Best colleges to become a labor and delivery nurse?

How do I become a Obstetrics / Labor and Delivery nurse in a 'traveling career'?

• Hi! I am a 16 year old girl interested in becoming a Obstetrics / Labor and Delivery nurse. The 'traveling career' that I'm looking for is something that saw on a nursing ...show more

• Answer:

  To work in labor & delivery you must be a Registered Nurse. You can become one via three different options. The first is a hospital taught diploma program, but those are very rare these days. The next is an Associate's Degree in Nursing (ADN) also called an Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN). These programs are found at community colleges, and some private colleges. It is a two year program but there are pre-requisite courses in biology, chemistry, anatomy & physiology, and a few others, and those might take you a year to complete, and you're better off also taking some of your general education courses during this time to get them out of the way before you start the nursing courses, because those are very time consuming. The third option is the Bachelor of Science of Arts in Nursing (BSN or BAN). This is a 4 year degree program offered at regular college and universities. You take those pre-req/gen. ed. courses during your Freshman and Sophomore years, apply to the college's nursing program during Sophomore year, start the nursing courses your Junior year. At the end of these programs you are eligible to take the NCLEX exam, which earns you your state-issued RN license. The difference between the BSN and ADN programs is that with the BSN you get more gen ed courses and the nursing courses go more into nursing theory and models of care, nursing research, leadership and management, public health, etc., so you just get a deeper knowledge of the profession. You will be more qualified for advancements. Some hospitals say they prefer to hire BSN grads, which discourages many people. However many places face nursing shortages and cannot afford to hold out for BSN grads. On the other hand, L&D is a specialty where they do try to hire BSN grads whenever possible and some facilities are more strict about their hiring of them. Ideally it's best to get that BSN if you can. Not all travel nurse agencies require you have your BSN. You can always get the ADN and find a bridge to BSN program later on, too. Many employers still offer tuition reimbursement. It would be a good idea to do while you're working for the first few years in your hometown. You can't start as a new grad traveling, you need to be completely competent in your specialty of L&D first. It is hard to get into L&D as a new grad, but I won't say it's entirely impossible. You'd be better off getting a year of experience working in a hospital in a regular medical / surgical unit first, to build a good foundation of a wide variety of essential nursing skills. Then the transition to L&D will be easier. You'll need to work in L&D for a minimum of 2 years before you will truly be competent enough to travel to different hospitals and just jump in and care for patients. I think you should do more research on the profession before making a decision - being a labor nurse isn't just about having babies and holding them - by the way the parents hold the baby first! You are in charge of managing complex medical care. It can be a very high stress job at times when a baby or mother is crashing and needs to be rushed for a c-section, or when your patient has come in for a delivery of a baby known to have died in the womb. It's not all pretty and happy. Good luck!