I'm sorry, but this needs to be said. I hope there are some nursng management types reading this:
I graduated from nursing school last August. I went to one job and the experience was so horrible I found another position on a more med surg type floor in one of the so-called "Top 50" hospitals in the nation. Now, granted, this position seemed to come with a better orientation process and they at least try to orient us in some ways with special classes and pull outs, but it still SUCKS.
Hospitals, administrators -- you are failing at orienting us. Just look at the unhappy posts here by dozens of new grads. The typical experience seems to be: You walk on the unit your first day, no one is expecting you, none of the other nurses bother to introduce themselves or welcome you (they usually think you're a travelor or a float nurse), you are given an "official" preceptor, but then in the following weeks, you may never see this official preceptor again. You then follow ten different nurses who do things ten different ways, and in total, have about 30 different personalities between them all.
You are left to flounder around for hours on the floor, and if you attempt to ask your Preceptor of the Day a question, you get the look and that attitude that you are just plain stupid and how dare you even ask such a question because, well, "you should know that by now," or some other such comment. Many times you are treated with outright hostility when you are just an honest person trying to do an honest job, and busting your butt in the process.
Come on, hospitals - take a look at corporate America or some other large institution, and try to figure out a better way to train the BACKBONE of your business!!! I mean, I can't figure out why it isn't any better than this?? Do you EVER wonder why nursing retention rates are so POOR?? Can't you find nurses who CAN educate us with respect and make them the consistent "preceptors," and not just throw us in with the nurse of the day?
Coming from a prior career, I am just astounded at what nurses are responsible for, yet how poorly they are trained, how poorly they are treated, how nasty some of the nurses are that we are supposed to be looking to for guidance, and how little respect is given to individuals who were not only accepted to rigorous nursing schools, but managed to graduate, even managed to achieve very high marks in these schools of nursing. I mean, you're being given the most quality individuals around, yet you can't seem to teach them in a way that is professional, thorough, consistent, and even the slightest bit enjoyable.
In my own experience, my own management "team" did a really slick sales pitch for their unit. Once I joined the unit, it seemed their personalities changed almost overnight -- all smiles and wonder at the sales pitch, and all nasty, rude and demanding once you've been on the floor for a few months.
So, in summary, I hope it changes someday. I am really taken aback by just how unprofessional many of the nurses are -- the gossip and backstabbing is just pure evil, there is no morale or cohesiveness in the units, especially with all the travelers, and many of the management types just walk around like prison wardens, yet never bothering to take a patient of their own for a day to remember what the demands are like.
Do I plan to stay in nursing? No FREAKING WAY. I want to return to the corporate world where I came from in some capacity, where professionalism and respect for employees is the norm -- I have yet to find this in the nursing profession. Yes, perhaps I am one of the whiners, and need to change jobs, but it seems I'm hearing this from more than one person here, as well as many of my classmates.
God help the state of nursing and healthcare in this nation. ..something just needs to CHANGE.
