I know this is probably going to make some other specialty nurses mad, but that's okay- this is our forum :). I respect all nurses, God knows I wouldn't want to do anything but L&D. Sick and/or old people, ng tubes, pressure ulcers, no thanks! I know every nurse thinks that their field is the hardest, but I'm going to put up an argument (in a fun way, this is not to be demeaning), as to why I think L&D nursing is the most challenging.
First, and most importantly I think, is that only a L&D nurse can do L&D nursing. One cannot simply float from another floor and perform no matter how many years experience one has in nursing. Now sure others can deliver a precip delivery, heck those babies deliver themselves! I'm not saying one cannot learn L&D, because that is just silly. I'm just saying that you cannot throw a nurse on our floor and expect them to be okay. On the contrary, I am confident that I could go anywhere in this hospital and perform in a capable way. Sure there would be some things I'd need to ask about, but for the most part I could nurse independantly. As L&D nurses, we are capable of scrubbing, circulating, multi-tasking, prioritizing, administering high risk drugs, handling emergencies, giving blood, handling psych patients, and dealing with difficult family members (haha).
Next, we are masters of charting! With the exception of ICU nurses and other patient's I probably do not even know of, we are the only specialty that must chart on our patients every 15 minutes, while performing hands-on nursing, and usually do it in multiple systems.
Lastly, we have babies! We are there for the beginning of a new life, and sometimes the end of a life. We get to work autonomously and make the experience of childbirth an amazing experience while keeping our patient calm and maintaining our own calmness- even in emergencies. It's amazing.
I love my job :) And L&D nurses are the best! Now please tell me why you think your nursing field is the best!
I'm a pre-nursing student. Turn in app tomorrow. This is the unit I "plan" to work for after my first few nursing gigs. I enjoy reading this forum. Glad to see enthusiasm! I read it to gauge if it's really something I'm interested in.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
I wasnt asking why you thought i am wrong, i asked for people to tell me why their specialty is the best and hardest.
Couple things - first, I think that point I quoted above, which you wrote in the very last sentence of your post, could possibly have gotten missed in all the stuff above it, which people may find a bit offensive or antagonizing.
Second, if you wanted people to share why they feel other specialties are great, perhaps you would have been more effective by posting this thread in the general nursing forum, rather than the OB forum. Not a lot of people in other fields of nursing read this forum.
Well not just other specialties but for us to toot our own horns too. The post was playful and i even stated that. If you dont like what i have to say then you dont have to read it. I wasnt being ugly to anybody, i wasnt demeaning or hurtful. If people took it to be antagonistic then honestly, that is their fault, not mine and maybe they should read a little closer or not read it at all.
Ive worked other floors. I was a medic for 6 years. I know trauma, triage, emergencies, med-surg, etc. so lol all you want but i assure you, i would be fine.
Ive worked other floors. I was a medic for 6 years. I know trauma, triage, emergencies, med-surg, etc. so lol all you want but i assure you, i would be fine.
Okay come over to dialysis with me. Check the water, set up your machine and line it, access the patient. I assure you, you wouldn't be fine unless you have specific dialysis experience.
And what about OR? How could you fare in there not knowing the equipment or tools?
Okay come over to dialysis with me. Check the water, set up your machine and line it, access the patient. I assure you, you wouldn't be fine unless you have specific dialysis experience.
And what about OR? How could you fare in there not knowing the equipment or tools?
You may have gotten me there! I did peritoneal dialysis with my grandmother but never had to actually do blood dialysis. Tell me why your specialty is the best. Tell me why you love it. What are your stregnths? What keeps you doing dialysis?
The OR does not intimidate me. Well, maybe some surgeries......
If you as an L&D nurse are competent in other areas of the hospital, it is not (with the possible exception of the OR/PACU) going to be because you're an L&D nurse. You admit to having done trauma/medic/med-surg work.. THAT is what would make you feel more comfortable and competent on other floors, not the L&D experience. L&D is highly specialized, and thank God for good L&D nurses, but L&D competency isn't going to equal NICU/PICU competency.
I've taken a few years' break to do neonatal/postpartum/antepartum, but my heart is community health, specifically migrant health. I love education and meeting people on their territory instead of the hospital, where people are on my turf. I love figuring out illnesses I wouldn't have to figure out in many other settings....in migrant health you really have to know your patient's background/culture, habits, living conditions, and occupation in order to put pieces together and figure out what's wrong with them. Being bilingual and speaking the language of the people (not the formal Spanish we learned in high school) helps here. You have to get creative when it comes to helping people manage their chronic and acute illnesses when they don't know where they're going to be a few weeks or months from now. You have to be able to look at a kid's shot record and figure out which shots they'll need within a few seconds, which ones they have to get now and which ones can wait. You have to know the regular schedule as well as the accelerated one. You have to decipher foreign shot records, not just American ones. You may have a day full of nothing but Pap smears and chronic disease follow-ups and out of nowhere someone rolls in the door with bilateral PEs or in SVT. (Both true stories, btw.) You have to manage emergencies until EMS gets there, without the luxury of hospital monitors and without a ton of equipment. (We could do IVs and temporarily convert the EKG machine to continuous monitoring as an example, but there was going to be no chest cracking...)
I loved every second of that and am going to FNP school to be able to return to it in a slightly different capacity.
The whole point was for me to tell why I think my jon is the best and for people to tell me why their job is the best, not to slam anyone. You guys are uptight. I said that it was for fun and just opinion. I wasnt asking why you thought i am wrong, i asked for people to tell me why their specialty is the best and hardest.
I don't think most nurses operate under the Pollyanna-ish assumption that their specialty is either the best or the hardest. My job is hard because I have to function in multiple roles. It's completely different than my last job as a pediatric Neuro RN. In some ways it's easier and in some ways it's harder. Some days I love it. Other days (like every day for the last 2 weeks) it sucks. I work with dying children and children whose parents neglect them. I've filed 3 reports of neglect to the state CPS in the last 2 weeks. I didn't have to do that when I worked in the hospital, we had social work for that.
I also side with everyone who challenged your assertion that you could go anywhere in the hospital because of L&D experience. You could go to Burn/Trauma ICU and function because of your L&D experience? Or Neuro ICU? Oncology? I highly doubt it.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
If you as an L&D nurse are competent in other areas of the hospital, it is not (with the possible exception of the OR/PACU) going to be because you're an L&D nurse. You admit to having done trauma/medic/med-surg work.. THAT is what would make you feel more comfortable and competent on other floors, not the L&D experience.
Yes, this! I've only done OB. I have no illusions that I could function competently in M/S, ICU or ED, or any various specialties. I don't think I'm unique or particularly slow.
This is the unit I "plan" to work for after my first few nursing gigs. I enjoy reading this forum. Glad to see enthusiasm! I read it to gauge if it's really something I'm interested in.
lovemyjoblandd
111 Posts
Childbirth is certainly not an illness! But pregnant women do get very, very sick.