FL Hosp "growth plan", preceptor problems

[SBFLRN]

Hi All!

I am a recent graduate and started working for the lovely Florida Hosp system which has a great GN program. I am working in a step-down observation unit so I see a wide variety of patients.

OK, on to the problem. I have had multiple preceptors because the unit is short preceptors, although of the 7 GN's on my unit, I am the only one with multiples -_-

All my preceptors have actually been pretty nice, however... because I have multiples, and because they all have very different ways of doing things and they are unaware of what other preceptors have taught me in between seeing me, I feel like my experience has been very negative. I constantly hear how behind I am all the time, how I forgot something, etc. I first heard positive feedback in week 6... WEEK 6.... it has slowly improved in terms of good feedback, BUT in week 9 I was pulled into the educators office and given a "growth plan" aka a write up for being too slow, not giving a good hand off report, not being good at calling doctors, not being able to correlate labs to illnesses, and overall poor time management. Because I wrote in my weekly journals due to the educator that I had a stressful week, THAT was also put in my "growth plan."

NOW, I will totally admit, I AM slow... I am new... I AM poor at calling Doctors as I am very inexperienced... I DO tend to give a sporadic report (all the information is given but I truly AM bad about giving it almost like I have tourettes, aka I blurt things out when one thing triggers another thing I need to pass on). Time Management... seriously? Old nurses struggle with this. I never have to stay late to chart... my preceptors HAVE reminded me to do things but honestly, if they would give me the chance to catch things I've missed on my own, I bet they wouldn't have to remind me all day and tell me how behind I am. As far as the lab thing... I have NO idea where that comes from, and my educator even quizzed me and didn't understand why this was a complaint from a preceptor. I'm not saying that what my preceptors are writing about me is untrue, however, isn't this to be expected with a new nurse? I didn't really say anything when I was given my write up because I didn't want to appear like I was making excuses or not taking responsibility for my actions.

I KNOW I need to improve but now my confidence (which was already lacking) is utterly gone. I was just curious if other Florida Hospital nurses had had similar experiences.. It's always nice to know you're not alone going through this.

[Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN]

NOW, I will totally admit, I AM slow... I am new... I AM poor at calling Doctors as I am very inexperienced... I DO tend to give a sporadic report (all the information is given but I truly AM bad about giving it almost like I have tourettes, aka I blurt things out when one thing triggers another thing I need to pass on). Time Management... seriously? Old nurses struggle with this. I never have to stay late to chart... my preceptors HAVE reminded me to do things but honestly, if they would give me the chance to catch things I've missed on my own, I bet they wouldn't have to remind me all day and tell me how behind I am. As far as the lab thing... I have NO idea where that comes from, and my educator even quizzed me and didn't understand why this was a complaint from a preceptor. I'm not saying that what my preceptors are writing about me is untrue, however, isn't this to be expected with a new nurse? I didn't really say anything when I was given my write up because I didn't want to appear like I was making excuses or not taking responsibility for my actions.

I was also pulled into the director's office as a new grad and told I had poor time management skills and so on ...but I did tell her my own version of what you've written above, and quite passionately! I was almost angry that she was comparing me to nurses with 20+ years of experience when I'd never worked in healthcare until a few months prior...

I told her that I knew I could do the job (and do it well) but that there would be a steep learning curve and I wouldn't be a top performer right out of the gate. I also let her know that I was learning vast amounts of information every day and improving every day.

I honestly think the counseling session was part of an extended plan to fire me, but somehow I managed to stay afloat until I learned to swim. It's OK to speak up and let them know what's going on. Let them know what you're doing to make things better, too.