Please Help! L&D interview

CEG · Oct 8, 2009

Hi,
I was given an assignment in school to interview a L&D nurse. I've made attempts to contact nurses in the area, but they are understandably busy and do not get back to me so I thought I'd make an attempt through here. It isn't a lengthy assignment, just a few questions:
1. What's the best part about being a labor and delivery nurse? The worst?
2. What do you think is the best characteristic to have in becoming a L&D nurse?
3. What special degrees must you acquire and how long did you attend college?
4. Rate the importance of a high school diploma in trying finds a job.
5. What kind of relationship do you develop with your patients, if at all?
Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me out with this assignment.

Hope this isn't too late, just time for a quick response.

1). I enjoy helping women make the transition to parents. It's a privelege to be a part of a very special day that they will remember forever and I do my best to make it a positive experience. The worst is I don't like having to follow orders or policies that I feel jeapordize the safety of women and babies and I frequently am put in that situation.

2) I think compassion. There is good in most people and making the experience a negative one is not going to help anybody. There are many different patients- older first time parents, young teen moms, drug addicts, people from jail, abused women, etc all need something different from their healthcare providers and it is an opportunity to improve their lives or at least make them feel accepted or loved for awhile. Who knows what kind of impact that can have on their future.

3) Generally you must be an RN to work labor and delivery. That's a minimum of an associates degree in nursing or there are a few diploma programs still around that do not award a degree.

4) It isn't possible to be a registered nurse without a high school degree as far as I know.

5) With my labor and delivery patients I try to develop a rapport right away and often I have run into them later on and they are always friendly and remember me.

NurseNora, BSN, RN · Oct 8, 2009

Hi,
1. What's the best part about being a labor and delivery nurse? Being present at miracles on a regular basis. I like being able to help women reach deep inside themselves and find strength they didn't even know they had[/b

The worst? When the miracle goes awry and the outcome is not what anyone hoped for

2. What do you think is the best characteristic to have in becoming a L&D nurse? Flexibility is very important. My idea of a good labor experience is not necessarliy what the patient wants. I have to do my best to help her get the experience she wants, not the one I think is best. It's also a place where you can have no patients for a couple of hours and then 3 women walk in in active labor at the same time. You have to be able to go with the flow. It also helps if you're a little bit of an adrenaline junky. Life threatening situations can pop up out of nowhere. You have to be ready for anything at any time.

3. What special degrees must you acquire and how long did you attend college? []I attended a 4 year college program. The previous poster mentioned 2 year Associate Degree programs and possibly still some 3 year hospital programs. But in addition to your degree, there are certifications you have to keep up to date: Fetal Monitoring, Advanced Cardiac Life Support if you work in a place that performs and recovers their own Cesarians, STABLE is a course in stabilizing a sick newborn and preparing it for transfer, smaller hospitals that do not have the facilities for caring for a sick/premature infant encourage or require this, NRP is about immediate rescusitation of a depressed newborn. There is a certification program for OB nurses that involves self study or a 2 day workshop then a test. Once passed, the nurse gets to add "C" to her title and sign her name as RNC. It's not required everywhere, although some big city, highrisk hospitals do require it of their staff.

4. Rate the importance of a high school diploma in trying finds a job. You have to be a high school graduate or equivalent to get into nursing schoo. I know some nurses who quit school when they got pregnant, got a GED, worked as a nurses aide while going to school for their LPN, worked as an LPN while going to school to become an Rn, and even one who worked as an RN while going to medical school and is now an MD. But that really is a much harder way of doing things than just staying in school in the first place.

5. What kind of relationship do you develop with your patients, if at all?It is usually an intensely close relationship that develops quickly and ends quickly. I prefer that to the long term relationships you may develop in other areas of nursing where you see the same patient day after day. They come in with an acute problem and need lots of help quickly; the baby gets delivered, problem solved, next case. It is nice to work in a place where you get to continue taking care of the same patients (mother and baby--your one patient has transformed into two, that's the miracle part of the job) after delivery. You've participated in one of the most important events in a person's life and she tends to remember you. I run into former patients everywhere. It's nice to be remembered.