New job opening in nursery... should I go for it?

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

There is a job at my hospital, in the newborn nursery, that has just opened up. Now, I've always said that I never want to do Labor and Delivery, but would not mind working in the nursery.

I've been a nurse 5 years and have mostly done med surge. I've taken care of babies on med surge. I do tend to prefer a *little* bit slower, quieter environment than med surge, but at the same time something busier than inpatient psych, which I have also worked.

So, should I go for it???

Thanks!

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, PACU, Travel nursing.

Definitely!!

If it is meant to be it will work out. If you are ready for the change you should go for it.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Me personally? I love the nursery, so I can't rightly discourage you from taking the job....

...however, depending on the size of your hospital and whether you keep babies in the nursery after Mom goes home, a nursery is not necessarily a 'quiet' place. Ours can get quite frantic....last weekend we had 6 babies in there whose mothers had already gone home, two of whom were withdrawing from drugs. And new admissions, plus babies whose moms wanted to sleep. No, it wasn't quiet by any stretch of the imagination!!!

But, like I said, I love it. :)

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Specializes in ER, Medicine.

Awww....babies.:p

I would go for it. After all, who says you can only be one kind of nurse? There are soo many opportunities out there. Change, while scary, can be the greatest benefit in our career.

I'm planning to do at least 3 years in medicine before I branch out to the ER again. After that I'd love to be a wound care nurse, and then the nursery! Working in the nursery during my clinical rotation was beyond fun...

I think lots of nurses, especially us newer nurses enjoy the opportunity to branch out from time to time. Well rounded is the way to go!

Good luck in whatever you choose!

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Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.

i say go for it! i mean, what's the worst that could happen? you'd be in the same boat you are now. and i am a person who hates thinking of what might have been!

jess

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Specializes in Rural Health.

I love the nursery so I say go for it. I love the patient teaching with the parents, I love the babies.

The work (at least in our nursery) is very tedious though and we chart, and we chart and then we chart some more. The same thing is usually documented in no less than 5 places. Redundant, probably, but necessary where I work.

We are a smaller facility too only averaging about 75-90 births a month and nursery is the busiest area of them all. When I work nursery I work and I work very hard my 12 hours.

I didn't work nursery today but we had 3 C-sections and 2 SVD today, which meant 5 admissions for the nursery nurse. Then she had to discharge 6 babies from 5 moms (we had a set of twins), PKU's, hearing screens, circs, doctor rounds, etc.....

She finally had to call in a 2nd nurse around 10 because it was a bit overwhelming for her.....but that's typically par for the course in our nursery. It's feast or famine in there.

But I still love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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