questions before my postpartum interview

i think that the amount of orientation totally depends on the hospital. i have worked in postpartum for 4 years and pretty much everyone has to do the 12 week fellowship (classes, precepting on the unit etc) unless they have specifically mother/baby experience. there was one nurse with 20 years ED experience but she did the entire fellowship.

I don't think it will be too hard of a transition for you. it can be busy, but it is busy more volume wise than lots of meds, treatments etc. where i work it is pretty typical for our 26 bed portion of the 89 bed unit to get 14 admissions in a 12 hours shift because the patients turn over so quickly since they are not sick. some of the nurses that have come from other areas, ED, med-surg, say it took time to get used to the fact that they did not need to notify the doctor/freak out when a pts. bp was 90's/50's and her h/h were a little low. thats totally normal for someone that just knowlingly lost 500cc and is still expected to bleed for a few more days.

the nurse to patient ratio also differs depending on hospital. my typical is 5-6 couplets to one nurse, but depending on staffing we can have as many as 7 couplets each.

best of luck with your interview. i can relate,i am trying to get out of mother/baby and change to LDR or NICU, very nervous to see what orientation they will offer!

i just started on postpartum last week. typically we have 4 couplets and at the very most we have 5 couplets..never never more than that. someone else said they have 7 couplets..and all i can say to that is wow. how is the teaching getting done? sounds like a drive through unit--not attacking personally or anything--but how is that safe? we have 40 beds and our hospital delivers approx 4600 babies per year. our orientation is 6 weeks minimum and longer when/if necessary. i also came from an extremely busy med/surg floor with 7 patients per shift. between scheduled/prn/now medications one night i passed 64 different medications in an 8 hour shift to 7 people. my whole night was focused on passing meds and there were other nights similiar. thank goodness i used my time watching the pts take meds to assess them/teach them about things specific to their care. not alot of meds on postpartum--hey some motrin/stool softner/po pain meds. anyhow..

can't remember your order of questions:

1. if you can handle a busy floor now--you can handle the busy aspect of postpartum. it can be extremely hectic but not any worse than med/surg.

2. 6weeks-12 weeks.