New OB Nurses, Grads and Students, Please Feel Free to post your questions here:

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Mugwump had a great idea offering services to new grads as a mentor (thank you for that!)

So, I thought having a "sticky" for new grads, OB nurses, students, and others with questions who want to post these can do so here. We also seem to see many of the same questions over and over, so perhaps this would help serve as an ongoing discussion of common issues/questions we all seem to have on our minds. This could serve not just for those asking directly, but others who may be "lurking" and looking for information or considering a career in OB, newborn, GYN nursing, or midwifery, doula services, childbirth education, lactation consulting, or other related work.

So if any mod thinks this is a good idea, mind stickying this?

Let's give this a go and see how it works out. We have many potential "mentors" here among us who, I am sure, would LOVE to help a new nurse/midwife/doula or student on his or her way to a rewarding career. I know I would love to help out!

Hello All,

I'm in my second and final year of nursing school. The reason I got into nursing is because I'd eventually like to work as a CNM. Qu 1: How do I go about scouring for an L&D position? Qu 2: What's the median pay rate for an L&D nurse in the state of PA?

thanks a bunch:specs:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in postpartum and gynecology.
Hey Im Actually Starting To Look Into Going To Nursing School I Ahveand One Of My Main Interest Is Working With The Ob Department? Is It A Good Career Choice And What Requiremnets Do I Need To Have For The Future? I Have No Clue And Confused!!! Some One Plz Respond

I think its a great choice. I think though the best thing to do is go through nursing school and wait till after all your clinical rotations to decide... i first thought i'd want to do emerg or OR and when i hit ob i loved it and never looked back. but by OB are you meaning mother baby or L & D? Nursing is a very rewarding career. I love it. Are you meaning req. to get into nursing? good grades, ability to buckle down and STUDY...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in postpartum and gynecology.
Hello. I am an ADN student, graduating in December! I am in my OB clinicals right now and I LOVE IT!!! It feels like it's perfect for me and just what I want. I feel a PULL towards it! And I totally "get it"... things just make sense. I plan on doing my preceptorship there in the fall. Anyway, I was talking to a couple people and one person told me that I should go right into Mother/Baby if I want and another person told me to start off on Med/Surg to "get the experience." I don't want to go into OB feeling like I'm in over my head and I also don't want to go into Med/Surg because I know I'll hate it (i work as a PCT on a busy med/surg floor and I see what the RNs go through). Can anybody give me any advice on this? :no:

With me, i hated all my clinical rotations until i got to LDR and Postpartum. It was my niche and i preceptored mother baby and have been on that floor ever since. However i also have gyne surgery for a little switch up on our floor which i now love more than post partum. I think if you hate med surg, go for the postpartum. if years down the road you decide to change so be it! I've never regretted precepting and staying where i am!:nurse:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi,

I'm graduating in May, 2009 and want to become an L&D nurse. However, I'm getting mixed messages about whether I should start in L&D right away.

Everyone I talk to has a different opinion. I've been told to do a year in Med-Surge to learn time management and to learn the basic skills. My question is, wouldn't I learn time management in L&D? I would certainly get experience putting in foleys and IVs. Other people say it doesn't matter and you can go right into a specialty.

I'm so confused about what to do. I know that I would be miserable in Med-Surge and don't want to spend a year being miserable.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in postpartum and gynecology.

I started out in postpartum and have been there ever since (5 years and counting:yeah:. I love it and do not regret it. We also have gyne surgeries so I'm able to keep up my skills there. My thoughts are if that is where you want to be and they'll take you on and train you... go for it! Do what is going to make you happy!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi everyone! :DI'm Chris, and I'm new here. I'm not a nurse but am considering applying to nursing school next year (community college for an ADN) and am currently taking pre-reqs. I have a bachelor's degree in interior design (so nowhere near the health care field!) but have not worked since my first son was born 11 yrs ago, and nowadays the thought of doing interior design just doesn't float my boat anymore (not to mention my skills are waaaaay out of date by now).

So let me ask you guys. . . how did you know that nursing was really what you wanted to do? Did you have the desire your whole lives? I am still unsure. My mom is a nurse and I grew up thinking nursing was 'gross' and that I would NEVER be a nurse. It was only after experiencing the pregnancy and delivery of my first baby that I became very interested in pregnancy, labor, and delivery, and postpartum. So, my interests in being a nurse currently really only lie in the L&D and/or PP field. I don't know if that is 'good enough', if I would be able to really do the whole nursing school thing. I know that in nursing school clinicals you have to do several areas of nursing, and I suppose I could handle anything for that length of time. But, I'm just really unsure about 'being a nurse' since I only have interest in one specialty, and I only developed this interest in the past 11 yrs since having my first baby. I'm not one who can say "I've ALWAYS wanted to be a nurse and help people." I CAN say that now, I want to help laboring and/or postpartum women to have a wonderful experience. . . actually I'd love to be a doula but that type of constant on-call schedule would not work right now with my dh's job, and three boys, one of whom is autism spectrum so he has therapies outside of school to go to, and no family nearer than 3 hrs away.

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!:nuke:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi everyone, been around here for a few years, but after working 18 yeasr or so in the emergency dept, I have just started in the ChildBirth Center. My mind is so full and swimming with new stuff, I think it will explode any minute now! I just finished 5 days in the nursery, :crash_com. thats what I think of the computor charting, didn't do much computor charting in ED. I have been reading a lot of posts here, and getting a better idea of some things, but man, i am in a different land, I realy love it. miss my old friends though, hard after all these years, but I got some text books adn I am doing a lot of reading. some things are beginning to come back a bit, at least they are vagely familar. I will say one thing, it is so much cleaner and quieter here. rest of month in nurseryand postpartum the off to labor and deliv for 2 months. I have founf lots of answeres to questions I think up after work. this is great. we also have all the same bacis c/o in the ED. patient satisfaction and those press gaineys. So I will be lurking around, sucking up all your knowledge.cant wait

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Welcome aboard, ikimiwi! Glad that you have poked around in here and found things to your liking. I imagine it is a whole different ballgame than ED!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

This is a great thread I am a OB?GYN nurse I work in a dr office doing mostly prenatel care. I also teach the breastfeeding classes. I want to go back to school to be a womens health nurse practioners. I wanted to know if any body new how to become a cerified lactation consultant I teach breastfeeding informational class but I would like to become an lactation consultant also so I could work in the hospital. I do a lot of prenatel care I want to see more of the actual labor and delivery and postpartum care.:redbeathe

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-surgical; telemetry; STROKE.
Mugwump had a great idea offering services to new grads as a mentor (thank you for that!)

I know I would love to help out!

Originally Posted by Sandwitch883 viewpost.gif

If you take the online program thats offered for $70 on the AWOHNN website are you then EFM certified? If not how do you become certified?

I have the same question. I took the basic FHM (AWHONN) online. Does it mean that I am certified? :idea:

Unfortunately, I posted my question in the thread "FHM online sources" by VickyRN. I would greatly appreciate if VickyRN or SmilingBluEyes or somebody else who has priveledge to make changes would remove it from there. Thank you!:)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pedi Rehab,Pediatrics, PICU.

Hi all. I am a newbie here. I have wanted to be an OB/GYN since I was 5yrs old, but have also wanted to work with preemies and in the NICU since then too. I fell into nursing and fell in love with it. I now want to become a WHNP/CNMidwife. I am still interested in newborn nursing and the NICU, maternity is my first love. So I graduated in May 08, looked for a job to no avail. Took the boards and passed the 1st try in Nov 08 thinking it would help land a job....yeah right. now I have an opportunity to travel nurse in the NICU at a location in TX. I am very excited about this new possibility and getting my feet wet and figured NICU experience may help me down the road, but am wondering if this is a wise decision. I could also go into med/surg tele at the same location. Any thoughts, ideas, opinions, advice are welcome. Thanks a bunch. :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

OMG, I have always wanted to do the same thing!!!! I have just started a job in a NICU in Texas (and I am already learning so much!), however, I too, would like to be a WHNP,CNM, and work in labor and delivery as well as the nicu in the future. Good Luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment