allene24

And those are standard order sets! :)

We start pit on almost every patient at 2 mU and increase by 2 every 15 minutes. Some girls get high dose, start at 6, go up by 6 every 20. We can go up to 40 before notifying MD. MD must be on the property (almost all of the MDs have offices/call rooms attached to the hospital) before starting pitocin. If MD leaves the property they cannot run the pit unless another MD agrees to watch it.

Columbia SC has a TON of new grad L&D positions.

I was hired to L&D as a new grad and oriented for 16 weeks, i needed every second of that orientation. We have 4 areas- L&D, C-Section, High risk pregnancies, and OB triage. We rotate through each area during the 16 week orientation. Nursery RNs and PP RNs do not do L&D and vice versa.

At my hospital, once the baby is born-the L&D nurse drys/stimulates, applies armbands, takes the weight, and helps mom initiate breastfeeding if wanted!!. We immediately call Nursery and within the hour, a nursery RN will come over and administer vitamin k and eye gel right there in the room. Each L&D room has a built-in warmer and basic resuscitation equipment. After the mom recovers for an hour in L&D she can choose "family place" or "nesting place." family place- the mom has a separate nurse from the baby, and the baby can go to and from the nursery as much as the mom wants. nesting place is where the baby must stay in the room with the mother, and the two have the same nurse. family place and nesting place are different units with different staffs of nurses. It works pretty well!

I am a newer L&D nurse and had to rotate through a PP unit as part of my orientation. The nurse I was with kept telling me "THIS IS SUCH A BUSY DAY" and it was the slowest day of my life! L&D is MUCH faster paced. The PP nurses had time to sit down and chit-chat with each other, love on their patients and newborns, have a snack in the break room. A day on L&D- I NEVER have a chance to sit down, managing two labor patients. The L&D units see the PP nurses as having an "easy job- just giving pain meds" There is definitely tension between the two units- Like previous posters said- it would be good to float between the two.

For my L&D peer interview, the first question I was asked when walking into the room was "why OB?" maybe you'll get asked that too! Thats a chance to tell your story.

Far to often the patients have NEVER discussed their birth plan wishes with their provider. When they get to the hospital their plan entails things that our hospital does not even offer- water birth, walking around (we dont have cordless monitors), birth balls. I ask- have you talked about this with your OB? ...NO, never. Their OB could have easily told them that our hospital isn't the place where their wildest birth dreams would come true. Maybe a birth center or home birth or another hospital would better suit them- since most of them had perfectly normal, wonderful, healthy pregnancies.

I am reading over this now because i'm having a sick-dilema. I am a new nurse on orientation on a labor and delivery unit. I have strep throat and feel that it is not right to work with newborn babies while i'm sick. Trying to figure out what to do!!? Guess i'll go in tomorrow and see what they want me to do!! I didnt realize it was such a problem for sick nurses- sounds terrible!

I heard everyone loud and clear. I took the L&D job and feel VERY comfortable and satisfied with this decision. The nurse manager at the PRN job made it sound so wonderful and like such a good experience- it was sucking me in. I am about to start my new L&D job making MUCH better money than the PRN job- and it has an extensive orientation which i'm sure i'll appreciate! Thank you thank you thank you :)

Thank you so much for the advice! Its horrible that new grads are taken such advantage of. I appreciate it!

Hello! I graduated in May 2012 and now I'm a BSN RN. After applying for many many jobs, I was offered two. During nursing school I had an intensive 6 month rotation on L&D unit- I loved this field and even became trained as a doula this summer. I was so excited to have an interview on this very L&D unit. It is a full time position and the pay is $21/hr. Unfortunately, my only other significant rotation was on an orthopedics unit. My experience in other fields is minimal. I was also offered an outpatient float pool position, PRN, ONLY $16/hr (YES, $16/hr for my hard earned BSN, RN). Heres the thing: I've heard as a new graduate, it isn't really good to start in such a specialized area as L&D. I want to go back to school in 1-2 years to get my FNP. Do you all think that the float pool (floating to family practices and speciality practices for 2 weeks-6 months of time) would be a more fulfilling/ appropriate experience before FNP school? Or should I take the full time hospital L&D job with benefits and a 4 month orientation? Ive been toiling over this for a week now and need to get back to the managers. The PRN float pool has had good success with new graduate RNs. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you all so much for the input!

It is clear that you really WANT to provide the best care possible for your patients, and even though its very difficult and stressful sometimes, you are doing the best you can- and as one poster said- as long as your patient is alive when you leave then it will all be okay. Over time that confidence will build. The next time you have an unstable patient like this one- you will know what to do better. I am also a new graduate and feeling the same stresses. It helps to have a supportive team of coworkers. I have heard from many nurses that their first year was a nightmare. Even though that SUCKS- everyone seems to pull through and really enjoy their jobs in the end.

Where do you work? Is it a health care related field? Why do you need to tell them anything about school?