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I disagree that new grads shouldn't specialize. At my elementary school graduation, we had to get up and say what we wanted to be when we grew up. I said I wanted to be a nurse who "helped women in labor." I didn't even know what labor really was but I KNEW what I wanted to be. And I did just that. I've been a CNM FOR 20 years and I've only worked OB my whole career (except 2 years of school nursing for convenient hours, but I got bored). If you have a dream job/specialty, keep trying. And the beauty is, if you get burnt out at a job, you can do something completely different but still be a nurse.

I had the same thing but with my 75 yo father...in the middle of a restaurant....while he is pounding his fists on the table and yelling about how he is NOT having a good time. Tried to get a straw into his mouth for some coke and he clenched his teeth shut. I was running up to waiters asking is they had syrup, no...but we have honey. I kept clanging that spoon against his teeth until he opened up and then he bit down on the spoon. I thought he was going to break his teeth. I eventually got him back to normal but it was traumatic for all my family, especially all the grandkids. Came with a new admiration for Auntie Nurse! Right now I'm caring for a diabetic 2nd grader with a tendency to elope and run out onto the back field. We've been told not to chase. So far that has happened to me but I feel for you. He doesn't like juice boxes either. :| The good thing about the cakemate is that you can squirt it into the cheek whereas the syrup needs some delivery vessel like syringe or straw.

Here is the thing about the economy when the minimum wage increases.....If people make more money, they SPEND MORE MONEY! So all those fast food places and ice cream shops have MORE business, therefore make more money. Productivity and profits have increased exponentially over the last 30 years but the minimum wage has laid stagnant. All the money that should have been going toward raises has gone to the owners, making them richer and richer. Want someone to be angry at, be angry at the owners of corporations, not the people doing the hard work every day. They deserve a living wage.

I started pushing with a woman who had a 38 week fetal demise. The first push shot meconium stained amniotic fluid forcefully in my face, hair and hit the wall behind me. The baby was then crowning, so I just grabbed a paper towel and called for the doctor. That was my first day as a L&D nurse all on my own. I learned where to position myself when helping a patient push. It was a rough shift!

Next time you see him, take him aside and say, "I've been thinking about it and I want to tell you that I think you were incredibly unproffessional in patient A's room the other day. When you undermine the nurse/patient relationship over petty comments that are unfounded, you actually belittle yourself in the process. If I am expected to show you respect when you say 'nurses are stupid', I think you should rise to my level and show nurses the respect they deserve!"

I feel like I had a calling. We were supposed to say what we wanted to be at our 6th grade graduation. I said I wanted to be a nurse who helps women in labor. I don't think I had even a concept of what labor actually was at 11. I pushed through my bachelors degree in 3 1/2 years, missing all the fun others reminisce about college. I did not romanticize the job, was not shocked by the reality of it. I've been a nurse for 27 years now, a CNM for 18. When I wanted something to allow more time with my kids, I found school nursing. However you define "a calling", I feel like that defines me.

This is a common occurrence on L&D, as the census fluctuates on a constant basis, even during one shift. When I worked charge on 12 hour nights, it was a definite skill to have the shift's staffing "just right" while also prepared for the proverbial bus of laboring women to pull up. Luckily, we often had a list of people who wanted to be called off or sent home early, if possible. We had to remain on call and was paid time and a half if called back in. We disliked floating to PP, etc. because we knew no one could ever float to us in our time of need. I rarely found it difficult to find someone to go home at 3 a.m. It often balanced out with the number of times we were begged at 3 a.m. to come in because that bus pulled up!

While a senior in nursing school, I worked for 2months at LA County USC Medical center as a student nurse worker, worked L&D recovery room. That was an EYE OPENING experience! 4 laboring women per room, many on gurneys in the hallway, 4 post partum floors with constant admissions. After graduation, joined the Army. Worked postpartum/ante partum, often the only nurse on a 32 bed unit with a CNA. Did Army OB/GYN nursing course, the L&D (my dream job). Again, often only RN on 6 bed unit....crazy and scary times! My first civilian job was less stressful (only 2 labor patients at a time? Sweet!). Fast-forward.....Became a CNM. Starting with doing the hardest, most stressful jobs really prepared me for anything! I've loved every minute of my career, even now caring for medically challenged kids in our school district (to spend the most time with my kids). I couldn't imagine doing anything else!

We have a large Filipino community where I live and so many of them are nurses who work very hard. They know they must support the family and often make more than their husbands. If you have a baby now and pursue your MD, it will be truly difficult. You will miss out on this kid's life until you go into practice. Your wife will resent you for never being home. It's one thing to accommodate her culture but she is an American and needs to assimilate to this culture too. She doesn't support your dreams and expects you to be a paycheck only. That will blow up soon if you don't work on it first, before a baby comes. Alternate careers to think about are nurse practitioner, physicians assistant, nurse anesthetist, in case MD doesn't work into your life.