahead of time.

OhioBPH · Dec 13, 2019

The unit I really would like to work on I had my clinicals on, and my clinical instructor works there. I am working on getting shadowing opportunities arranged on L&D units in my area as well.

I'll take that class, and I did join AWHONN as a student member.

For ACLS, can I take that as a student? I was going to take NRP but you have to have a license.

labordude, BSN, RN · Dec 13, 2019

35 minutes ago, OhioBPH said:
The unit I really would like to work on I had my clinicals on, and my clinical instructor works there. I am working on getting shadowing opportunities arranged on L&D units in my area as well.
I'll take that class, and I did join AWHONN as a student member.
For ACLS, can I take that as a student? I was going to take NRP but you have to have a license.

Anyone can take an ACLS course. There is no licensing requirement but you do have to have BLS already and I'd recommend a rhythm review if you need it. NRP is a little more nuanced, you technically don't need a license (according to the AAP) but since it's geared toward those actually caring for newborns at a delivery and that would not likely be a student or CNA, individual places may restrict who they teach.

You're already off to a good start with knowing people, that is probably the single most helpful thing other than being open and receptive to learning and being easy to work with.