questions

mistiffy · Apr 10, 2008

Have you been accepted to nursing school? I know in my program, and most others each semester is focused on a certain area of nursing. For instance in my case, first semester is the older adult and clinical time is spent in the nursing home. 2nd semester, the focus is on med/surg. 3rd semester is OB/Peds/Maternity and 4th semester is advanced med/surg (ICU) and psych. You don't really have a choice, sorry. But if you got in a program, u will have those classes eventually, you just gotta make it through the other stuff first! Hope this helps!

LMRN10 · Apr 10, 2008

I would contact the school about registering for the Nursing classes. It's not broken up into sections - you'll have to go step by step.

Our school offers maternity 2nd semester. You'll have to go through everything, but along the way you will get to do the OB portion.

june2009 · Apr 10, 2008

you will need the fundamentals-type class first, usually followed by a basic med/surge-type class. that's how most programs do it. After that, the type of nursing classes vary. In my program, the third semester is geriatric, followed by either psych or ob/peds, then ICU or complex nursing (oncology and HIV stuff). There is no choice. You have to get the basics before you go toward any kind of specialty area.

WDWpixieRN, RN · Apr 11, 2008

Ditto to what others have said....the nursing program covers most aspects of nursing care in general -- peds, psych, adult med/surg, ob, etc. You don't get to specialize at this point.

Additionally, when you graduate, something like L&D (maternity) is a pretty specialized -- and highly sought after -- job. There will be no guarantee that you can start out in that area of nursing. To help you have an "in", I would highlly suggest you start looking for some type of tech position in an OB ward somewhere or at the least, a tech position in a hospital that has a L&D unit you would like to work at.

Best wishes!!

catzy5 · Apr 11, 2008

I will be taking nursing classes soon. I wanted to take maternity nursing, now i am very new at this i was wondering when i go register will this be available for me? and also what should i expect while taking this and how long would it take?

in our school we have peds/ob in the 2nd semester they are 4 weeks each, not much time at all, then they do 8 more weeks of medsurg. I know a lot of people are upset this is a new program and they really wanted more time in OB and Peds, I can't imagine 4 weeks being enough, but then again not everyone is going into ob/peds.

MB37 · Apr 11, 2008

Ours is our last semester of school, and we have 5 clinical days in OB (I wish we had none). There are very few options in nursing school, and they provide everyone with a basic education to become a generalist nurse. The preparation is geared towards working in med-surg, which is what the majority of new nurses do. Some hospitals don't even hire new grads into specialty areas, but others do.

WDWpixieRN, RN · Apr 12, 2008

There are very few options in nursing school, and they provide everyone with a basic education to become a generalist nurse. The preparation is geared towards working in med-surg, which is what the majority of new nurses do. Some hospitals don't even hire new grads into specialty areas, but others do.

I suppose your statement is true to some extent, but the reasoning I have seen on those boards and has also been pounded in to us several times over, is that the NCLEX -- the licensing test for us to become RNs -- is heavily concentrated on adult med surg. Hence, the emphasis on a little bit of everything and a LOT of adult med/surg knowledge.