Possible to transition to L&D from PP?

bargainhound, RN · Nov 6, 2003

Yes, just notify your manager of your wishes. It should not be a problem to get in house transition training.

imenid37 · Nov 6, 2003

YES YES YES!!! Do it. I did and I wish you the best of luck. You'll be a great asset to the unit and your pt's. :)

fergus51 · Nov 6, 2003

Many hospitals actually encourage new OB nurses to start in PP before going into L&D. It is a great place to start.

webbiedebbie · Nov 6, 2003

Talk to your manager. Let her know you are very interested in L&D.

I worked as a unit secretary in L&D at one time. Before I graduated, I spoke to the manager. She remembered me and how responsible I was. She also remembered that I had no trouble getting along with the staff. She hired me before I graduated!!!! Your current work performance should get you in with little trouble.

Good luck and keep us posted!

BETSRN · Nov 6, 2003

Get your NRP certification out of the way and go for it! If you already have some M/B experience, that's a great start. then you can learn L&D. Then, if you like both, go find a unit that does LDRP where all your skills will be utilized.

SmilingBluEyes · Nov 6, 2003

yes do it.

I love L and D and would not work anywhere else.

SmilingBluEyes · Nov 6, 2003

yes I Agree w/Betsy. LDRP rocks. I like the fact I use all my skills on a given shift. And I know my patients better.

Tiki_Torch · Nov 6, 2003

I agree with everyone else. I've never worked L&D or LDRP but I did work on a Mother-Baby Unit for 7 years caring for postpartum moms and their babies as well as a few antepartums who were too stable for L&D but not stable enough to be discharged home.

I know of 3 nurses who transferred to L&D, all were RNs because our L&D didn't hire LPNs. All three loved it there. They all felt that they had pretty much accomplished all they could on the Mother Baby unit and were looking for challenges and the excitement of laboring patients. They all said their experience with certain things on Mother-Baby had come in very handy because they already were pretty adept at taking care of patients with postpartum hemorrhages, moms receiving postpartum MgSO4 for 12-24 hours after delivery, helping babies and moms with latching on for breastfeeding, catheterizing postpartum moms, and they also had experience in knowing the type of things to tell the mom and family to expect when they arrive on the Mother Baby unit. On Mother Baby they had cared for postop c-sections so they had a good base of experience with critical postop care. Anyway, all these nurses said they felt their experience made learning L&D easier than a new grad or someone who had no maternal-child experience would because they at least had experience with about half of what they needed to learn... they were able to really focus on learning how to assess labor, read monitor strips, and all the multitude of things one must know in order to labor patients and participate in c-section surgeries (scrubbing as well as circulating duties). I remember all of them saying they were surprised about how many admissions were of moms coming in who were not in true labor but needed to be assessed and then were sent back home. They also mentioned that nursing in the L&D was very much more critical-care and fast paced than the Mother Baby unit was; it was more like an Emergency Room for pregnant women... one minute everythiing would be quiet and the next minute all heck could be breaking loose and they had to be ready to change their mental attitude at the drop of a hat in order to deal with the emergencies and challenges. All three of them stayed in L&D and one of them even went on to become the OB Outreach Education Coordinator.

Sorry I spoke so much here but I type fast... :rolleyes: I'd say that if you can't get into L&D immediately, then working as an RN on the Mother Baby unit would be an incredible plus until an opening comes up in L&D. I agree with everyone else that you should let the L&D manager know of your desire. Be sure you have a good record as a dependable and competent employee who gets along well with coworkers because no one wants to hire a problem employee.

All in all I say GO FOR IT!!!!!!!

Wishing you the best of luck and joy as you follow your dream!!!

kastas, BSN, RN · Nov 6, 2003

Very well put Tiki-Torch.

I did PP and antepartum 1st and have never regretted it. I also floated between pp and nicu. I feel like I had a very strong knowledge base of the newborn. It was so easy to slide right into the pp role after the L&D role was over.

I know several nurses who went straight into l&d and it took them a long time to get comfortable with the initial breastfeeding and baths and such. I encourage all the nurses on our unit to do mother baby first.

mandykatrn · Nov 9, 2003

thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who replied!!!

you all had wonderful suggestions like i knew you would! :kiss i really feel encouraged reading your experiences and knowing that working in mother/baby will be a road that could lead into labor & delivery. in my heart i knew it would, but it sure feels good hearing other nurses say it as well!

i had my son in a hospital that did ldrp. i remember choosing that hospital for that reason specifically! i would love to work in ldrp - i love the idea doing the full realm of perinatal nursing. heck, i'm getting the pp part of it down now!

i also met with my current clinical instructor the other day to get her input. i was still feeling really down knowing that i won't be able to do my preceptorship in l&d. one of her suggestions for spring preceptorship was doing postpartum at another hospital nearby that does ldrp. that way i would get to know the staff and make connections, they could see how great of a nurse i am and even get some l&d education. another suggestion of hers was doing a preceptorship with a cnm at the midwifery clinic affiliated with the hospital.

what do you all think? i feel like there's hope after talking with my instructor and reading all of your replies. i've let the spring preceptorship disappointment kind of get me down in the dumps as if all this school was for nothing and my dreams wouldn't be realized. this school year has been particularly difficult anyway as i lost my mother over the summer and she was really the only person who supported me in the decision to go back to school. she was so excited at the thought of pinning me at graduation in june. so this spring will be difficult no matter what. i just want to be able to get through the rest of it emotionally.

thank you everyone.

~j

gypsyatheart · Nov 9, 2003

Hi Austinsmom! Definitely go for it! There will be absolutely no problem transitioning over to L&D, in fact you are in a perfect position....you already have your PP skills, and are in the Mother-Baby clinical area, and you have been working as a nurse, so you won't need the usual transition from student to nurse time!

As for the preceptorship, don't get too hung up on that...you could actually precept anywhere...in the big picture of your nursing career, it's not going to make thatt much of a difference. I think the only one it really makes a difference with is you! LOL I totally understand, I was the same way. I would not do my preceptorship in PP, you already work there, you want somewhere that will expand your knowledge base...I say go for the midwifery preceptorship...that would be way cool, I would do that in a heartbeat! If you can't do that, how about precepting in an NICU...that way you'd get an idea what happens on that end, many babes post L&D end up in NICU, and it's a pretty neat experience.

Either way, you have lots of options and I wish you well. And I am so sorry to hear of your loss, I know what a hard time you must be having...hang in there! :)