Hello friends and welcome to (or maybe back to!) the blog. Today, I want to talk about a topic near and dear to my heart – how to land a job as a labor and delivery nurse! I have been lucky enough to work in L&D for the last seven years and I absolutely love what I do. I’ve also had the experience of being the manager for L&D for a year, so I have a somewhat unique perspective on just what it takes to get hired into the specialty.
I see questions all the time where people ask, “how the heck to I get a job in labor and delivery – they never have openings and when they do they want someone with experience in the specialty. How am I supposed to get experience if no one will hire me?!” Y’all, please trust me when I say you need to stop psyching yourself out about this. If you really want to be a labor and delivery nurse, you CAN make it happen! I’m here today to share my best tips on how to make this happen, so keep reading!
Be Open To New Locations
Being open to moving for a job is probably one of the easiest ways to get hired into the specialty you want, whether that’s L&D or anything else. There may not be many labor and delivery openings where you live right now, but I can promise you there are plenty of openings throughout the country. If there weren’t, I wouldn’t have my job as an L&D travel nurse!
If you don’t have to limit yourself to one location, I strongly encourage you to start exploring a larger geographic area. The more jobs you apply for, the more likely you are to get one of them! Pick a few cities you’d be cool with moving to and search labor and delivery jobs in that area. Then just shoot your shot!
I do know that not everyone can just uproot their lives and move for a job, so don’t you worry – I’m going to share lost of other tips that will help you out as well!
Highlight Your Relevant Experience
Most L&D job postings are going to say something along the lines of “L&D experience preferred” in the description. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s an absolute deal breaker! Trust me when I tell you that there are VERY few experienced L&D nurses out there looking for jobs. When I was hiring for L&D I desperately needed experienced nurses but there just weren’t any applications coming through. Bad for the hiring manager, but good for you!
Experienced Nurses
If you have any nursing experience at all, think about how that could translate into the labor and delivery unit you’re applying for. I worked PCU for a year before transferring to L&D, and that foundation made me way more comfortable taking care of high risk patients with multiple comorbidities. Depending on your current specialty, you likely have skills that will help you to be a great labor nurse. Maybe you’ve had to triage patients before, which is a great skillset to have for L&D since that’s a part of our job. Have you circulated in the OR or worked in a procedural area? We do that too! Try to think about what being a labor nurse entails, and then tailor your resume and cover letter to highlight that experience. The more you stand out to the hiring manager, the better.
New Grads/Still in Nursing School
If you don’t have nursing experience yet or you’re still in nursing school, there are plenty of ways you can get your foot in the door! First and foremost, try to get your senior practicum on an L&D floor or somewhere similar. I did my senior practicum on mom/baby, and while I didn’t go straight into L&D after school, I think it certainly helped me down the road to have that experience and the connections. If L&D isn’t an option for practicum, you could also try for mom/baby (2nd choice), NICU (3rd choice), or pediatrics (4th choice) as they often fall under the same hospital department. The point is to try to get your foot in the door and meet people so that they remember you and have great things to say when you apply!
Another option for those of you who aren’t working as nurses yet is to try to get a different job within the women’s and children’s department. You could work as a PCT (patient care tech). You could get your scrub tech certification and scrub for the OB OR. Some units are lucky enough to have secretaries and you really don’t need any medical background for that! You could also look out for jobs as a newborn hearing screener. Even if you don’t end up working at the same hospital, you’ll likely be able to use the L&D manager for a reference which looks great on your application! The experience will also help reassure a manager that you know what to expect out of the job and will be a good fit. Which brings me to my next point…
Know What You’re Getting Yourself Into
There are still a LOT of people who think labor and delivery is an easy job where you hang out with moms and rock babies and eat bon bons. When I transferred to L&D from PCU, one of the nurses I worked with literally laughed and told me I’d be so bored I would come crawling right back to PCU in no time. I can easily say 7+ years later that I was 500x more bored on PCU than I ever have been on L&D.
Labor and delivery nursing is extremely demanding, both physically and mentally. We are cross trained to care for laboring moms, manage pregnant moms with high risk complications, triage patients who come in for literally any complaint, circulate c-sections, recover patients in PACU, and sometimes even scrub for sections! It’s sort of like being a labor nurse, a med surg nurse, an ED nurse, an OR nurse, a PACU nurse, and a scrub tech all in one. Oh, and then there’s the whole moving really heavy patients around when they have an epidural thing. Yeah, say goodbye to your joints/back/hips feeling good ever again.
Those of us with L&D experience know this all too well, so when someone comes in for an interview and says something like “I think labor will be a nice change of pace from what I’ve been doing,” it’s a huge turnoff. Someone who is looking for an easy job is not a good fit. Do your homework and know what to expect. When you apply and interview for the job, you’ll probably get some brownie points if you shout out how tough L&D nursing can actually be and let the team know you’re ready for it.
Networking
When people hear the word networking they think of business people, LinkedIn profiles, whatever. Let me tell you networking is huge in the medical field as well. Knowing the right people will absolutely help get you a job over someone else. Yes, it sometimes looks a little different in nursing, but let me give you a few examples.
When I was the manager for L&D, I had a nurse from another hospital department find me on LinkedIn and message me to introduce herself. She said she was interested in transferring to L&D and just wanted to see if she could meet up with me to talk a little bit more about the specialty. I didn’t have anything open at the time, but she came to meet with me, we talked, and she shadowed the floor. She stayed in contact after that meeting to make sure that she was always on the forefront of my mind incase I did have any positions open up. I ended up stepping down from the role, but I did pass on her information to let new leadership know she was interested!
This is a freaking fantastic idea and there’s no reason you can’t do the same! Reaching out to the L&D manager at your hospital and forming that relationship will help you be at the top of the list when a job opens. Showing that you’re enthusiastic and engaged about the position will be beneficial as well.
I also worked with a nurse on L&D who got hired from float pool into my unit just because she knew someone else who worked in the unit. The nurse who recommended her was a great employee and everyone loved working with her, so it was easy to trust her recommendation! She told her friend about the job as soon as she knew a position was open, and her friend was set up for an interview before the manager had even formally received her application through HR. It pays to know people!
Just Freaking Apply!
So many of y’all out there are so worried about not having L&D experience that you don’t even bother to submit the application. You’ve already decided you won’t get the job so you don’t even bother with it. Uh, sis? You’re never going to get the job if you don’t apply. Tailor your resume to accentuate the qualities that will make you a great labor nurse, write a bomb ass cover letter, and then submit the damn thing! The worst that can happen is you don’t get the job. Even if that’s the case, you have your resume and cover letter ready to go when another one opens up!
I hope this helps you overcome some of the barriers you’re facing to becoming an L&D nurse! It truly is a great specialty and I think you’ll love it as much as I do! If you have specific questions or need help figuring out how your experience fits, drop me a comment! You can also DM me on my instagram – I hang out there a lot (;
Let me know in the comments if you’re a current or aspiring L&D nurse! If you’re not there yet, what specialty are you currently in? I can’t wait to hear from you!
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