Transitioning to L&D

[Kath27]

Seeking some advice. I am a med surg nurse with 5 years experience. I wish to transition to L&D - so tired of med surg and I think L&D might be a good fit for me. My only issue is that I have 2 very little ones and to do the specialty here requires 4 months of full time school plus committing to a year of full time work. At this point in time, this just might be too much for my young family. So I had thoughts of working slowly towards my specialty on my own one course at a time through distance (well the initial courses can be done distance). I had also wondered about the doula certificate. Do you experienced L&D nurses feel that the doula certificate would be of value or not? Any other thoughts, suggestions? I have been trying to get in touch with some units about working casually in postpartum but I understand a lot of units wish all the nurses to have the full training now ( i live in Canada).

[klone, MSN, RN]

It's hard for me to speak to your requirements for additional schooling, as it doesn't work that way in the US. Here, you learn on the job, during orientation, and L&D doesn't require any additional formal education.

With that in mind, I can't really say whether or not doula certification would help you or not. Where I work, it probably wouldn't (nor would it hurt).

[NurseNora, BSN, RN]

Doula training wouldn't hurt, and it would show potential bosses how serious you are. It could also give you a better idea of if you really want to do L&D. I don't know how much L&D experience you had in school, but in USA, a lot of students don't get much. Sometimes their ideas about what it'll be like come more from watching Baby Story, or from their own birth experience.

It's not like Birth Story and it's a lot different being on the other side of the bed. Also a lot of nurses get so hung up on learning all the technical stuff about fetal monitoring and assisting with procedures and doing the paper work, that they forget about comfort measures other than medication or epidurals.

So it might help. I've worked with nurses who had doula training, but not many. Good luck no matter what you do.