Nurse

You sound like you want to become a labor and delivery registered nurse. You have several options.

1. The quickest way to do this and the cheapest would be to get a 2 year associate RN degree. There is a nursing shortage so you can probably get into Labor and Delivery as a new graduate RN. While you are in college you should get certified as a nursing assistant and apply for a job in a hospital on the L+D unit or another unit in the hospital. If you are a good worker, you will have an easier time getting an RN job there once you get your RN degree

2. The other option is a BSN or four year degree which I reccommend if you can afford it. If you have a 4yr degree you will make a little more money per hour and could someday apply for a management position or public health nursing.

3. A nurse Midwife is a nurse who can deliver babies in someones own home or in a hospital without direct supervision of a doctor. To be a Midwife you need Masters degree. I would reccommend you get a few years experience as a staff RN on a Labor and Delivery unit before you go back to school to be a Nurse Midwife.

Either way you may have to start out on a basic medical/surgical floor before getting into a specialty such as Labor and Delivery. If you do find a position in Labor and Delivery as a new grad, make sure they have a good training or orientation program for you.

We need more young people like you to get interested in Nursing !! Good luck to you in the future and if you have any more questions this is the place to ask.

hi brianna,

it sounds as though you want to work in the newborn nursery or in labor and delivery. i currently work in the level 2 section of the newborn nursery and every once and a while i get to work with the healthy newborns in the level 1 section of our nursery. i went to undergraduate for 4 years and got a degree in chemistry and then i went to nursing school for two years and got my bsn. hope this helps.

ltm

Thank you so much the information was very useful. So what classes do you think would be useful to take in HS, chemistry?

Brianna

Take chem, bio and maybe even a math class (GASP!! MATH!!). Most nursing programs concentrate a fair amount of their time on pathophysiology so taking bi when in hs definitely helps.

Most high school counselors are pretty familiar with what it takes to go to nursing school. Take a college bound curriculum. At the high school I work at in drug prevention, students can take A & P, either basic or advanced. Chemistry isn't bad to take. Take math up through Algebra II or enough so that you will be prepared to take Algebra 101 in a college (your counselor will know what all that means). Take English so that you can improve your critical thinking and WRITING ability. Nurses don't write essays, but they must learn to succinctly and accurately describe what they see. Sometimes your "final grade" on the writing assignment comes when a lawyer in some court asks you what you meant exactly by what you wrote. Some psychology isn't bad if your school offers it. If you have a careers component, take the opportunity to go do some observation in nursing settings. What your school can get you into will dependent on how your local health care agencies feel about the confidentiality and the stress of what hospital observation might expose you (a high school student) to. Good luck.