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What Does It Take to Be a Labor and Delivery Nurse?
How do you know if you're cut out to be a labor and delivery nurse? My goal is to become a registered labor and delivery nurse. I am looking for some one willing to tell me the pros and cons of this position. Thanks!
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November 6th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I would like to know this as well. I am an LPN looking at becoming an RN in near future and would like to be a L&D Nurse.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
This is my goal as well.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I have been a nurse for 16 years and a Labor and Delivery nurse for 7. I love it but it is not for the faint of heart. It is one of the most empowering, taxing, skill building ,emotion tugging departments I have ever worked in. You can be a large part of one of the most emotional, passionate times in peoples lives. The opportunities to learn are daily, to teach all day and to really use your people skills. Our unit brings in all groups of people and all educational levels. We do high risk, multiples, c-sections, cerclage, vaginal births, natural childbirth options, water births and everything in between. You have to be organized, disciplined, intelligent, compassionate, versatile, large sense of humor helps, and with the fact that you see mostly new life you do see deaths, still births, fetal demise, early pregnancy loss, fetal malformities. In my humble opinion LPN to RN transitions bring a great skill mix to the unit. Since they usually have done other things in thier career. Feel free to drop me a line with any comments or questions.
Hope it helps! Shannon [email protected]
November 8th, 2008 at 5:55 am
Very nicely said Shannon. I have never been a L&D nurse, I’ve been a PICU nurse and that was hard because of the dynamic of the parents with the kids. What I can say though is that L&D nurses are most of the time frowned upon by the rest of the hospital because we’re too stuck up to realize everything that goes into it. While I can tell you drip rates for most vasopressors, correct amounts of paralytics to give, and what to do to treat torsades de pointe, I would run from an L&D room very quickly even during a normal labor and delivery. I think your career choice is highly respectable, I know our new women’s center in Austin is in need of nurses so you might want to consider it.
November 8th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I think Shannon covered what it takes to be a L&D nurse. I worked as an LPN for 19 yrs in OB/GYN offices and teaching childbirth preparation classes. After I assisted with the delivery of my granddaughter, I was reminded that being a L&D nurse was my goal 28 years ago! So, I went back to school, got my RN. With all the connections I had of docs & the hospital, along with my foundation of OB knowledge, I could not get a position as an L&D nurse. Most facilities require that you spend 1-2 years in postpartum first.
Much to my dismay, I took a position in PP. A year later, I find I REALLY enjoy working in PP!
I find that I’m not so gun-ho to change my position.
I think that most nursing students have the idea that L&D is a great place to work. They have an unrealistic image of L&D. As Shannon points out, when it goes bad…it goes bad.
So closely examine WHY you want practise in L&D first.
November 15th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I have been a mother baby nurse for 9 years and some of that time I scrubbed for c-sections and assisted with vag deliveries and took care of intial newborn care after delivery. It is not for the faint of heart but women’s services is a passion. If that is what you want go for it. Learn everything that you can and try to intern on an L and D unit so that you can network with the RN’s and directors.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:18 am
I just recently graduated from nursing school and this question caught my eye because I am currently applying for jobs in such a position. While doing my preceptorship, were I spent a vast majority of my hours at the late night shifts of the L&D department, I absolutely fell in love! Originally, I thought I wanted to go into pediatrics (also not for the faint of heart), but after spending some quality time here, my world was turned upside down. It definitly comprises both of the greatest joys and sorrows of nursing, however. On my second day as a senior clinical student, I wound up on a case with a fetal demise. It shook me as it did the more experienced nurses, but that made me want to help all that much more. I have also seen some truely amazing events, that some practicing RNs have yet to see, such as a baby born in the amniotic sac! A truely awe-inspiring day. I love everything about it, and can’t wait to start. I would also just like to add that being quick on your feet to make difficult descions is also a must… as with many nursing jobs (in addition to what everyone else said). Good luck everyone!