belle005

You'd feel the exact same way heading into Med/Surg, ER, oncology, peds, OR, etc. etc. New grads are always going to feel inadequate, scared, and like they suck! Don't worry... you'll get a good, long orientation in a specialty like OB and the fact that it's your dream job and you're very enthusiastic about it will be a great help. I started as a new grad in L&D and so did at least 5 people I work with in L&D. Just ask lots of questions even if you think they are "dumb" questions. And I'd disagree about orienting on night shift... try to orient on days where there is a ton going on, and everything is fast paced and lots and lots of different experiences happening. I have worked days and nights and got a lot of good experiences on days that never came up on nights. Good luck!!!

Thank you for the responses! I am soooooooo nervous.... I think I'm most afraid of missing something with the babies. I had one newborn where my preceptor called the doctor and was very concerned and another newborn that looked EXACTLY the same to me as the previous one, and she was like "oh, the baby's fine, just transitioning, stop worrying". ???? I'm so confused about when to worry.... I hope I get the hang of this SOON.

Ok, I just came off orientation in OB (first RN job). I work L&D, PP, and Nursery on a rotating basis. I'm sick to my stomach with worry and fear and dread and I want to quit so bad I can't even stand the thought of going back one more day. I wanted to do OB, but now I'm not sure I even like it. L&D scares me to death... blue babies scare me... postpartum bleeding scares me... c-section recoveries scare me.... I'm such a worry wart after I leave that I can't let anything go that I may or may not have done wrong during the day. I'm a huge ball of stress and nerves and am becoming depressed and isolated when I'm at home. Questions... is this normal? does it get better? how long do you give it before deciding a specialty - or even nursing in general - is not for you? I feel terrible guilt because I know how expensive orientation is for the hospital and I feel I owe them some quality time for training me. I wish so bad that I was liking this better.

Mamabwana - Your post here sounds EXACTLY like how I'm feeling right now. I'm two months into my first nursing job. I'm always so scared, unsure, and if anything bad happens, I'm afraid it will be a huge disaster because I won't have a clue what to do. I am starting to worry too because my co-workers talk to me less than they did before and maybe are seeing me as cold or aloof because I'm so self-absorbed just trying to get through each shift without breaking down completely - they'll be chatting in the breakroom and I'm at the desk obsessing over my charting or what I might have forgotten to do. I'd love to know how you're doing now that you have a few more months under your belt. Any improvement? I'm wondering when these awful feelings will end or at least subside a little bit!!

I read Saunders NCLEX review book. It's an easy read and the strategies outlined are really really helpful on NCLEX. All the other studying I did wasn't wasted (learning about your field is never a waste of time), but it sure didn't help on NCLEX - which was filled with questions about things I didn't know and hadn't studied! But I passed, and hopefully, so will you! You probably know more than you think and just need some strategies for figuring out what the questions are asking and how to eliminate incorrect answers.

That's true!

I wouldn't mind home care at all. Or working in an office or something with kid-friendly hours... however, I'm being told that you need to have the experience and knowledge base before you will be successful in those types of jobs. I'm not sure if that's true, but it seems like a good idea to know what you're doing if you're by yourself in someone's home or if you're talking to a worried parent over the phone in a doctor's office.

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I'd have to get him to switch weekends with me once a month. He will not be into that at all. I always heard that nursing had these great flexible hours and wonderful schedules.... not so much. All I could get is nights which I never wanted, 12-hour shifts which I didn't want, and now every 3rd weekend, which seems impossible to manage. I guess I'm just a whiner, but I'm really disappointed to finally get out of school and have it be so difficult to work in this field.

Hmm.... I'm no expert, but I'll try! It's not terribly clear because the pCO2 is normal. Any chance you wrote the values incorrectly? 7.33 is acidic. So the patient has acidosis. It's not fully compensated or the pH would be back within normal range. It is partially compensated though because the HCO3 is higher than normal range - indicating the kidneys are the compensation mechanism at work - which points to respiratory as the initial problem. I want to think it's respiratory acidosis because of the respiratory issues and the fact the kidneys are compensating by retaining HCO3.

I have been reading through old threads about single moms working weekends, but can't really find what I'm looking for. I'm a single mother to 3 young children. They go to their dad's house out of town every other weekend. Other than that, they are always with me. I'm a brand new RN and in my interview, I mentioned I needed to work every other weekend and not every 3rd weekend like the rest of the floor. I was told that wouldn't be a problem. I got my orientation schedule and I'm on every third weekend. I already have to pay someone to sleep over (it's a night position), and pay someone while I get sleep during the day, and now I'm going to have to pay someone for weekends too??? I can't just sit home alone while my kids are gone - I have to work while I don't need the child care or I'm never going to make ends meet. I emailed my manager at once and asked for clarification. I'm hoping it just the orientation that will be every 3rd, but it's a very long orientation, so I'm not sure how I'm going to manage the every 3rd weekend even for the duration of orientation. And I have no idea what I'll do if they say I can't work every other weekend going forward. Any other single moms have problems like this? How do you manage every 3rd weekend when your kids are only gone every other weekend? I'm really worried now about how I'm going to manage this.

Well, I debated to the point of making myself sick for days!! I then thought I need to just DECIDE! So I chose OB and have refused to let myself go back and rethink it at all. So, right or wrong, I'm specializing in OB right out of school! I'm both excited and really, really scared/worried! I don't start for a couple weeks yet and go from looking forward to it, to dreading it and wanting to quit nursing before even trying it out! It just seems so overwhelming! But I'm going to get in there, ask lots of questions, keep studying and do my best. It's intimidating to read some of the OB posts on this site... it's like they are speaking another language at times. I hope I can do this!

WOW!!! Talk about perserverance!! Good for you!! You should be proud of yourself.

I (FINALLY!!!) got two job offers. One is nights in OB (PP, L&D, Nursery rotation), 8 hr shifts (11-7:30) and this entails a 6 month full-time orientation with a staff of "mature nurses" - managers words. This is a .5 position, so 5 8-hour nights per pay period after the orientation is done. Second offer is Med-Surg Intermediate (I was told more care but fewer patients than a typical Med-Surg floor) with cross-training and floating to the Med-Surg area when necessary. 6-12 week full-time orientation. 12 hr night shift (7p to 7:30am. This is a .6 position, so only two nights per week after orientation is done. I'm so grateful to have two offers, but I'm completely torn and need to make up my mind TODAY. I love OB, but frankly, I'm terrified of it after reading many many posts about how stressful OB is to work in and how hard it is to learn. The long full-time orientation and steep learning curve is also going to be harder on my family than the shorter Med-surg orientation. I am freaking out and can't seem to make a decision. I loved my OB clinical and I also loved my Med-surg clinical.... so I can't really leave it up to my "passion", because I don't have a clear-cut PASSION like many other nurses do when starting out. HELP!!!!!

Thank you for the replies. If anyone else started as a new grad on nights in OB and did just fine or would advise against it, I would welcome your opinions.