James75

I got hired straight into L&D our of nursing school, as did the majority of labor nurses I know.

When I was applying as a new grad in Southern Oregon, there were a lot of applicants from California.

At my school you only had to have the first shot, but if you were even a day behind on any of the boosters you were barred from clinical until you had them. So sometimes people needed to make sure they got their shot on a very specific day.

My facility will not hire former med surg nurses on L&D because they usually quit during or immediately after orientation. They’ve found the transition from so many patients with tasks to one (sometimes two) patients with a lot of autonomy, and less tasks but also more stress was causing people too much anxiety. They will hire from ED, ICU, and float pool. And they hire a lot of new grads. Certainly not the case everywhere, though. Where I was a student they hired almost exclusively from Med Surg.

I thought I would love OB... and I did. Of my 16 other classmates who thought they’d love OB... 1 did, 1 was meh, and the rest hated it. I love birth in general, and in L&D I love working with fewer patients at a time, that everything can change in any moment, collaboration with doctors, the autonomy I get, the variety in skills (Triage, OR, recovery, antepartum...and sometimes heading over to ED or med surg floors to help with the obstetric issues of someone admitted mostly for something else). I never had a particularly rosy view of L&D, though, so I was ready (mostly) for demises, drug addiction, 12 year olds delivering, hemorrhages, shoulder dystocias, precips, etc. When people think of L&D or MBU as places where it’s always happy or it’s lots of cuddling babies, they’re likely to be disillusioned. (Though on Mother Baby there *is* a fair amount of baby cuddling, in my experience, and less unpredictability stress, though more strsss from having lots of patients and lots of tasks).

This isn’t the case everywhere, but our L&D unit will not hire former med surg nurses. Management says they have too hard of a time switching from the mindset of “what the doctors ordered” to more independent decision making, and that many are unprepared for how stressful the speciality is. Basically, every time they hire a former med surg nurse, they leave during or shortly after orientation. They will hire former float nurses and from the ER and ICU. Sometimes former clinic or dialysis nurses as well. And if they do make an exception, it’s for someone who can convince them they understand they won’t just be “cuddling babies,” but dealing with very sick moms and babies and a lot of stress. Usually they just hire new grads, though. That said, the hospital where I was a student tended to hire people from med surg after two years and as far as I know it went fine. They also grabbed new grads whenever they could.

Hello, I’m currently an L&D nurse planning to attend midwifery school in the next few years. Luckily I will have plenty of L&D experience by the time I graduate (Hopefully also some postpartum and ideally an IBCLC). I should be able to work full time through most of the program then drop to per Diem towards the end as I do clinical. However, it does concern me how few midwife positions I see advertised in my area (currently three I can find at the moment, two are per Diem and two require at least a year of full scope midwifery practice, leaving one potentially new grad friendly per Diem position, where experience is still preferred). I live in a large metropolitan area with several hospital systems and a thriving midwifery culture, both in and out of the hospital. Due to custody arrangements I’m not particularly geographically mobile, nor able to open my own practice. Obviously I could still work as an RN after graduation, but also obviously I want to attend midwifery school in order to work as a midwife. Is it common to be hired out of clinical placements without a job being advertised? Did it take y’all a long time (>6 months) to find a job after graduation? Did you need to relocate? Anything you did before/during/after school they helped you get hired? Thanks!

I work on labor and delivery and a) we have a lot of young female nurses so at any given time at least three-four are pregnant (often six or more) and b) we all tend to get VERY excited about the whole thing. I haven’t witnessed or heard about one iota of discrimination, though I suppose it could affect training slightly. (I.e. I’m not going to give you triage training in your last trimester because you won’t have time to get good practice before you’re off for months).

How does the OP handle references without advertising to managers and coworkers the upcoming move?

We have one and only once have I seen anyone try to use it. Like others have said, it can give you an idea where to palpate, otherwise not very helpful.

Oregon has income tax, Washington has sales tax. Some people live in Vancouver Wa and shop in Portland OR to circumvent this.

I’ve heard great things about Legacy. People seem to like Kaiser as well. Providence is doing interesting things in Women’s Health (hospital supplied doulas, and they seem to have a huge focus on lactation). There’re so many options that you might as well travel between them for a while. One of my L&D coworkers did that for a couple years as she found it was so lucrative and eventually settled at her favorite hospital.

A lot of my nursing classmates were hired there for their first jobs. They got good orientations. The one hired onto Ortho is still there and loving it. There was one particular floor desperate for nurses that hired 5 of my classmates. 2 ended up quitting pretty quickly, and I haven’t heard recently how the other 3 are doing. But otherwise people seem to feel well supported and do well.

I agree with boywithacoin. I work at Salem Hospital and am very impressed with it as an organization. It’s a lot better run and safer than places I was a student in Portland. A lot of the nurses I work with did student rotations or worked in the Eugene and Springfield hospitals and prefer Salem. Some even commute from most of the way down there because they like working at Salem Hospital (I commute from Portland for similar reasons). And the hospital has lots of perks because they have to retain staff who don’t want to live in Salem. Great night shift differentials, lots of day shift positions available, LEAN, Magnet, etc. That said, Salem is not where I would want to live. It’s the state capital and has the big prison. Lots of crime and homelessness (though better in those senses than Portland). Not a ton of “culture.” But decent cost of living and a more rural ethos, more conservative than most cities in Oregon. Not a *bad* place to live, and a 45 minute drive to Portland if you want concerts, sports games, etc. Eugene is a college town, known for a liberal feel, hippy vibe, lots of culture, lots to do. Farther from Portland, more expensive than Salem but not insane. And again, I haven’t heard the hospitals there are horrible (nor have I personally worked in them), Salem is just exceptionally good. I don’t think you’d go wrong either way.

I finished my ABSN in December, and started as an L&D nurse in February, came off orientation in the last few weeks. Like you, I was planning on specializing in women's Health. I had been a doula and a childbirth educator and had almost gone to get a doctorate in medical anthropology with a focus on childbirth practices. I was still so grateful to get a broad exposure to health. I was quite surprised to find how much I enjoyed trauma and emergency nursing, especially. I think I could be quite happily working on those floors. And through it all labor and postpartum remained my passion. So while I'm happy to have broader nursing knowledge, because it does come up, I'm also so so happy to be working with laboring moms every day. I was actually "better" at med surg, but the worst day on Mom Baby or L&D was better than the best day on Neuro or Ortho. I was really afraid I'd have to put in some time on a Med Surg floor before specialty, but I applied to a hospital about an hour outside of the major city I live in (2 hours in some traffic) and was hired onto a great unit. The commute sucks, but to me it was worth it to start out where my passion truly lies. It can be hard watching some of the non evidence based practices, like valsalva pushing (especially when we didn't do them where I was a student - an even more high risk facility), but I plan to join our practice council to push for more evidence based practice and from everything I've seen so far management is very open to improving. Still, I wonder how long I can last before I go back for my CNM. Mom Baby Nursing isn't enough excitement for me, but I do miss all the education and the chance to walk a little farther with the family on their journey. I also want the chance to meet them prenatally, know them better and direct their care (so my choices can be respectful of their goals and wishes as well as evidence based). But for now I'm just getting my feet under me as a baby nurse. I got my first shoutout from a patient the other day and it was so amazing to read how I was able to keep her feeling calm and safe in an emergency situation. I love my job! So - is that "everything" enough for you?