Pediatric Nurse Considering L&D, need insight

LOVE40 · Aug 22, 2017

Hi everyone! I am a pediatric nurse and I am considering a position on an L&D unit. I am currently working as a pediatric travel nurse and shadowed for a shift in L&D. I really enjoyed the shift and the nurses/staff on that unit and they ended up introducing me to the manager to see if I could work on that unit. However, unfortunately, that unit is only hiring nurses with experience.

So I applied for an L&D position at another hospital. It's for night shift and full time. I currently have an interview scheduled with the HR department.

The issue is that my coworkers on the pediatric unit and from past jobs are strongly encouraging me to stay away from L&D. I've been told so many reasons as to why, such as: highest amount of lawsuits, it's a dying area of healthcare because of all the malpractice law suits, meanest doctors and nurses, lots of things can go wrong, it gets boring, it's a lot of the same stuff over & over again, and I've even been told it's the sorority of healthcare so prepare for a lot of cat like behavior and pettiness (cheerleader types).

I personally had a wonderful experience on the L&D unit! I was impressed by the nurses and their passion for what they do! They were excellent at what they did and most of the nurses had been working on that unit for 20+ years! There were definitely some strong personalities but to me that's on EVERY unit/department.

I enjoyed being at the bedside and educating the patient. I also enjoyed learning about the positioning of the patient to help bring the baby down further. I enjoyed learning about the monitoring and the fetal heart monitoring. I really enjoyed a lot of it and it's definitely one of the most interesting areas of healthcare. I also enjoyed how you are working so closely with the patient and most nurses had one laboring mother/& their baby, which gives the patient & their baby better care. I felt as though it's a very narrow scope of practice that are specific to L&D and a very specialized set of skills are required for it that will takes years to learn.

My first year as a nurse I worked on an adult Neuro/Ortho/Trauma floor at a level 1 trauma center with 62 beds and those surgeons were pretty tough but as long as you knew your stuff and didn't page them over dumb things at 2am (such as Miralax) they were easy to work with and very straight forward and professional. A lot of people warned me not to go into pediatrics because they said the parents are the worst thing to deal with! However, after going into pediatrics and working in it for the past 5 years I feel as though parents are easy to deal with as long as you know what you're doing and explain what you're doing & why you're doing it.

Anyone have any experience going from adult med/surg or from pedi and then switching over to L&D? If so, what were the biggest difficulties? Would you recommend others going into that area of nursing? What do you love about L&D? What do you not enjoy about L&D? How many months of training should I be getting if I am hired/take a position in L&D? What nurse to patient ratio should I look for? What type of personality best fits an L&D nurse stereotype? Should I take a PRN pediatric position while working in L&D to keep my foot in pediatrics just in case I do decide L&D isn't for me? What do L&D managers look for in job interviews? Do they even look at med/surg and pedi experience as any good or does it not make a different in how they view an applicant? Do they prefer new grads? Is the turnover rate in L&D high or low and why?

P.S. I'm also planning on enrolling in NP school within the next 3 years. I would love to be an NP in women's health!