Question for all the L&D nurses....

I am not a L&D nurse, but I am a tech on a L&D floor. Nights are not necessarily "slow and boring". In fact, days are not necessarily fast! Have you ever heard of low census? The amount of work you have will depend on what you are doing and how many patients you have just like any other floor. By the way, be nice to your techs and GL with your future!

Nights are definitely NOT SLOW on L&D. Those babies come whenever they want and just 'cause it's dark out means nothing to an infant.

That being said...please think seriously about whether (sp?) you are a night person, how long you can manage to work nights and ask the manager how many other nurses are in front of you for a day position. Try to get it in writing.

Good luck and come on over!

Okay, I am a new grad that is working on a cardiac floor which I am really not happy with. My dream has always been L and D. The manager on the floor said I have a night postion if I want it. She said I can then go to days when a spot opens. I am really excited about the idea as it would be postpartum care, L and D, and nursury. I am afraid however nights will be extremly slow and boring. My question is, is it this way on the night shift?

Hi, I work in the NICU and at night. While we have some slower nights, we also have fewer staff. I don't think that your night shift will be too slow. We get a lot of admissions on nights too. We keep very busy normally. That means are L and D unit is busy too. There are healthy babies born all the time.

But look at the bright side, while you're getting use to the new unit, maybe you will be able to focus on perfecting your nursing skills.

I wish you well on your new unit. :balloons:

I would be more concerned about making the transition to L&D than I would about weather it was slow or not.....and BTW it is not always slow on nights:)

My question is what type of training/orientation would you be receiving??

tele to L&D is quite a transition....

I love working nights on L&D. No, it's not slow, 90% of the time and my hospital isn't that small. Good luck to you! What kind of orientation will you have?

I just wanted to thank you all for the advice. I took accepted the postion today and it feels so good!! I took your works seriously and followed my heart. I am so excited to begin my journey in this area. My orientation will be for 3-4 months. And the manger said it is extensive. She says I am first in line for the next day shift. It's worth it to me to tough out the nights for now. I can't say thank you enough. Oh, what a wonderful feeling I have right now!!! :roll

I started nights on my unit about 2 months ago. I was concerned about it being very slow, and I wondered how much interaction I would actually get with the patients. I have also worked nights before (as a CNA in a nursing home), and I knew if it was slow I would have trouble staying awake.

I have to say that I was worried for no reason. Nights are very busy. I can't believe how fast my 8 hour shift goes. We do TCB's at night and we also draw all of our own labs on moms and babies. I love the time in the nursery at nights, because the staff can talk while we are caring for the babies. It is a quiet time and we keep alot of babies in the nursery overnight, so we get to care for the youngsters. (my favorite perk) We don't have all the visitors and all the chaos that days sometimes have. I feel like at nights I have alot of heart to hearts with moms, because there is no one else there (maybe FOB sound asleep in cot next to them), and it is a quiet time and they feel free to ask questions.

I worked days for orientation, and we are far busier at nights. I went into nights figuring I would make the best of it until I could get on day shift, but now have no desire to switch to days. I enjoy working with my co-workers, and nights is a very close knit group. I was very surprised at how well it works with family life.

In 9 years of working nightshift, I cannot say it was "slow and boring" most of the time. Babies are born round the clock and nightshift is usually shorter by staff than days, so we may care for more patients, not less. Also, the units always depended on nightshift to do the stocking, cleaning, paperwork and other things that days had no time to do.

I did not find nightshift "boring" so much as tough as I hated the hours. I am glad to be on dayshift finally after all these years.

If you are interested in L/D nightshift is a great shift for learning on.....and the crew can't be beat!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss my fellow nightshift buddies.

I just wanted to thank you all for the advice. I took accepted the postion today and it feels so good!! I took your works seriously and followed my heart. I am so excited to begin my journey in this area. My orientation will be for 3-4 months. And the manger said it is extensive. She says I am first in line for the next day shift. It's worth it to me to tough out the nights for now. I can't say thank you enough. Oh, what a wonderful feeling I have right now!!! :roll

I'll be making the change from Med-Surg to L&D hopefully next month. I'll also be on orientation for 2-4 months. I'm really excited too, so I know what you mean. I'm going to start doing some review in my NCLEX books just to kind of jog my memory from nursing school. Also, I don't know if you've seen it, but there's a really extensive list of L&D responsibilities and concerns on this website too that I'm sure will be really helpful if you want to do some review before starting your orientation. Good luck to you!

Nights can be just as busy as days. I have seen some nights that are actually busier than the day shift. I agree, be nice to your techs. Their awesome.

I am afraid however nights will be extremly slow and boring. My question is, is it this way on the night shift?

When there is a "slow and boring" night we're grateful.

]I agree c tls RN nights can be as bad if not worse then days but we will pull together and help each other more than days nights work better together. And be good to your tech because they will bend over backwards and help you when needed or they can make your life H***. I would work nights in L&D any day over day shift.

Lisa :wink2::smilecoffeecup: