Croaker

Great question! I actually never intended to be a post-partum nurse-I thought I hated it! Ever since precepting in a Obstetric Emergency Department during my final semester of nursing school, I wanted to go work OB-ED. I became a post-partum nurse since I wanted to do L&D straight out of school, as I found that God's design for motherhood and childbirth was beautiful, and I wanted to be a part of it. I was the first male to precept OB at my school, so I applied everywhere The hospital I applied to I had actually forgotten about, and since they were the first to offer my a LD job, I excitedly accepted haha! Some nurses like to do just one thing, other like variety(like in your ICU vs. ER nursing). OB nursing has a lot to offer. You can work with high-acuity clients who have serious condition PP, or you can work with lower-acuity clients. Each has something to offer. L&D can be a lot of watching and waiting, monitoring strips, then things can get pretty exciting quickly as you need to respond to decelerations, get pain under control, coach through contractions and help the mother push and get ready for birth. You will likely spend a lot of time in the room, especially if complications arise. In Post-partum, things are slower pace and you get to spend helping your mommies bond with their babies, help them get latched on, and teach them how to care for themselves and their new child. Both are enjoyable, so it's totally up to you! As far as the interview, act excited to have the opportunity to interview for this wonderful profession, them let know you are teachable and are willing to put your pride aside and be coached by others, and you are willing to work hard to learn the specialty and be the best nurse you can be. Ask good questions about how things operate on the unit, what is a day like working, what to expect how long to get dayshift if you want to work then, anything else you might want to know, etc. Good luck to you!

Depends on what you most enjoy. I work LDRP at a small community hospital(30-40 births/month) so it makes sense to have cross-trained nurses for this role. I enjoy it for the variety, and being able to follow up on the mommies I helped labor earlier in the week.

Depends on your hospital. The one I work at PRN is a small community hospital that hires nightshift only, and the least experienced person in L&D on nights has 5 years with the unit(there are nurses with between 10-38 years with the unit on days-as you can imagine, the nurses generally die or retire before they leave L&D haha!) Of the other 3 hospitals in the area, one requires nightshift at start but is relatively quick to get dayshift, and the others will hire on days. Speak with the manager of the unit you are looking to work in, and ask politely how long it typically takes to get dayshift/if they hire for dayshift. Good luck!

Hey cw123! Congratulations on getting this far, and keep pushing;you are almost an RN!:) I am a new grad nurse who works on an L&D/Post-Partum floor. I got hired after I graduated right before I took the N-CLEX in Janurary. I think OB as a new grad is totally doable if you are willing to hop in there, ask loads of questions and always be willing to learn at every opportunity. It will be overwhelming at first(especially the first month), but it does get better!! Having precepted in both an OB-ED and L&D were quite beneficial as OB nurses seem to speak another language compared to everywhere else in nursing and it takes a bit of time to get used to it. That is a short orientation to L&D-most of the units around my area do 4-6 months of orientation for new graduates. Also, consider getting Mosby's guide to Fetal monitoring-it is a very good book to learn the pathophysiology behind what is causing the baby to not be doing well in labor and how to correct it. Good luck, and welcome to OB:)

I also work at a community hospital in Labor and Delivery/Post-partum(30-40 deliveries a month), and I have been sent by my nurse manager to Med-Surg(I am supposed to return to my OB floor April 1st) to learn assessment, time management, prioritization, see more/do more since I am a new grad. Of course, I am a bit concerned about Covid-19 since part of the med-surg floor I am working is the designated Covid-19 floor for the hospital, and I don't want to get my mommies sick! My OB floor doesn't generally like their nurses floating to other units due to risk of contamination-we wear street clothes into work, and change into either hospital laundered or self-laundered clothes when we are on the unit to prevent the spread of germs to mommy/baby. Running a rural/community hospital's OB floor is challenging in that you want to always have the staff you need that are adequately trained to do their job, but sometimes you physically do not have the census to allow them all to work their hours and thus you put them on call for deliveries/flex staff. As with any hospital it is a business, and it needs to be profitable in order to be sustainable. My hospital has been extremely supportive of their OB nurses(several with 20+ years with the unit) and never stop employing OB nurses, even when monthly births were zero due to losing our OB group multiple times so they floated to peds/med-surg/tele during that period, but there wasn't a virus capable of causing respiratory distress going around at that time. Either way, I will be praying it turns out well for you as you continue to advocate for your patients:)

I think you all certainly have some valid points! I am a male obstetrics nurse who precepted at an obstetrical emergency department and in Labor and delivery as a senior nursing student, and just started a new grad job in L&D(thanks for the tips @Labordude!! The mosby's pocket guide recommendation and the tip to sit at eye level have both proven particularly useful:). After the initial shock of the L&D nurses finding out this man was actually interested in the specialty, I have had an overwhelming positive experience in the field. As long as you are kind, respectful, and professional in all your patient interactions(to include simply asking permission before any exam, covering the patient whenever possible, explaining what you are doing before you do it, and just generally being a gentleman) and mindful that there are women who have been mistreated/assaulted/harassed by men, and being respectful of that fact, I think many men could excel at this specialty if they choose to. I greet all my patients with a smile, and sometimes a handshake and try to introduce myself to everyone in the room and get them involved if I can! It is the coolest thing in the world to me to watch the look of a father being absolutely head-over-heels in love with his child when he sees her for the first time, and it is one of the high-lights of my job. It is certainly the most challenging nursing specialty I have ever been in, and entirely its own beast in you circulate in surgery, do post-partum care, resuscitate babies in utero, provide emotional support/comfort, change positions, etc. It is hard work, and I think we can use all the gentlemen we can get in this wonderful field!

Hey allnurses, I just started a new grad job on a L&D floor which requires that I wear surgical green nursing scrubs. I can use the hospital provided scrubs, but I am 6'5" and they do not fit me the best. Does anyone know where I can find some scrubs in this color(OR green/Surgical Green) that would be tailored to a man of my height? I ordered a pair of medium tall from Wonderworks so hopefully those work well. Thanks!