To Change Specialty or Not

[pink.cheer]

Hi All!

Just wanted to get a better insight regarding my situation. A little background. I work fulltime in an L&D OB Unit that has 6 labor/antepartum beds and 11 Ob/gyn and postpartum beds. RNs handle all laboring, delivering and antepartum moms before we turn them over to our LPNs after 2-3 hours recovery. Recently we are averaging about 60-70 deliveries a month: both SVDs and C/Sections. I started working here back in 2014 where the census and deliveries per month were much lighter.

I begun to feel burnout already and has changed status from FT to Part time which my manager allowed and accepted pre-employment at an outpatient dialysis center; but my decision was not 100% sure. i was just so burned out of the back and forth shifts (i refuse to do permanent AM shift since nurses in AM are kinda hard to deal with), constant influx of travel nurses with some being downright b*tches, the policy during labor that allows so many visitors in the patient room which can be anxiety provoking for me dealing with laboring mother and the sometimes savages family. Not to mention that the OB world in my place is so political with one Ob doctor in constant cold and media war with us.

I love women's health and i cant deny that i will miss the good and great shifts, but I dnt think i can work in OB right now without having anxieties before coming to work regarding what kind of shift i will have, what kind of patient and most importantly what kind of family the patient will have. For me, the most difficult part was being vocal and having to explain everything I do with my patient which is no problem at all. The problem then comes down with dealing with angry or anxious or irritating family members.

i am so used to OB now (still learning new things of course) but these reasons made me change to PT in hopes that the anxiety will lessen and unit will improve its local staffing in the future. main reason i am still going to hold my position as PT is because again i like OB minus all those mentioned, and the other job i applied for doesnt pay as well as this one.

i am so confused with what to do with my career, sad that im gonna lose FT status in my very first nursing job.

Need help from the veteran nurses here😔

[NursingPassion11]

Hi there! I'm not a veteran nurse, I am a nursing student who will be graduating soon (and this will be my 2nd career). I feel for you because I experienced burnout in my previous career and it is debilitating and demoralizing. Burnout is bad for our health and well-being. My nursing school instructors have encouraged us to start working as nurses part-time, because the stress can lead to burnout very quickly. Unfortunately, new grads usually can't start part-time. Working part-time is OK and if it's better for your mental health, it's totally worth it. However, even part-time at the same job can continue the burnout.

Stress and burnout can lead to health issues and can affect all aspects of your life. My advice is to live your life to the fullest and happiest that you can. If you're not happy with your place of employment, change it. It's not worth it to stick it out somewhere that you're not happy. I have learned that being happy at a job is a balancing act of being empathetic towards people that may not know how to communicate or express their emotions appropriately versus knowing every intricate issue with each person and the organization. Being understanding of people and their situations, or our lack of knowing what their situation is, is very important to not let their behavior get to us. However, if the issues with your organization or people are driving you insane, changing to a new environment can make a huge difference in your life. Another important aspect is our own self-awareness of how our behaviors affect other people and self-awareness of what we need to do to feel "right" within ourselves.

Change can be scary, but it can also be so rejuvenating. Do what is best for you. I wish you all the best in your journey! Follow your passion and never give up opportunities to learn and grow!

[not2bblue]

We have 26 beds and average 2500 deliveries a year, but that is going up so much we are doubling our unit size (currently building 19 more bed unit!). We do ALL LDRP and have no LPN. You might have labors or posties and switch around all shift. It isn't always easy, but I can't stand med/surg units. I'm sorry to say that families are that way no matter WHAT specialty you work in (I have done transplant, Med/surg, OR, OB, NICU, ALF, LTC). Try a different hospital in the same field. A different manager, different docs can make a world of difference.