Staff Nurses Who Refuse To Precept Or Teach?

Nurses General Nursing

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Of course I understand that not everyone wants to be a teacher or professor but a few of my coworkers lately have down right refused to precept or even be a resource to newer or less experienced nurses.

The education department had placed a sign up sheet for preceptor training courses and one of my colleagues very adamantly professed her disdain for teaching or precepting and that it "just wasn't in her to teach".

ok fine, but IMO it sounded a bit condescending and selfish of one to refuse to share nursing knowledge. She does everything to get out of precepting or cross training nurses. Seems unprofessional to me.

I was giving bedside report to a MICU RN who recently transferred to the SICU and the patient was a postop neurosurgery case with an EVD and ICP monitoring. I gave her an overview of what the drain was, how to manage it and transduce for IC pressures. I then told her to refer to Ms. Senior RN who is real good with neuro for any questions after I left. I then spoke to Ms. Senior RN and told her that I endorsed an EVD/ICP monitoring to Ms. New SICU RN and perhaps she could guide her throughout the shift on the neuro patient, she then promptly rolled her eyes and asked why I had to refer the new SICU RN to her?? (Mind you she is one of the most knowledgeable nurses in our ICU but I've never seen her precepting and she doesn't offer up knowledge freely either)

Like really? After almost 12 years of nursing this issue still grinds my gears. We should all be willing to help/guide one another. Sure sometimes I'm not in the mood to teach, or my orientee is not a fast learner or another RN asks for my help when I'm super busy, but either way I roll up my sleeves and get it done because if the shoe was on the other foot (like it has been many times) I would want someones help to guide-teach-assist me.

I don't mean to make this medicine vs nursing but physicians are expected to teach and mentor from the time they graduate medical school they are thrust into mentoring those behind them.

IMO nursing lags behind with this. Is it because we lack pride in our profession?, or feel like victims that we cannot and often do not embody a leadership mentality?

Perhaps its it's just part of the nurses eating their young/lateral violence that is far too prevalent in our profession.

On my unit its the same RNs who precept everyone while others flat out refuse and go years without precepting. I love to teach and came to this job with experience and for that reason I've literally been precepting since I came off orientation/probation myself (yes crazy I know) because many nurses just refuse to teach on my unit.

Heck when I was new to this facility myself a few years back my assigned preceptor (who didn't realize I was sitting nearby) flat out refused to orient anyone (she later apologized saying it was nothing personal when she realized I was in an earshot of her comment)

All nurses should have pride in their work/profession enough to want to share their wealth of knowledge at some level. You may not pursue a masters in nursing education or a PhD but you can still be a resource for you unit and colleagues, that's at least the minimum that should be required of you.

*sigh* just venting.

Specializes in Critical Care and ED.
With some places, the turnaround in staff is so great, you have some poor experienced nurse precepting a new nurse every few months. So now that same nurse is taking anywhere from 8-12 weeks precepting an orientee, gets another orientee after the previous one is let loose on the floor, only to find out in 6mos-1yr later that all that time and energy went down the drain cause the new nurse quit. Can't fault that nurse for feeling burned.

This is exactly what's happening and it's an abuse in my opinion. It turns nursing into an assembly line. Nurses are responsible for doing absolutely everything, with more charting, more patients and more stress and demands. In my opinion they should have fostered the role of the clinical specialist instead of retiring it. We used to have a clinical nurse specialist in my ICU but she was never in her office and was always sent off by management to go and do all this collecting of research data which is not the reason she was there. I rarely saw her on the unit and it was the nurses who were responsible for precepting, when in fact, it should have been her responsibility to be there as an educator. She was a wonderful nurse and educator and it wasn't her fault, she was just pulled all the time by management. I don't see the sense in having an excellent educator on the unit if you're not going to utilize her effectively.

I've seen evidence of perfectly good nurses quitting because they had such an awful time after being placed with a preceptor who had no business precepting because they were basically a bully. It was sad to see. If the clinical specialist/educator had been there the nurse would have succeeded. I know this because I had worked with her in another unit and she was a good nurse...she was just placed with someone inappropriate. I've seen other so-called preceptors throwing the orientee to the wind and hoping they'll fly, not offering help or assistance and then belittling them when they fail.

Personally I love teaching...I was the CRRT trainer in my ICU for years and I took pride in leaving someone comfortable enough to run CRRT on their own after a few hours with me. I agree though about not wanting to be responsible for checking other people's work but I know that it's a vital part of precepting as they have to learn the correct way of doing things. I would always also make sure to teach time management as a skill as it's often the reason why people fail. I do agree that precepting should be reimbursable. We only used to get an extra dollar an hour but I believe that's inadequate.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
With some places, the turnaround in staff is so great, you have some poor experienced nurse precepting a new nurse every few months. So now that same nurse is taking anywhere from 8-12 weeks precepting an orientee, gets another orientee after the previous one is let loose on the floor, only to find out in 6mos-1yr later that all that time and energy went down the drain cause the new nurse quit. Can't fault that nurse for feeling burned.

Exactly this. For every 6 nurses we hire if we are lucky 1 will stay past orientation. This latest rotation of new hires we had 1 quit the day before orientation started, 4 quit after 1 day and only 1 stuck it out. She's been there less than a month and has already been mandated twice, bumped to an unfamiliar unit at least 3 times and had her first check short by 12 hours because payroll has to manually enter her time and they missed a whole shift. Frankly I wouldn't be at all surprised if she's putting out other applications.

Of course in LTC the orientation process is nothing like the hospitals get. An experienced LTC nurse will probably get 3 shifts, a newer nurse double that. In rare cases a new hire might get a couple weeks. 8-12 weeks orientation is unheard of. And people wonder why there's such massive turnover.

Specializes in ER/ICU/Flight.

I've always wondered if the nurses who don't like teaching or precepting also didn't like it when their teachers and preceptors were helping them learn new things.... Seems like a double standard at times

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
I've always wondered if the nurses who don't like teaching or precepting also didn't like it when their teachers and preceptors were helping them learn new things.... Seems like a double standard at times

Just because I have needed work done by a plumber (or substitute electrician, dentist, lawyer, car mechanic, etc.) in the past doesn't mean I am obligated to provide that service to others who need it now. The employer should provide educators/preceptors as needed and compensate them appropriately -- and not just pile on extra work for the already over-worked staff and expect them to do it for little or no compensation. Also, schools should not expect the staff to teach/supervise their students for free when they are charging the students for the education.

I am wondering if said nurse had a bad experience in the past with precepting and refuses to because of it. The thought of "nurses eat their young" is something I am reminded of here. This is such a sad thing in nursing. I have always wanted to work with new nurses and let them learn and I have learned from them. Teaching nurses is just not this person's best quality.

Specializes in ER/ICU/Flight.

Quote by LLG:

Just because I have needed work done by a plumber (or substitute electrician, dentist, lawyer, car mechanic, etc.) in the past doesn't mean I am obligated to provide that service to others who need it now.

I agree with your response with the above exception, I think you're kind of comparing apples to oranges on this one but here's another step to the progression of your comparison: if you happened to have used a plumber for work, then in the future needed a different plumber who seemed to have difficulty completing the job...if you knew a pointer or tip to help them you would be wise to do so. but I agree that you are not technically "obligated".

Specializes in CVICU, MICU, Burn ICU.

There's a difference, also, between nurses being expected to precept and nurses being expected to be decent human beings. Back to the OP's example of the new nurse getting an ICP drain.... ANY nurse who is familiar with that should be able to be a "resource" for someone new to it. That isn't precepting. That's being a half-way decent team player and giving a crap about the patient --- even if they are not YOUR patient.

I understand some nurses not wanting to precept. It's not for everyone and I don't think all nurses should be mandated to do it. I think that just causes more problems as has been already well articulated by previous posters. But saying you're not going to be a resource? Or getting miffed when a new-to-your-unit nurse asks for some guidance or help? That's something altogether different. That's just lousy.

Specializes in Gerontology.

Perhaps you should ask Ms Senior RN for permission to be a resource before volunteering her for the job.

Specializes in Travel.

And people wonder why there is a nursing shortage...

Some people are not good teachers, and they know this about themselves. You wouldn't want them teaching a new person. However, I think that people who are will to precept should be paid for their time. If your facility is not paying preceptors, that could be part of the problem.

I just finished precepting my 7th? (lost exact count) orientee in three years on an eight bed inpatient unit and 24 hour outpatient infusion unit. Recently we have experienced a large staff turnover due to hospital cutbacks and staff leaving for better paying positions. I do not receive any extra compensation for precepting. I am also expected to take my full patient load while precepting. Recently our techs were moved to another floor to "save money". Before I precepted my last orientee, I did say I refuse to precept. My reasons were partly selfish because I did not want to take on another job responsibility when I already feel overworked. Also, I did not feel I could provide the orientee with the proper attention she would need as a new nurse. Two more orientees started this week. I will not shoulder the sole responsibility of precepting this time, but I am expected to precept each day I work. Before making broad assumptions, there could be a multitude of reasons why a nurse does not want to precept.

I personally love to teach and precept, when I am given the opportunity to. Reason being is because I have had, like most, my fair share of bad teachers/instructors. Maybe they were "bad" because they were unhelpful/rude, or maybe they were "bad" in the way of they didn't know how to teach and their frustrations from that caused them to give up. In the end, it was always a good experience for me because it taught me what not to do.

Here's how I tackle educating:

I aim to be friendly so that they feel I am approachable. I try to practice patience. I answer questions to the best of my knowledge and ability. Most importantly, I don't boss but I teach and guide. If I have a criticism, I work on how to present it in a way that is not harsh and ridiculing.

More importantly, if I don't succeed at anything else, I make sure to comfort my preceptee and let them know that they are going to be fine. A lot of times people need that extra reassurance because they are nervous and I have seen that make the difference, in attitude and performance.

I don't think it matters much if you feel like you aren't great at explaining things or educating. Sometimes it's just the way you present yourself to someone that makes all the difference. I wish more nurses, regardless of whether or not they feel like they are capable of teaching, would volunteer at least once. You teach them, they teach you... you get the opportunity to pass on your knowledge and help someone new build their confidence, and they get to learn and gain experience. Everybody wins. What could be sweeter?

Those nurses that are flat out refusing to do it just may not want the responsibility... or maybe, like I said, they don't think they will be able to teach in an effective way.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I've always wondered if the nurses who don't like teaching or precepting also didn't like it when their teachers and preceptors were helping them learn new things.... Seems like a double standard at times

It's not that simple. Clearly you don't know what you don't know. Precepting is a very difficult job, especially if you're trying to do it well (rather than collecting your $.75/hour for "babysitting" while the new nurse flounders). Some folks are good at it, others aren't. Some enjoy it; others tolerate it and a few hate it. Some nurses who enjoyed precepting have been precepting continuously for YEARS on end and are burned out and have begun to hate it.

Precepting used to be rewarding, but these days new grads are more and more entitled. They want the preceptor to change her schedule to accomodate the newbie's preferences. They want any feedback wrapped in rainbows and sprinkled with fairy dust to the point where any NEGATIVE feedback can be ignored. Everything is all about "my learning" to the point where even the patient is lost in the shuffle. They rush to "report someone" every time they have a negative interaction because they're certain that every negative interaction is "bullying." Preceptors are then bullied by their orientees who are rushing to complain to the manager because "Ruby wouldn't eat lunch with me, WAH!" (My sister was in town for 24 hours for a conference at my hospital and I chose to have lunch with her so we could talk about my mother's latest nursing home eviction and where we might place her instead. I explained that, even though I shouldn't have had to. The orientee is an adult -- she can eat one meal by herself!) Or "Anne didn't say hello to me in the lobby!" (Anne had driven to work wearing her sunglasses, left them in the car and was headed up to the unit more or less by braille to put in her contacts. She didn't SEE the orientee, but probably would have greeted her warmly had the orientee said hello first.)

Until you have actually precepted -- and tried to do it well -- you have NO idea. Perhaps it would be best not to rush to judgement until you have actually walked a mile in a preceptor's shoes.

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