First 10 hours preceptorship down!

[chevyv, BSN, RN]

Yesterday was my first shift with my preceptor in an all womens facility. I have a great preceptor and am learning so much. Corrections nursing sure is different from med surg in the hospital! I'm learning not to be quick to nurse and to realize that I have to look deeper and do more in depth assessments with complaints of pain.

I've never had the chance to draw blood before so my preceptor had me draw his to get over the nervous feeling. Koolish hey!

The one thing I do have to get used to is the paper charting! OMG the amount of paper charting is huge. Everything is on paper. Honestly, I've never seen that during nursing school. So much of the night is spent signing off orders, making copies, reshelving the charts......paper paper paper. I dream in paper (tee hee).

I'm still very excited that I landed a preceptorship in Corrections. I feel like a little sponge right now.

[chevyv, BSN, RN]

Day 2 done! I got severly scolded yesterday! Had gloves on for cares and then took them off. Another nurse was begining to start an iv on an inmate going out to hospital. It's the first time I've seen an iv started in this facility. Apparantly they don't do saline flushes attached to the iv like I learned in the hospital. I was told to hand the nurse the iv line so he could hook it up right away. Still no gloves on at this point. I figured it wasn't necessary because I wasn't having pt contact. Well, when I handed the nurse the line, he had some blood on his glove which touched my thumb; still no gloves

When the inmate left, my preceptor pointed at me and told me that I have to learn to wear gloves at all times. I understood way before he told me that. I would have been fine except he must have told me over and over again. I think I heard it at least 20 times. I get the importance, but really felt beat up afterwards. It was day 2 and I get 2 things for sure: No sex with the inmates and wear gloves at all times. Now, I've got to pick myself up, brush off, and go on. Just had to tell anyone that I didn't have such a good day!

[familychick, BSN]

Sorry you felt beat up after that. Just keep in mind that we tend to learn more on the not so good days and on the terrific smooth sailing days.

Hang in there. Corrections is the bomb!