Published
My unit is pretty even 50/50 m/f. My primary preceptor is crazy, but really good. I had other preceptors in the unit to fill in gaps when she was unavailable or charge and had a handful of the guys carry me under their wings when I was a noob. All the veterans in my unit are crazy in one way or another, but hey it's a burn icu so maybe there's a reason why.
I've had male and female preceptors. They were both some of the best nurses I have ever met.
After the managers comment about the travelers skills, I would have immediately asked, "May you please assign me a preceptor that will help me learn the best skills possible? I don't want to learn bad habits from anyone.":
stablesystole
40 Posts
I'm wondering if any of the rest of you guys have seen the same thing I've seen in my time (both personally and watching other people).
It seems to me that in nursing, there is a small and entirely unintentional discrimination in that male orientees always get paired with male preceptors. This is done automatically and without any thought given to the quality of the tutelage that will be given. I got paired with a preceptor who I found out afterwards had had his two prior orientees fail hard, as well as the one after myself. I succeeded in spite of him rather than because of him. I saw the same pattern time and time again when I was a tech in school working on a different unit too. It worked in reverse too. A fantastic preceptor would get no newbie to train if none of the new hires were men.
Now I've taken a new job in a different hospital and I'm once again being paired with the other man even though he is a traveler and the unit educator has felt it necessary to warn me not to learn from him too well because he does a lot of things the wrong way. Wow.
Anyone else noticed a trend like this or have tips how to deal with it?