Ob specific interview questions

Not an OB-GYN nurse, but I can offer some general advice.

When I interviewed for my PICU position, I didn't get asked any questions specific to PICU. I was asked about my clinical experiences and past work experience. What kinds of patients had I taken care of? What had I learned? Etc.

However, it would be helpful to review general OB teaching, medications and emergencies. (Eclampsia and prolapsed cord being the major ones that come to mind.)

Questions to ask the employer:

Can you describe the orientation process to the unit?

How would you describe the nurses that work on the floor?

What are the most common nursing skills that are performed?

How long have you been working for this facility? What keeps you here?

Can you describe the management style on the unit?

What do you think a newcomer has to do to be successful?

tell me what you would do if you had multiple urgent/emergent events going on at the same time?

tell me of a time when you worked well with a team and how the outcome was positive,

tell me of a time when a team worked negatively and the outcome was negative, how did you handle that?

how do you respond to frequent new changes on the unit?

also make sure to voice that in emergent or questionable situations, you would not hesitate to contact the MD on call in the middle of the night, cuz that happens all the time, and they would rather you err on the safe side than take things into your own hands being a new nurse

A lot of OB nursing is social and educational. Do you like teaching people? Do feel passionate about breastfeeding? Are you willing to not be practicing med/surg skills? How do you feel about dealing with parents who clearly should not be parents, or families that show little interest in learning? All of these issues come up in OB nursing. It is a great field, full of wonderful experiences, but it is psychologically and emotionally intensive. And when it goes bad, it tends to go in a in a big bad way...You are dealing with a basically healthy population, but now there are increasing numbers of comorbidities interplaying with the complications of birth and recovery. Make sure you want this type of job description. Good luck!

to the poster above me: I use my med/surg skills all the time in L&D/Post patrum. When our census is low, we get gyn surgical patients. Also, we recover c-section patients. We manage patients on mag. We occasionally get moms who have IDDM and are on insulin pumps. And those are just a few examples. At any rate, my med/surg skills are certainly not lost in L&D and I think has made my overall assessment skills that much more keen.