ReneeRN0521

I had 1 OB who was supportive of midwifery in general and me becoming a midwife, 1 charge nurse, my unit supervisor, and 1 instructor from my previous degree.

I'm in the University of Cincinnati program and the requirement is a 3.0 in your last nursing degree and no GRE required :). I have another MSN in Nursing Education so that was the GPA they took, not my BSN (thank goodness because working nights and going to school did not agree with me.) I had 2.5 years of L&D experience plus almost 2 years of NICU experience prior to that when I applied. I am also on the maternal transport team at my job and advanced fetal monitoring certified. The thing is every program and every admission cycle is different. My advice is to apply early, I had my application in late August for a deadline that wasn't until late November and got my acceptance letter 2 weeks after I submitted the final documents for my application.

I work at a hospital that does have 24/7 laborist coverage, but this is fairly new (within the last 2 years). We did about 4300 deliveries last year which was the most in the state. The laborist is not a substitute for the patient's OB. We still communicate with their OB for updates, orders, etc and they are not usually in house. We do have anesthesia and our OR staff in house 24/7. We have never had to have a doc in house for epidural placement and usually the patient's OB or the one on call for them doesn't show up until complete and/or pushing. The laborist is there for STAT sections, precipitous deliveries, unassigned patients, and transports that we have accepted from outlying hospital. They also occasionally cover for other OBs when they have a VBAC patient so they don't have to stay at the hospital the whole time they are in active labor.

I had to find a completely online program that was approved by my states Department of Higher Education leaving me only Georgetown and University of Cincinnati my choice initially came down to price, but now I am happy with my choice. I was super worried at first because I don't have a lot of options since there are no CNM's in my area (for like 200-300 miles) but it has all worked out in the end. :)

So I have found 2 CNM's that have agreed to probably be my preceptors but they can't commit 100% this far in advance (I have a ton of WHNP options for the first semester of clinical I just needed to find CNM preceptors for the other 3 semesters of clinical. One of those midwives actually graduated from the University of Cincinnati so that makes me really excited since she will have been there done that. My biggest hurdle with finding a preceptor was that there are no midwives in my area and I have to travel approximately 200-300 miles to even find a midwife. I will end up traveling about 4 1/2 hours to reach the midwives I found but like I told them I am willing to do whatever it takes. :) Honestly I had never heard of this program before I started investigating my options. The state I live in had at the time not approved Frontier which was my first option so I only had 2 programs to choose from University of Cincinnati and Georgetown and that just came down to price. Now Frontier is approved but after going through the process I like the way the University of Cincinnati program is laid out better than Frontier's so I am happy with my choice. I have looked up all the books on Amazon but haven't bought anything yet. I am waiting for my tuition reimbursement check from work to come in at the end of December before I buy them. I think for the first semester they are around $300 or so. I don't know what other supplies will be necessary, I have my welcome call with the program director next week and will find out more then. When I got admitted I received an email and then my enrollment adviser called me a few days later (I received the email at 3PM on a Friday so she called me Monday or Tuesday) I would love to network and keep in touch I keep wondering how many of us there will be and would love to "meet" everybody once classes start.

I was accepted about 2 weeks after I had all of my stuff turned in but it was in early September way before the deadline. I was told that the earlier you apply the faster you hear back, and since the number of applications increase the closer to the deadline it takes longer to go through them all.

None of us want do mandatory call but it works on a rotating schedule. There are 6 groups with approx. the same amount of nurses in each group one month group A picks first then B and so on and so forth. The next month group B would pick first and A would pick last and that is how it goes. Usually the last group ends up being assigned their call because it works best that way but the lady that does our call tries to respect requested days off and vacations as much as possible. Call is a necessary evil in a closed L&D. That being said our PP, Nursery and NICU don't do call, just L&D. It is one of those concessions we make to work where we love. I work in Arkansas

I work on a closed unit (if we get pulled it is only to PP, Nsy, or NICU). It is fabulous knowing that I will never have to take care of a 90 year old man that has had a stroke. That being said our L&D is fairly busy for the area (about 300 deliveries per month). We have call nurses on nights and weekend days. 2 call nurses if there are less than 7 nurses scheduled or 1 call nurse if there are 7 nurses and no call nurses if there are 8 or more nurses scheduled. If we are super busy and all the call people are there we call and beg our nurses for help. I have never worked on an open unit and have no desire to. I do think that it leads to higher employee satisfaction if they work on a closed unit. The only downside is they have to be OK with being flexed down (cancelled) if there aren't enough patients.

All of our nurses are trained to scrub when on orientation. We all know how to do it but I like the previous poster am not a fan of scrubbing. I do it when necessary but I would rather labor 2 mag/pit patients without epidurals than scrub. :)

I start in January 2015 too!!! I am super excited and ready to register for classes, get my books, and get started. Do you have preceptors picked out yet?? That has so far been the most stressful part. I can't get anyone to contact me back and there are no midwives that practice in the hospital that will take students. So I know I'm going to have to go out of state for clinical but i just wish someone that I have contacted would contact me back. Fingers crossed. I look forward to getting to know you more throughout the next two years!

I am 24 and have just applied to Nurse Midwifery school to hopefully start in January 2015 (I'll be 25). I graduated high school at 18 then went straight into an ADN program got my RN at 20 finished my BSN at 22 finished my MSN-Nursing Education at 24 and will hopefully finish my MSN-Nurse Midwifery less than 1 month after I turn 27. I am married but we don't have any kids yet. I got my first MSN thinking that I wanted to teach but then it came time to apply for jobs and the thought of leaving Labor and Delivery made me want to curl up in a corner and cry. So, I went back to my original plan which I had in my ADN program of getting my CNM and decided that was the best option for me so I could have my cake and eat it too.

My best advice is to add the shift and admission required docs columns into your patient list screen and when they turn green you've done everything required for the day. Also when admitting a patient go down the admission navigator from top to bottom and then the only thing you have to do is add your IV if you've placed one, everything else is covered. I know nothing about stork but we use EPIC in our L&D and this helps me make sure all my stuff is done.

Hello, I am currently going through fertility treatments to try and conceive and have been a L&D nurse for 2 years. I won't lie some days it is really, really hard to be sympathetic and caring. Especially when people come in whining and complaining about being pregnant and that is all you want in the whole entire world. It is also very hard when you are taking care of the patients like the one you described or the mom who is having her 6th kid and either can't afford to take care of or doesn't have custody of the other 5. But on the other hand there are those absolutely wonderful families that you are so happy for and know that they will be wonderful parents, or the couple that battled with infertility and finally is getting to have their miracle baby...those days are WONDERFUL!!! It is all in how you approach the situation. I have had to learn how to be caring towards people that I don't always feel deserve it and I feel like I be a better nurse for that lesson. I do feel that you can be an OB nurse while dealing with infertility...it won't always be easy but the job is so rewarding that I feel that for me personally...it is worth it.

It depends on where you live. There are areas where there are jobs like Texas, but there are other areas like where I live in Arkansas where they are shutting down WHNP programs because there are no jobs. Most people around here are saying that it is smarter to get your FNP and then once you graduate try to get a job in women's health because there are more options available to you with a FNP.

Geographic location....AR Pay rate...$21.42$ In which area / specialty do you work?Labor and Delivery What type of license do you have (RN or LPN)?RN What type of degree and/or certification do you have?BSN in school for MSN (graduate in February or March) How many years of experience do you have?3.5 Are you full-time, part-time, or casual / per diem / PRN status?Full-time What shift do you work?7A-7P Do you receive any shift differential?Only on weekends Are you a manager or supervisor?​Nope