kjjonesRN

I started in L&D right out of nursing school. I graduated December 2014 and was shocked to actually hear from one of the managers of an L&D position I had applied for. I accepted a .8N, 8-hour shift job on a busy and high acuity L&D unit and started March 2015. Its been a real challenging transition for me since I have moved to nights. I love my co-workers and have really started to get a flow with the job, but I'm actually on the verge of accepting an offer for a .75D/N 12-hour shift on a smaller, less intense L&D unit closer to my house. The frequency of .8, 8-hour nights was just too much, so I'm hoping that a new shift can help give me more balance in my personal life.

The FTE is for a 2-week pay period, so 3 12's one week, two the next.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I've been doing tons of thinking on this issue. My schedule is quickly sucking the life out of me. For example, of the last week I've worked 3 straight night shifts, had one off, worked 3 more, had one off, and am now working three more before my weekend off. Its horrible. The kicker is after my weekend off, I'm back to another similar grind. I've applied for a couple other positions on this unit, but I don't have any seniority and haven't had the time or energy to join committees and pick up shifts, which my manager values. Anyway, for this reason I started putting out applications after only 6 months in L&D and got an interview in another L&D unit at a smaller hospital. Currently we do around 250 births/month and the new unit does about 100-115. The shift is a .75D/N rotation with 12-hour shifts (70% days, 30% nights). I haven't been offered the job yet, but the interview went really well. I've been doing a lot of thinking about leaving where I am and taking this more favorable shift. My husband says its a no-brainer compared to the .8N 8-hour shifts I'm currently working, and we both feel that the slower pace of a less busy (although still high acuity with a level III NICU, which my current hospital has a level II) may be a better fit. No final decisions have been made, obviously until I get an offer. So thats where I'm at. I feel bad leaving a hospital that put me through orientation, especially when there are a few people leaving the night shift, but I'm also needing to do what is best for my family, and right now this schedule is really, really hard.

Hi! I'm a new nurse who switched careers in my 30s while having a husband and two young kids. My dream was to work in OB. I finished my BSN in December 2014 and somehow landed my first job on a busy and diverse L&D unit. I've been on orientation since the end of March (3 months). I feel like I'm going to love nursing when I find my groove, but the transition to professional nursing has been really challenging for me. I feel like I'm appropriately overwhelmed in L&D as a new grad. I was hired into a .8 straight nights position by my manager who thinks that the repetition of 8-hour .8N is essential in L&D. I can see her point, but I'm struggling with the frequency of these shifts that require intense focus and learning for me as a new nurse. I'd prefer to be a .6 nights to give me a little more time to lead a balanced life. There is a .6N position open on the unit, but my manager is not open to moving me to this FTE because of her philosophy regarding new nurses and repetition. I'm starting to wonder if her philosophy and my need for work-life balance are going to jive. I'm also wondering if possibly starting in postpartum would have given me a more smooth transition to nursing. While my manager has told me that she thinks I'm doing well so far in orientation, she also mentioned that if I didn't feel it was a good fit, that she would help me pursue other opportunities in the hospital, and currently there is a .5N position open on postpartum. So I'm looking for advice from experienced or other new L&D nurses. I'm terrified of confronting a case of the 'grass is greener'. I'm torn between toughing it out in the opportunity I have been given or taking the opportunity to try to find some balance as I transition to this career. Sorry this got long. Thanks for reading if you've made it. : ) Kim

Hello! I'm sorry you are having such a hard time cracking into the speciality that is your passion. I imagine that is very frustrating. My advice isn't coming from experience but from advice I've seen here and heard through the grapevine in real life. That advice is to take steps to show you are serious about becoming an OB nurse. Take classes/obtain certifications that you will need so you can place them on your resume. If you can obtain the contact info for the manager on the unit you wish to work, call her/him directly and find out what would make you a desirable candidate, so you can take those steps. Volunteer as a doula or on an OB unit. Good luck! I hope you land your dream job very soon!!

Maybe your situation has passed, but I wanted to say that I found myself in a very similar situation about a month ago. I'm a new grad with absolutely no patient care experience, and somehow I ended up interviewing for a telemetry job the day before I interviewed for a labor and delivery position. I was hoping to hear from both about the same time, but I got an offer the following week from the telemetry job. L&D was also my dream, so I went through the same stress as you, knowing that if I accepted the telemetry job and was offered the L&D job, I'd have to backtrack and I hate doing that sort of thing. But I also knew that I was in an enviable position as a new grad and that turning down an offer would be ridiculous. So, I ended up accepting the telemetry job. Turned out I was called later that day with an L&D offer, and I took that and ended up having to make that dreaded call to the telemetry position. Point being, I'd say accept the position. Acute care jobs are not easy to come by, and getting an offer is huge. There is no guarantee you will be offered your OB job, but if you are, rest assured that friends in HR have said people having to call back to unaccept an offer is pretty common. Good Luck!!

My preceptorship was on a busy L&D unit, and I think it was super influential in getting hired for my first job as an RN in L&D. Congrats!

This is fantastic! I almost feel like you made these videos just for me : ) I'm a new grad nurse. I was hired as a L&D nurse right out of school, and I will start orientation for my new job in a few weeks. I precepted in L&D my last semester of school, so I'm feeling pretty good about starting this new journey, but cervical checks are something that I don't have much experience with. I'm sure I will have new topics/questions as I get going on the floor! Thanks again or posting! Kim

I just wanted to post because I was searching about the PVT like a crazy person after taking my exam yesterday. I took my exam at 8:00 am, got 152 questions, and felt awful. I tried the PVT about two hours after my exam, went to the CC screen, clicked submit and got the 'good popup'! I wasn't convinced as the consensus on the inter-webs isn't great about the accuracy of the PVT since they changed the system in August. Anyway, it was accurate for me. I passed!