Advice RE:job offers from experienced OB nurses

daisybaby, LPN · Mar 13, 2005

I was offered two LDR positions before graduation- one in a level 3 hospital and one in a smaller private hospital. Having spent time working as an aide in one, and doing an internship in the other, I opted for the smaller hospital.

My decision was made primarily by observing the staff (and my potential co-workers). The busier hospital had a very poor staff morale, and the smaller hospital, while paying a good amount lower, had nurses I really looked up to- and they truly love their jobs.

One thing I love about where I am is that with no residents and no medical students, I have a lot of autonomy in my practice. The MDs trust the nurses completely- and that makes a huge difference the MD/nurse/pt relationships here.

Good luck!

SmilingBluEyes · Mar 13, 2005

Go where you feel you will get the best orientation/learning experience. Don't worry about others resenting your "new RN status" if they are friends, like you said they were. Go where you feel you will be given the most time to learn, and the best learning experiences. A caution about rural facilities; they tend to be very short-staffed at times, and therefore, you may be put in the undesireable position of having to "learn fast" and be responsible for too much too soon. I say this from personal experience.

GOOD LUCK and CONGRATUATIONS on your graduation!!!!

BETSRN · Mar 13, 2005

I need some advice from nurses in OB regarding my job offer dilema:) I will graduate in April 05 and feel fourtunate to have gotten 2 offers in OB. I have worked in OB for the past 5 years as the assistant to the director in my hospital. We have about 1000 births per year and I was offered a position on PP at night. I really want to work L/D and realize it may take a few years, if not more to move into a position there. I love the friends I have on the unit, but I am a little concerend that going from my current job role (having access to all confidential info on each employee,being very good friends with my boss outside of work) may make some people resentful or uncomfortable with my new RN staus. I am also concerend that as a new graduate starting out strictly in PP, I will loose alot of skills learned in school. We are not a high risk ob unit.
I did receive a second offer from a sister hospital of ours that is a very small rural hospital. It only does about 700-750 births per year, but they train you in pp and l/d and Nursery. One trained in pp and doing well will start with l/d. You then work everything. They draw their own labs, ect. because they are so small.
I am fortunate enough to know both mangers and both are wonderful. I am just wondering if I will get more experiance in the smaller hospital even though their numbers are a little lower?
Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated. I need to have an answer by Monday and I am making myself sick over the decision!

The smaller unit sounds like an LDRP (or at least an LDR). You just need to make sure that you get a good long orientation in L&D after you have completed time in PP. Then you should be doing the nursery component. Any good L&D unit should give you at LEAST 12-16 weeks F/T orientation in L&D before you are able to start working a bit independently.

It takes a good year to even begin to feel comfortable in L&D. You haev to be patient with that time frame.

As far as the first hospital goes, in my own opinion, just doing PP gets very boring after a time. There is so much sameness. LDR or LDRP is a nice mix because there is more variety.