Unsure about specializing

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hello,

I'm having a hard time deciding where to work! I love labor and delivery, but so many people are telling me that I shouldn't specialize right out of the gate. What do you recommend?

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Specializes in Pedi.

I wholeheartedly disagree with those people. Do you actually have a job offer in L&D though?

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Specializes in Adult and pediatric emergency and critical care.

I think if someone has a passion for a specialty that there is nothing wrong with seeking that out right away. I also think that you will find a much harder job in L&D than you may believe and I wouldn't limit yourself from other care areas waiting out on a job which may not happen. L&D nursing is the most competitive job in our hospital and is very competitive in general.

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Thank you for your advice! I don't currently have a job there, but I have applied for a position in L&D as well as the OP surgical floor, unit support, and our medical floor.

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Thank you for your advice! I don't currently have a job there, but I have applied for a position in L&D as well as the OP surgical floor, unit support, and our medical floor.

If you get an offer in L&D and know that's what you want to do, then take it.

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Have any of you specialized and then had difficulties transferring to a different floor?

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Have any of you specialized and then had difficulties transferring to a different floor?

I wanted to do psych right out of school, but they wouldn't hire me without a few years of med/surg experience. I have met a few nurses transferring to med/surg who had a lot of difficulty. One was from psych and one was from newborn nursery. Transferring from med/surg to psych was a walk in the park.

L&D is fairly unique. If I had any desire to do that, I'd try to get straight into it ...or maybe into mother and baby if I weren't offered anything in L&D.

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Thank you! I feel like at the our local hospital, it wouldn't be a problem to transfer. But I'm worried if we ever decided to move that I might have a hard time trying to transfer or going into a diffrent type of nursing!

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Specializes in Clinical Pediatrics; Maternal-Child Educator.

Difficulty transferring from one specialty to another depends on the specialty chosen. I have always worked in the pediatrics specialty. Because of this, I find I can transition to well baby nursery and NICU with little issue as I've taken care of babies in my specialty. I can also take care of relatively stable adults because I also take care of adolescents and young adults. However, someone who has worked med/surg with adults might find it hard to transition to nursery and nursery to med/surg adults. My experience is acute but not critically ill, so even though I am capable of sick, but stable adults, adult ICU would not be an easy transition.

There is nothing wrong with specialty areas starting off. I've seen L & D nurses transition to med/surg or nursery easily and I've seen some struggle with the transition. Those that struggle with the transition seem to struggle with applying their past experience to their new work environment more than those who easily transition. We're trained as nurse generalists at first - all of us. It's just remembering what you've forgotten with disuse.

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Specializes in Pedi.
Have any of you specialized and then had difficulties transferring to a different floor?

I began my career in peds neuro and have never had any difficulty finding employment. I went from the hospital to per diem school and home health/clinical management then to home infusion/clinical liaison housed in the hospital where I worked peds neuro and now community based complex care management for medically complex children in foster care. There is more to nursing than just acute care, if you want to leave the hospital, there are many doors maternity experience can open. 2 girls I worked with in the hospital are now lactation consultants doing maternal/child home nursing visits. Neither one of them had maternity experience before they took MCH positions either- they worked with me in peds neuro.

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Thank you for sharing your experience! The advice you guys have given me has been really great and I appreciate it!

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