Sophie2318

Hey I know it's been nearly year but curious if you had any luck. I was a cardiac nurse for a little over a year (first job as a new grad) and just made the switch to Mom Baby. After now almost 3 months I realized it's not for me. Similar to you I don't really have much motivation in learning or advancement in this area. I actually find that the advancement seems limiting and only gets you even deeper in OB. What sucks that while I was in school I was convince OB was what I wanted, but now I find that this area just doesn't give me the "magic" everyone saids. I'm already over the newborns (realized I don't like them/have not really a passion for them.) I do like who I work with, but I find I'm just in a different area of my like than my other coworkers. I'm 24, single with no kids (don't want them anytime soon) while others are older with families. I find myself missing my cardiac/critical care skills/perpective and varity of patients. I have now found postpartum nit picky and service driven and too repititve. I do love the teaching accpect of postpartum and I find teaching is my passion, but no OB teaching. I realized I love general nursing and want to teach students basic nursing rather than having a specialty. I realized I rather be a jack of all trades nurse rather than a specilaty. I hope this post gives you some solice. I have been feeling like I'm a broken/something's wrong for me for not liking OB. Glad to find other people had have the desire to learn more!

Feel like I made a mistake of changing to OB, has anyone else felt this way? Anyone every left OB to do something non OB related? Hi everyone! So here's my story and it's a long one. I always thought I wanted to do OB nursing, whole reason why I went to nursing school. I thought I wanted to do Postpartum, NICU, L&D, become a midwife, all of it!l I joined AWOHNN, got my NRP, and took stables while I nursing school/during my 1st year as a new grad. Loved OB in school and loved my ONBclinicals especially my L&D days (I actually didn't like my Mom-Baby rotation but I throught that was because my nurse I was paired with wasn't good match). I was so convince "This is what I want to do!" Also, I was a CNA for 3 years in Long Term Care and Med Surg before I became a nurse so I have 4 years of adult acute care experience over all. I am also 24 years old and have no kids of my own. In nursing school got my senior internship in Tele not OB which I was very upset about then (though I had an amazing preceptor and experience I would not change it for the world!) I knew I couldn't get an OB job right out of school (though I did try) b/c of that. I ended up getting my 1st job on a Tele unit in a New grad Residency program. For a time I really enjoyed my job, but I had lots of ups and downs of in (had a sentinel event that really shook me at 6 month expereience, but I had an amazing mangager get me through it and I stayed for another 6 months). But still I kept thinking I wanted to be in OB, applied for months and months, never getting a nibble back. On my days off I would study OB subjects to keep my mind fresh with the knowledge. I would resent other nurses I new from school and on my floor who would get on OB job right away while I was practically begging. All the while I was working a night shift Tele position that I would leave me often drained. My floor was mix of everything. MIs, CVAs, CHG, PNA, etcs. I had some seniority, was asked to become a preceptor (though I left right before I could train anyone but I found myself really excited to train someone I love teaching students/new people) and knew my unit's routine well. I was comfortable, not very happy or had much job satifcation at times, but I was comfortable. I ended up taking a STABLE course at one of my hospital system's sister hospital, met some OB nurses who ended up telling their manager about me and she personally emailed me if I was interested in a job. After an interview I was hired. I thought after all my hard work and dreams where coming true. I studied up my OB during the weeks I was about to start. Started working on my new M&B floor (no CNAs, 3-4 couplets a night pluse GYN and Antepartums) for the past 2 months. And I find myself missing Tele. I find myself missing my med-surg critical thinking/priorities (what I learned the most in school and what I my back ground is.) Having CNAs to work with. Doing IVs and IV meds (drips, abx, TPN), having 4-5 critical patients that I always knew what was going on, always having my eyes on them in one way or another (either by the monitors, my CNA, or by myself going in and out the rooms so frequently.) I miss looking at labs and chest xray and ECHOs to read, drains and tubes to monitor and learn how to while on the floor, giving bedside report where I'm talking about a patient having now controled chest pain that is going down to cath lab in one room to a patient having a CVA and proforming an NIH on the other. I miss my elderly patients. I miss the critcal care nurses I worked with that we would drop F bombs and curse like drunken sailors. I miss the skills I would do on a regular bases. I do really like OB/my new floor and job. The moms and dads are great 9 out 10 times and I am getting more comfortable with the newborns (I was sooooo nervouse around them before but they still make me nervouse because I'm always afraid I'm missing something new borns are so subtle!) However, I find that my critcal care tele mind and habits are having a hard time with the transition. It's such a cultural shock! The skills and habits that were once essential and necassary at my old job don't apply to my new job. Rather than always having an IV in, we take it out when they get to the floor as long as they can get up on their own and get themselves to the bathroom. I hand out a lot of tylenol and ibuprofen rather than cardiac meds or abx. Rather than giving full bedside report where I would have such a great routine/ method "This is John Doe, 76 yr old, Full Code pt of Dr Phil, here for CVA, HX of DM, HTN, and Prostate CA. Story is family notice his face drooping and slurring his words rushed to the ER. CT was neg but MRI positive for infart. On Stroke protocal Speach has cleared him for a Mechanical Diet. POC to d/c today to rehab. q4 neuro checks NIH a 4 for...Afib on monitor rate control. On 2 L via NC BL RA etc etc. Now, we have report sheets where the next shift writes all the info of pt's down (V or C/s at what time, G?P? Allergies? GBS, Hep, and Rub status, ABO, hx, when last pain meds given, Baby's gestation, wt, last feeding, 24 hour cares done/passed/failed, blood sugars, etc) so my report's are very short and more on "Breast feeding going well" "family issues" "baby had a circ" Take VS on Mom's only once a shift (out policy for low risk moms) and new born VS twice (I'm use to taking BPs every 15 minutes with a pt on a cardiac drip) and helping my mom's get through the night with breast feeding. I'm feel like I'm doing the same thing over and over. Reteaching parents on how to breast feed or how to safe sleep. Some parents want me in their room all the time and be like a nanny or ask "he is hiccuping, is that okay? he is sneezing a lot is that okay? etc" while some parents want me to be in their room a little as possible because they "have had 3 other kids" but then they have poor latch on the breastfeeding that they develop a blister or they let 5 hours go by and baby hasn't eaten because "well they were sleeping." I find myself worried about the newborns all the time, but I'm told by my collegauges to not be going in and out of room so much so they can get sleep. I feel like I am doing the same thing over and over and over again, but it's not familar yet and I have yet to get more challenging cases (like a hemorrhage or a baby with resp depress which I dread when that will happen). When I was on Tele though I hated this at times and made my anxiety worse but I would always expect the worse therefore when the worse did happen I at least felt ready/knew what to do (call a Rapid) sometimes I would like to have a rapid response because it made me feel like I could handle being high stress. They would happen enough on my floor that I was familar when they happen. I know the biggest learning curve is that I'm going from taking care of sick patients to a well unit. My priorites are different. These are healthly women and healthy babies. But then I feel like my job is all about task and service and making sure all my Is are dotted and Ts are crossed for JACO. And it hasn't been helping that a majority of my coworks have 15+ years working on THIS FLOOR and never have done anything else. They don't get very many new grads (which is what I feel like I am with only 1 year of nursing under my belt and my old job had a 12 year nw grad training program/orienation) and I feel like they don't know how to train someone like me who doesn't know much about OB and newborns past what I learned in school. I feel like an idiot infront of them when I miss something or do something wrong. What they keep basically telling me over and over "You are not a Tele nurse anymore." I really don't like that feeling, feeling like what I learned as a Tele or habits that made me feel I took good care of my patients and grew a lot as a nurse are not valid anymore. Now I feel like I am doing the same thing over and over and over again, rarely have to look at orders because 9/10s it's the same thing for everyone (though of course I missed an order that was a routine order to remove a foley for a GYN pt who had a lap-hys that my preceport and my charge nurse said to remove at 0600 like usual BUT when you clicked on the routine order they doc wrote in the comments "remove once MD see's pt in am.") THOSE were mistakes I never did on Tele because my flow/routine that served me kept me for looking at details like that. I feel like my new job is now so routine focus and task focus and "giving the 5 star service" that I miss things now. And when an emergancy does happen will I be ready for it? When I can go a long time without having an emergancy and dealing with routine and low acquity? Like I said, Tele was stressful but it was a chronic stress that you got use to, it kept me alert and know what was going on, and when things went south more often it wasn't that much a surprised and was able to go back on my core knowledge (ABCs, Hs&Ts, etc) I am also worried that if I don't like it now will I ever? Did I just love the theory of OB but not the realty? If stay too long could I leave OB and go to another area of nursing? I am very grateful and see all the new skills I am learning on this floor (my teaching skills improving, my OB skills over all) but I these skills will not transfer over to other units I wanted to change and I am afraid I will loose the skills I learned on Tele (if you don't use it you lose it and all.). I feel terrible I feel this way. Again this is what I thought I wanted for so long, worked so hard, and how this job just fell into my lap they specifically ask for me, and I find myself questioning my decision and thinkg that it's not what I want anymore. Is this normal feeling? Am I just missing the familar? Or is OB really not for me? What do you think I should do? Would love to hear your all's throughts!