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Raquel’s Answer
A labor and delivery nurse is a specialty of nursing that you can get into once you join the nursing workforce. First you need to get a nursing degree. There are two licenses you could get, and LVN or an RN. The LVN license is offered at some vocational and community colleges and is a shorter program than an RN one. You are more limited in your practice as an LVN. Pre-pandemic most hospitals wouldn't hire LVN's, but with the nursing shortage some hospitals have started hiring them. An RN license gives you full practice as a nurse. Like LVN programs, there are many community college's and vocational schools that have RN programs that take about two years to complete. You can also get a bachelor's in nursing as a 4 year degree, it's typically 2 years of general education/prerequisite courses and then 2 years of the nursing program. Either way to get an RN license. Once you graduate and get your license you're able to work as a L&D nurse. It depends on where you live and your specific hospitals policies and whether or not you'll be able to do L&D as a new grad. Some hospitals allow you to go straight into it, some require a year or two of experience on a med-surg/tele floor first. There are also some hospitals that partner with nursing schools to have apprenticeship programs while you're in school. These partner you with a floor in the hospital and you work under a nurse a 1-2 days a week. It gives you valuable experience, and can be a way in to a more specialized field like L&D. Lots of students who do the apprenticeship programs get hired right out of school to the floor they worked on.
Thank you so much!!!!!
Iman