Dear Precepting Student:

[Music in My Heart]

While I understand that you're proud of your clinical skills derived from your prior experiences, if they are beyond the scope of the license for which you're currently a candidate, they have no bearing on your current preceptorship and frankly, your continual reference to them is tiresome and makes you appear insecure - or even condescending.

I understand that you were a super suturer and a fabulous intubator as a military corpsman or paramedic but those skills are beyond the scope of what we're licensed for here so please spare me the continuing commentary and instead focus on what we're doing *here*.

Thank you.

Signed,

Your Preceptor

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

omg! nurses are mean! not every person is the same. do not volunteer to be a preceptor if you don't have patience to handle different personalities. the first nursing experience either makes or breaks a nurse.have you ever considered that this student's attitude may come out because this student is trying to cover up the insecurities? i will never forget my first preceptor who had done everything possible to break me down and made me to look bad instead of being understanding and make the transition easier for me. it cost me a job and may be the nursing career.

i'm not sure how you got "nurses are mean" from the original post. but just so you know, most of us have little choice over whether or not to be a preceptor, who we'll precept and whether or not we'll walk into work tomorrow and be told "this is your student." most nurses handle different personalities just fine; the same cannot be said of students. your learning experience is not my main goal for the day; patient care and patient safety are. hopefully you'll learn something, too, but that's not my main focus.

overconfidence and arrogance have no place in a student. whether or not they are covering up insecurities. i'm sorry you had a bad experience with your first preceptor, but "being understanding and making it easier for me" are not the main goals of a preceptor, either -- especially if you're making the same stupid mistakes over and over and over.

get over the "nurses are mean" idea, and you'll probably have better luck with your next job.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

according to you a student who is rubbing the entire staff wrong doesnt deserve a chance to be a nurse?! what about a patient who is rubbing the entire staff wrong? he/she doesn't deserve to be your patient? a lot of nurses don't want to admit that no matter how much new grads or students try to do their best the preceptors hate those who are not catching on right away. the point is years ago when these preceptors did't have the experience and didn't have the skills they have today how did they feel? in any case, the preceptor is a teacher and a good teacher knows how to turn any student to a good nurse. with patience and building confidence in this student the skills and everything that is needed would come along. and if you don't have patience than don't take a job.

a student who is rubbing the entire staff the wrong way evidently lacks people skills and needs to work on them. whether or not they can fix those issues has a lot to do with whether or not they'll be a decent nurse. preceptors, once again, aren't paid anything extra, aren't given a chance to decline the "opportunity" to precept, and get no extra training in how to teach. some of us are good nurses but lousy teachers. some of us are good preceptors.

and whether or not you want to admit it, some students won't ever become good nurses or even adequate nurses.