To certify or not to certify, that is the question.

This fall, I may have the opportunity to take the OB nurse certification exam at the hospital I work at. It costs $275 to take the test, but if I pass, the hospital will reimburse me. A few years ago, they did this and I didn't take the test because I felt that I needed to work in OB a little bit longer before I felt I should take the test. Although another nurse with less experience than me took it and passed. So I'm trying to decide if I should do it or not. I now have 3 kids and I'm a bit worried about studying enough to pass the exam. I don't want to be out that money and I don't want people to know if I don't pass. Plus I don't get a raise for it. We have a clinical ladder that I don't participate in. If I did that, I would get some money. I was a good student in school and a good test taker, but I've also heard this test is extrememly difficult. Which I guess it should be. I've also considered maybe looking in to taking it somewhere else, so that way if I don't pass, the whole dept. wouldn't know. I have another week to make a decision because they have to send in the application to be a test site.

I also want to send a big CONGRATS to a co-worker who just found out she's pregnant with twins. Her and her husband tried for 4 years to get pregnant with their daughter, now 13 months, and they were going to do IVF when she went in for surgery for endo and the pregnancy test came back positive. She was still breastfeeding but had quit birth control and 2 months later she got a positive test. She handed me the us pic at work the other night that showed twins. If she gets to full-term, she'll have 3 kids under 2! They are excited and nervous. She went into preterm labor with her daughter at 30 weeks. We sent her to the high risk hospital on Mag, 3cm dilated. They did such a good job stopping her labor that she ended up being induced at 40 weeks. Hopefully she'll have a good pregnancy.