Hello, I'm looking for some ideas on a way to ask my former preceptor for a little bit of space without offending her.
Here's some necessary background info: I used to work in a step-down unit and earlier this year changed jobs to work in an ICU. I had a 6 week orientation. I've been on my own for a few months now and feel like I'm starting to feel more comfortable but every time I work at the same time as my former preceptor she is still acting like I am on orientation.
For example, I was admitting a patient from a nursing home and apparently she was looking through my patient's chart and saw that his potassium was 1.8 . We had already started him on IV potassium and given him some through his peg tube but because the resident and I were both so busy we hadn't put it on his eMAR yet. So when my former preceptor was looking him up she thought we hadn't done anything about the low potassium yet and instead of approaching me with her concern she went straight to the resident. I overheard her doing this and the resident was saying we were already treating it and she was confused because she thought that was a different nurse's patient. My former preceptor then says something like "yeah its not my patient but that's a new nurse and she might not know what to do".
I know as my preceptor she saw me look clueless many many many times and that I probably asked her some pretty dumb questions. But at my eval at the end of my orientation both she and our supervisor agreed I was ready to be on my own so I don't know why she is doing this. I honestly do appreciate her continued support and plan on continuing to use her as a resource, but I wish she would back off a little bit. I want to tell her this without seeming unappreciative or giving off an air of know it all attitude.
Any ideas on how to best approach this? If anyone has dealt with a similar situation I would love to hear how you handled it.. Thank you in advance.
Good point, Boston, FNP. But if it were me as the preceptor, I would have gone to the nurse first. It was immature for her to go to the resident in that way.
I think that would have been a better way to handle it.
It's not unusual for there to be an ongoing maternal-like relationship between a preceptor and preceptee, sometimes for years after the new nurse has left the nest. The much bigger problem here is that the nurse didn't go the nurse but instead went to the MD with their concerns, that is seriously messed up.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm glad to hear from people who have been on the other side of this (preceptors). For those who wanted more details, she was not the charge nurse during the shift but she is our unit's fall risk score auditor so she is allowed to open the chart for any patient on our unit (though technically she is only supposed to look at one section and that section does not include labs). I never confronted her and feel like its been too long now so I am not planning on saying anything unless she does it again.... I can see how it was likely harmless but I still can't help but feel a little offended by her actions.
Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, it's possible your preceptor was trying to check that you had followed up on something without you thinking you weren't being trusted - but obviously didn't do a good job. I will often quietly double check things with doctors that I know well and have a good relationship with. Not to try and embarrass somebody but to ensure that something has been followed up without making the new nurse feel stupid at the time. To use your example, if I discovered that a patient had a low potassium and the new nurse should definitely know and have acted on it by now, I might quietly say to one of the doctors, "hey, the K is 1.8, were you aware?" If they were, awesome job! If not, then that's a serious conversation I need to have with that nurse. New staff in the ICU I work at get checked up on all the time quietly in the background - we are just looking out for you and the patients in what can be an overwhelming environment with the benefit of experience and making plenty of mistakes ourselves, we don't mean to make you feel like you're not trusted! :)
. We had already started him on IV potassium and given him some through his peg tube but because the resident and I were both so busy we hadn't put it on his eMAR yet. So when my former preceptor was looking him up she thought we hadn't done anything about the low potassium yet and instead of approaching me with her concern she went straight to the resident. I overheard her doing this and the resident was saying we were already treating it and she was confused because she thought that was a different nurse's patient. My former preceptor then says something like "yeah its not my patient but that's a new nurse and she might not know what to do".
BostonFNP, APRN
2 Articles; 5,584 Posts
I think that would have been a better way to handle it.