Ok, so I finally made the move to postpartum towards the end of the year last year. I was hired for Labor and Delivery, but sadly I don’t think I was ready for it. There were a lot of major reasons why I wanted to move like how I was going to school for my Masters and the stress in L&D did not help me at all in my academic career. I was aiming for a 4.0, but currently I have a 3.8 :(, ok don’t take me for a drama queen….. I will finally open up here the other main reasons why I moved to a different unit. Other than my school there were still a bit more reasons why I left. The unit is mad busy. Sure there are about maybe a 2 hour down town where we wait for patients, but there’s usually something going on. It was a high risk unit. I took care of high risk deliveries, demises, inductions, CS and a whole lot of emotional breakdowns. One thing that maybe would have made my experience better was if I had a better preceptor. I should have been with a preceptor that had more than what 2 years of experience, but I won’t even go about that right now. We first are taught our normal deliveries and move into high risk deliveries and if you did not get your normal deliveries down, then how will you handle high risk… I’m also a very introverted person and so I don’t socialise much. Many already had groups or had someone, but I didn’t. I didn’t really have a person that I can talk to regarding my feelings. Which sucked, but what can you do. Ok well I’m going to stop this melodramatic drama why I switched and finally get to the other side of the bridge.
I moved to postpartum, because when I moved patients from L&D to postpartum, the nurses always seemed so happy and ready and when I finally got there, it is true that everyone is so happy! Mothers in L&D were still very scared, anxious and angry because the baby wasn’t out there, but in postpartum everyones already settled down so there is just happiness all around. I love it! The other best think in our hospital is that postpartum is cross trained into newborn nursery. I didn’t realise how much I loved the nursery until I was oriented in it.
Moving to Postpartum was a blessing in disguise.
What I took in this whole experience was that I learned so much about myself than any other jobs I have ever had. I knew my limitations and I knew exactly where I fit in the nursing world. Maybe one day I will get back to L&D, but not for a while. I have a lot to learn and a lot to focus on and I thank everyone who were there to help being me where I am today. It was an experience that I will never forget and will always learn from. Now I am currently taking my MSN emphasising in leadership and that’s what I am focused on now.