re entry mother baby?

[Kbearden]

I'm wanting to re enter clinical nursing.. I was an orthopedic and medical surgical nurse and then spent some time working in psych and professional development. For the last 3 years I've been at home with my sons but have kept my license active.

now that I'm a mom, I think B area I would be happy in is mother baby. Is this a difficult area to re enter? I feel confident in my ability to educate especially since I have experience with my own newborns and breastfeeding. I'll be honest I am concerned about certain clinical skills such as catheters and IVs since its been a while.

thoughts?

[NurseStorm, BSN, RN]

I don't know how difficult it is to enter in your area. Here it is quite difficult for sure. Most people get in by doing there final preceptorship in the area/or on the specific unit they want to work. There are definitely a lot of IV's, and quite a few catheters- but for us (LDRP unit) most of these are done at the beginning of admission (when in labour or for other reasons), or during labour (ie. every woman in labour has to have a saline lock, and some women with epidurals may require catheterization). If your hospital is a straight up mother-baby unit I wouldn't think these 2 skills would be as prevalent.

Also not sure if this applies, but we get gyne surgeries and often these may require catheterization. Since I'm not trained in labour I have never actually catheterized a woman in labour, but have started many IV's on our new admissions/if someone needs to go to the OR, etc :) I'm sure these skills will come back quickly anyway!

The fact you have are experienced with breastfeeding is definitely helpful as a lot of time in mother-baby care is dedicated to helping with breastfeeding, at least in my hospital. I know in other areas women get discharged rather quickly after birth but here we make every effort to help with breastfeeding and get things well established before going home.