New Grad question! LD or NICU? I’ve been working in a NICU for a couple of years now and really enjoy it but I’m graduating school in May and wonder if i should challenge myself and start new. I’m torn between LD and NICU.
Challenge yourself and start new. This will also give you some experience in another area of nursing. Give yourself at least 6 months, if you don’t like it, you can return to NICU and that experience will help rather than hurt. Good luck!
Each one is so different. I liked L&D. You should always challenge yourself and try new areas in nursing. Unless you experience each area of interest, you will never know if what your true passion in nursing is. If you work in a specialty and realize it is not for you, you can always go back into the other specialty. After 45 years in nursing, and trying many different areas of nursing, my true passion was pediatrics. As I got older, I worked in administration, then found nursing education and fell in love with that as well. There are so many avenues, don't take just one route.
LD is a great choice you can interact with the mother and family .Teach about new
Techniques in the birthing process. Endless opportunities . AI cannot have the compassion in this area.
L&D will be a challenge, but the nurses on the L&D unit will appreciate you for your NICU skills.
If you try L&D & get a good 3-5 years under your belt, you can always go back to NICU. Some NICU's & L&D units work closely enough that you may be able to pick up shifts in NICU and vise versa if you go back to NICU. Both specialties pay very well if you are ever able to travel nurse. In fact, if you live in a large city, after you gain some good experience, you could "travel" to other hospitals around you & get paid a higher rate.
only you can answer that, but just think, wouldn't it be beneficial to become a labor and delivery nurse and have the NICU skills?
Congratulations on May graduation! If you have NICU experience already, have you talked to the nurse manager about taking you on after you’re official? You could walk right into a job. L&D is a different unit entirely but we work very close with the NICU. You could always have a shadow shift in L&D and MBU and see what you think too, even before graduation but check with their nurse manager. You may prefer working with babies vs adults. I worked in a high-risk, critical, city hospital L&D unit so it was a lot of similar high energy care.
Challenging yourself… thats up to you. Personally, I’d take the path MORE traveled to start, master some basic skills and build your confidence where you are comfortable and know people who know you. At least a year. You can always shadow another unit you’re curious about but building nursing skills and making confident decisions with critical thinking (and working with interns to attendings are challenging enough as a new nurse) when YOUR license is on the job is a challenge in itself. Good luck to you! ☺️
Nicu because there’s more diversity in patient diagnosis and treatment
I would recommend a mom baby unit. You will get labor, delivery ( vaginal and cesarean sections)and recovery for mom and baby. Good and not so good outcomes.
The unit I worked had an OR on the unit. Good opportunity to do teaching, time management, and how to manage social and mental health issues.
Good Luck!
Imagine there are two pieces of paper on one it’s written LD and on one is written NICU. Now hospital says that whatever slip they will open you have two work in that unit. While they are checking what is written on slip what are praying for. Imagine it is happening in reality. You will have your answer
NICU
