Student interested in L/D

Hi Kristen!

My name is Kate and I graduated with my BSN in May of 2005. I wanted to go straight into L&D out of college but the hospital that I wanted to work at didn't like to hire new grads straight into their OB unit. So...they offered me a job starting out on the med/surg floor with the agreement that after 6 to 9 months I could move into OB. Due to family reasons, I never moved into OB and left the job after 13 months because we were moving. My point is this... often times it depends on what kind of hospital you're applying to. I have peers who took jobs at larger hospitals that DO hire right into their OB units. Personally, I don't want to do med/surg the rest of my career and I never really wanted to go into that field BUT it was very beneficial for me to learn my core skills and experience all types of things/patients. That knowledge and experience will always be with me and I can build from it in many other specialty fields.

If you're open to relocating, you'll be able to find a job in almost any field and a job that you love. At least that's what I tell myself! I hope all this helped. :)

I went straight into L/D and no regrets. You can learn organization and skills in ANY unit. You don't need to do med-surg to achieve this; as a matter of fact, OB and Med-surg are distinctly different "animals". This is not to say, however, that having a med-surg background is not beneficial. It's very good to have; you can more rapidly understand and identify pathologic or medical problems in your pregnant and post partal patients---and deal with it. Having med-surg in your background is great; but it is not required. I do fine after 10 years in OB. No regrets, like I said.

I'm so glad I found this thread!! I too have been seriously thinking about doing L/D once I graduate in August. I am currently an aide on an oncology/med-surg floor and as much as I love it in my current position, I know it's not the work I want to do as a nurse. I have already spoken with a number of nurses and a majority of them said that L/D units usually don't hire new grads. I'm hoping that my experience as an aide (over 2 years) will work in my benefit. I'm in the NY/NJ area where there are a lot of big name hospitals, so I am hoping that at least one is willing to hire new grads. Anyone familiar with hospitals in the area? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!!

I am a new graduate myself and interviewed and was offered a job on a L&D unit at a large teaching hospital. I ultimately took a NICU job. You just need to find the right hospital for you. Look around. They are out there.