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

Learn to do Leopold's maneuver and then place the doppler on the fetal back. This was one of the first things my preceptor taught me and it has been so helpful and made my life so much easier. I've even had patients comment "you found that so fast all the other nurses have problems finding him/her on the monitor."

The thing about OB patients is our bodies expect to lose blood during delivery. I had a doctor tell her patient once who had a mild-moderate hemorrhage "Our bodies are still designed to give birth in the woods with no assistance and they make extra blood during pregnancy to combat blood loss during delivery." Now there are hemorrhages that do require blood transfusions and are way more than the body can handle, but most of the time if you can stop the hemorrhage before too much is lost then the patient shouldn't require more invasive interventions. In relation to the clot.. had she been lying down a long time and then stood up and just the clot came out or was there a lot of blood with the clot. If it was just a clot and she had no other bleeding I would wonder if it was related to lady partsl pooling and then clotting while she was lying down. If this were an every time she stood up thing that would be different, but just once wouldn't concern me too much if there was not more blood accompanying the clot.

1. What brought you to the path of nursing? My aunt was a nurse and I loved all things medical growing up. I went to school so that I could be a labor and delivery nurse. 2. How long did it take you to finish your degree? 2 Years for my ASN (I did pre-reqs and nursing classes at the same time which I don't recommend), 1 for my RN-BSN, still working on my MSN 3. If at any point during school, did you want to give up? Why? And how did you keep yourself on the path to graduation? At the end of my first semester I though I was going to fail clinical because I didn't push the call light when my patient had a pseudo seizure (long story) my instructor was REALLY mad and I thought she was going to fail me so I started looking in to other career paths. It all turned out fine and no bumps in the road after that. 4. How long have you been a nurse, and what jobs have you done? 3.5 years I have worked in NICU and L&D 5. Which jobs have been your favorite? OH L&D hands down 6. Which jobs have been your worst? My worst was a CNA on Adult Med/Surg I questioned my decision to be a nurse many times during the 9 months I did that job. 7. How much of a salary should a nurse expect to see as a Labor and Delivery nurse? It depends on where you live. I make just over $21 but many of the nurses I work with have come from other states and say they took a huge pay cut when they moved. 8. What is the good and bad aspects of the job? Good: The bond you make with a patient you labor all day and then deliver. Bad: Fetal Demises 9. Have you ever had emotional days and what are your stories? There are emotional days, I have been happy, sad, and mad. I have laughed and cried. L&D is an area filled with emotion most days you just have to roll with the punches. 10. What kind of advice would you give to an emotional nursing student? Take it one day at a time and don't try and get ahead of yourself. Rome wasn't built in a day and you won't learn everything in a day. Nursing is a continuous learning process. I learn something new everyday that I work. 11. What is a typical day for you? There are no typical days in L&D every day is a new surprise. 12. Have you ever seen a miracle? I see a miracle every time a baby is born.

Premature patients especially those >30 weeks tend to be well below the umbilicus like U/3 or so.

Are they talking about acuity based on a scale of A-F with A being the least Acute and F being the most Acute. An acuity of A would be a patient that is almost completely independent needing very little nursing care and F being a patient that is probably in ICU needing 1 on 1 or 2 on 1 nursing care with lots of interventions (vent, feeding tube, lots of IV drips, unstable). This is all I've got, if this isn't what you are talking about I have no idea.

I was on orientation for 12 weeks. 2 of those I was orienting to scrubbing/assisting on c/sections, 1 week I was on our antepartum unit. The rest was 4 weeks of inductions/labor, 2 weeks of c/sections, 2 weeks of high-risk/combinations(whatever we had), 1 week of random stuff where I was kind of on my own but my preceptor was still with me.

I got hired with no L&D experience by a supervisor that saw the benefit of having nurses with a variety of backgrounds. The position only required 1 year of nursing experience. The hard part is finding that special supervisor that is willing to hire people with no L&D experience but that may have other nursing experience that can provide a helpful background.

I love IV Toradol for cramping after delivery and Percocet for perineal pain and breakthrough form the Toradol

We circulate all c-sections and are all trained to scrub. We don't have to scrub all that often because we have scrub techs for just our floor, but if we have to run 2 rooms, we only have one tech, or at night then a nurse will scrub in too. When circulating we also do baby. Then we recover the patient after the surgery.

I work in labor and delivery and we transition our own babies in the room, they almost never go to the nursery so I am usually there the very first time the siblings meet. I personally will let siblings usually 3-4 or older depending on maturity level "help" me give the bath (usually they just stand there with dad and maybe wash a foot or hand) but it makes them feel special and many of them get so excited about helping. I have also turned a plain red allergy armband into a #1 big brother or sister band with my handy dandy sharpie. They always get so excited showing off their big brother or sister band. I think just including them in the care, let them put baby's hat on, help give a bath, and making them feel special too is wonderful and although it takes a little extra time the parents are usually very appreciative of me including the siblings and not just being all about mom and baby and the medical side of things.