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!
We have a forum dedicated to nursing stethoscopes. You might want to check it out. :)
I have a Littman lightweight and I think it's alright for the mother/baby work I do. Some of my colleagues have separate adult and pediatric stethoscopes....to me, that is just one more thing to lose/get stolen. I've seen all different brands among my coworkers, but that's the brand that works for me.
Hello! I am a nursing student and really really really really want to do L&D! I can't stand the idea of doing medsurg. I need some advise big time. I haven't seen any openings in the city I live in now but I did search around the state and realized that almost all of the applications require experience. How am I supposed to get experience in l&d if they wont give me the opportunity? I don't wanna have to move but I really can't deal with medsurg.
well, first of all i would say as a new grad in this economy, don't excpect a labor and delivery job. I would however encourage you to get as close to it, as you could. for instance a hospital with a big labor and delivery unit and work where ever you can. ICU if it is a level 3 maternity, would give you great experience for high risk labor and delivery. Also postpartum would give you some experience in womens health. Don't look exactly at the unit you are working for, but the hosptial system as you would have advantage when a position does open up working with that system. Good luck
I'm a new grad and have been working at a long-term care facility for 3 days short of a month. I did have one job before this in a hospital several hours from me, but left when the long-term care facility offered me a job since it was 15 minutes from my house.
Anyway, I work 3-11:30pm part-time at the facility. I was trained a little bit on 7-3:30 which was a little different than the shift I currently work. I've been being trained on my shift for about 3 weeks and have 20 "residents" to provide meds & treatments to and chart on. I just received a call from the manager to check up on me about how I'm doing. She said that she's hearing that I'm doing a great job, but am a little overwhelmed. Should I be worried?
I am overwhelmed. I haven't taken a lunch/dinner for the past couple shifts that I work because I can't find the time to fit everything in. The manager said that isn't good and I'll burn-out fast. So, my question is, for new grad who was trained mostly in the hospital setting, is it normal to feel how I do? Should I be concerned with my progress?
I am a new grad and have just started my first job as an RN. I am working in OB Special Care (high Risk mom/baby, Antepartum, whatever you prefer to call it). I have only been on the floor 3 days, but I'm already feeling like I never went to school, like I know nothing.
Our OB rotation was very short. Only 6-7 weeks, and it was split between post-partum and L&D, ,but mostly PP. I never really did much if any Antepartum then. My clinical was also at a different hospital even, though within the same healthcare system...still, policies and procedures vary somewhat.
Of my 3 days on the floor so far with my clinical coach, all of them have been pretty hectic. I feel like I can't keep up. I don't know enough and can't seem to think quick enough on my feet, thus I feel like I am just in the way all the time, or creating more work for my clinical coach and the other nurses with my needs and questions.
The last day I worked I was told to take something I needed to chart on to another computer down the hall and do it, although it was something I have only done once and wasn't comfortable doing alone. I'd sure hate to miss something important on that EFM strip because I don't really know what I am looking at!
I worked as a tech for 2 years while I was in school. I am quite aware of the fact that the textbook world is much different from the real world in many ways. Please tell me this is normal new-RN stuff, feeling like this, and that I will soon begin to feel confident in the decisions I make and not need to rely on others so much for help.....?
I graduated May of 2010 (so my year anniversary just passed). I've only been working since December 2010 so, I've gained about 6 months so far. At first, I was traveling 3 hours away and staying in a motel just to work as a nurse in a small hospital in southern Delaware. So, when the call came from a nursing home to interview, I seized the opportunity. I've been in this nursing home since January of this year and I'm not crazy about my position.
I've been applying to other jobs that interest me and have an interview in two days with an acute care psychiatric hospital in Philadelphia. I've always had a "thing" for psych and studying the way people think and why. I loved my psych rotation in nursing school. My grandmother (a 30-year veteran nurse) thinks I'd be crazy to leave the nursing home for a psych position. My mom just wants me to be stable and not move back home again (since my son and I lived with her for a year while I finished nursing school). My question is to those who've essentially "been there, done that" am I shooting myself in the foot to possibly go into psych and not have a more broad experience?
This looks like an older post. I'm assuming it's still going....?
I am a newer nurse (2009). To make the long story short, I got stuck in the middle of the hiring freezes in 2009 here in my city and ended up in home health, now LTC. Just have to work and that's all there is. I was working in peds prior to this (another specialty) and there just weren't any nursing positions available after I graduated.
I am currently VERY unhappy about where things have gone. The area hospitals are not hiring nurses like myself at this point because they want 1 year of acute care exp. Since I'm an ADN nurse (I have a BS in related field), I will start a BSN program this spring in the hopes of getting a practicum in mother/baby.
I have just finished birth doula training and attempting volunteer doula work to get DONA and local cert. Also planning on doing PP doula training. I have also started working on becoming a La Leche League leader to log hours for lactation cert, since my primary interest is mother/baby and lactation. I will be attending a PP depression conference for birth professionals- they have a pre-conference cert. I know I can also do EFM 1 online. Then there's NRP (I need to renew), PALS, and ACLS. I can join AWHONN and PSI. Is there anything else that I haven't thought of? This is a huge uphill battle and very cutthroat in my area. There are plenty of exp nurses out there and not enough jobs for the rest of us (in ANY specialty- and med/surg isn't hiring any new grads).
I should add that I have worked in a few of the area hospitals in another field and that hasn't helped one bit. Neither has using referral names. I am just trying to cover all of my bases in the hopes that I'll get an interview in 1&1/2 years.
Have you tried working for an agency? I started to work for an agency during the recession-never wanted to be an agency nurse, and it has worked out really well. I was a med surg nurse, not that I particularly like med surg nursing, but I was told that it would give me good experience. When I tried to get a job outside of med surg, I was told that I did not have specialty experience. The agency sent me to a hospital that has floated me around. Even if I had not floated, I got to meet alot of people who make hiring decisions, and they know my work so its a thought.
I have a question for you! What are the implications of working as a doula when you are a RN? What prevents you from being sued if something goes wrong and it is said that you should have known because you are an RN? I have considered becoming a doula to increase my training in OB and Mom and Baby, but this concern has held me back.
Thanks Goldenhare, good suggestions about agencies. The agencies in this area are asking for 2 years of acute care experience. I could inquire anyway I suppose. I had just ruled that out.
As far as working as a doula, there are very specific doula guidelines as regulated by DONA and the local doula organizations that you do not make clinical decisions or give clinical advice. It is labor support only (emotional). But I will say that even doulas are taught about what to do in an emergency- prolapsed cord, hemorrhage, etc. Basics until the medic or healthcare personnel arrive, etc. I'm not actually so worried about it. I'm certainly not going to make a medical decision for a mamma as a doula and I hope to god I wouldn't as a nurse either. But I'm also not sure you can be sued as an RN when not acting in an RN position. Sort of goes against the whole tort law thing. It's more of an ethical dilemma that you're speaking of. And I'm still just not sure it would be much of an issue. Basically an RN acting as a doula could do more education but probably won't because when acting as a doula he/she can't. Though providing information and directing to resources would be just fine for a doula or an RN.
I was just thinking on the doula point. I guess the key would be not to disclose that you are an RN. It's not that the doulas aren't trained for emergencies or that it would be about ethics. I think it is that RN's would be held to a different standard. But its just a theoretical discussion at this point and like I said, I was just thinking.
I think I would try the agency as it couldn't hurt and you never know who you will meet. When I started out, the first assignment I interviewed for was to help a doctor with work physicals for firemen. Another was flu clinics. You could always try.
Q1. If a woman had one spontaneous and one elective abortion. She has a son born at 40 weeks of gestation (w) and a daughter born at 34 w, is she G4 P2?
Q2. If a woman has 8 kids in 2 pregnancies. The first pregnancy produced a full term boy, and the second one produced septuplets at 19 w, is she G8 P1?
Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP
4 Articles; 5,259 Posts
MallyJM,
We have a forum dedicated to nursing stethoscopes. You might want to check it out. :)
I have a Littman lightweight and I think it's alright for the mother/baby work I do. Some of my colleagues have separate adult and pediatric stethoscopes....to me, that is just one more thing to lose/get stolen. I've seen all different brands among my coworkers, but that's the brand that works for me.