I had entered a nursing refresher course in a large teaching hospital. The instructers left you with a preceptor and left the building. I had such a bad experience with this preceptor that I left the program. The first day I gave her an evaluation form to be filled out daily,and she pushed it aside and said she didn't need it.????? She gave me a list of her patients and told me to go and introduce myself to them and see if they needed anything. The first room I went into had a door that was slightly ajar, so I walked in. The CNA was bathing a comatose patient and screamed at me for not knocking. I said I was sorry, that the door was not closed, and told my preceptor. She said that that was just her personality and did not address the fact that I was very upset and that the CNA was extremely rude. By the way, although this door was not closed, what are the rules regarding knocking on closed doors? We went to another room to see a patient with cystic fibrosis. While we were in there, the DON came and asked to speak to my preceptor. It seems that she was in trouble for not wearing a gown and mask on her face and not telling me to. When I asked her about it, she said that the DON was wrong and that it wasn't necessary. I told my instructors what had happened at our post conference. They agreed that I had a right to be upset and that the CNA and the preceptor were out of line. It seems that she told the preceptor that I was upset. So the next day the preceptor said, "I heard that you didn't have a good experience yesterday". She then had a 30 minute personal phone conversation with somone who by the conversation I heard sounded like her boyfriend. I just sat there with nothing to do. After that, she was completely backed up and was going crazy to make up the time. She completely ignored me, gave me nothing to do, and did not talk to me. So I just followed her around while she acted like I wasn't there. She couldn't put in an IV after trying for a very long time. She never asked for help and just said they would have to do it in the OR. Then she took a patient's medication and left it on her table while the patient was in the bathroom, yelling to the patient, "I left your meds on the table". Then she took me in to work with the comatose patient. She put a mask and gown on and did not tell me where the gowns were or to put one on. I found it myself, and the CNA from the day before yelled at me telling me I didn't need to wear a gown in that room. I asked the nurse and she said that he was dirty and that she wears gowns when she doesn't need to and doesn't wear gowns when she is supposed to like with the cystic fibrosis patient.At the end of the day, I had done nothing except empty the comatose man's foley, and I had not learned one thing. Also, she had again asked me to go in to introduce myself to each patient and see if they needed anything. She came into a room where a patient was telling me some problems she was having and her comment was, "What are you doing just chatting?" I was very upset with the entire experience. Finally another nurse felt bad for me and started asking me to do things to assist her. Oh also, she never told me she was going for lunch-just left. I was just sitting in the nurses station by myself.
I just couldn't bring myself to go back into that situation, and I left the program. Do you think there could have been a better way for me to handle this situation? Also, this nurse had gone to a program to learn to be a preceptor.
If any of you have been preceptors or have worked with precepters, can you comment on what happened to me. Thanks
Never complain, contradict, or criticize people above you and you'll just do fine. Just focus on being a better nurse (unless a patient is in danger). These are the rules of business from a guys point of view.
Do you think the patient was in danger when medication was left on a table while a patient was in the bathroom? Do you think the patient was in danger when reverse isolation procedures were supposed to be followed and were not? Do you think patients are in danger when their nurse spends 30 minutes of her patient's time chatting on the phone with a personal call and then is so backed up that she admits to feeling extreme anxiety and rushes through procedures and giving meds?
YIKES! What an awful experiance! I'd have stuck it thru, though, I'd hate for that person to "win"... and as much as you can call them on it, you can't change people from being an *!!
Specializes in Happily semi-retired; excited for the whole whammy.
I think this is excellent advise, generally.
I think following this advice is a sure way of producing a nurse who doesn't know what she needs to know. Preceptorships aren't done for sport, they're meant to be a learning experience, and if she had stayed on with this person, the time would have been wasted.
hollyster
355 Posts
I am sorry for what you went through. I hope that you write a letter to the Instructor and send copies to the DON and the CEO of the hospital.
Holly