New L&D nurse, transfer from postpartum

[Nurse611]

I recently started a new job in L&D. I was previously a postpartum nurse for 5 years. I assumed that my competence in postpartum would set me up for success in L&D. However, I feel as this is not the case. I often get disheartened because I am just over halfway through orientation, but feel as though I’m not progressing as I should be. I have multiple preceptors and I feel as though a few think I should be further along than I am. They have never said that, but I just get the vibe. I always seem to hear more negative things I do than positive.  Has anyone made this change and felt the same way? 

[Michellelizz]

I also made the switch from postpartum to L&D after a year in postpartum. I found that the experience helped with the postpartum part of L&D and newborn assessments but not with a laboring mother. It is a move to critical care and so it’s going to take some time to get comfortable! I wasn’t comfortable at all in my skills until a year into working L&D and even then I’m still nervous/stressed and need help some times. This is normal! It is a stressful specialty! My biggest advice is to just keep practising everything - IV insertions, lady partsl exams on epiduralized patients, interpreting yours and your colleagues’ FHR strips etc. For me, scrubbing in the OR is what really still stresses me out and so I try to volunteer for it whenever there’s an opportunity (which is stressful since it’s always during Code OBs as we have RPNs scrub for our booked c sections). 
There’s a lot of autonomy in L&D, at least where I am and that makes a huge learning curve but hang in there and you’ll get more comfortable/confident.