I transferred to my hospital's ICU/CCU at the end of February. Anytime a nurse transfers departments, they evaluate you at 45 and 90 days after you started the new job. I've been an RN for 5 years with 4 years of med-surg experience. I started off my orientation on day shift(7a-7p) for 6 weeks. My 45 days were up on April 12th. I had my eval and it was good! They pointed out a few minor things that I need to work on.
April 16th, I went to night shift(7p-7a) for 3 weeks of orientation. Night shift has no official preceptor so I had two different Senior RN's precept me while on nights. Before I started my night shift orientation, my head nurse "warned" me that the night shift crew can be difficult at times but that I needed to "earn my stripes" so to speak. My head nurse has been on medical leave since April 1st and won't be back until the middle of July/beginning of August. Well, almost all of the night shift crew is female. There is one male RN in my ICU and he is the Assistant Head nurse on night shift. Excellent critical care RN. I figured that I would have the most difficulties with him. WRONG!!!
One night, while on orientation, I ws assigned to care for a pt with DKA who had been in the ICU for a few days and should have been transferred to the floor that day but wasn't. I got out of report at 7:15pm and looked at the pt with the off going RN from day shift. After the day shift RN left, I stayed in the room to assess her and get vitals, etc. I was in the room for 10-15 minutes. Did a full assessment etc. She was my only pt at the time. So, since I was up for next admit, I then left the room to go do my charting. Fifteeen minutes later, I get my preceptor to help me change and clean this pt. While we are turning the pt, my preceptor says, "Did you chart your assessment BEFORE you assessed her?" in a condescending tone of voice. I said no, I assessed her, why? "Well, you were awfully quick about it, weren't you? I explanined that I listened to her BBS, BS, and all that other stuff. She didn't say anything. Well, I was upset that she would accuse me of falsifying records? Turns out, she reported to the Asst. Head Nurse on Days , who is acting as the Head nurse while she is on leave, that I am not thorough enough with my assessments and this showed up on my 90 day eval which was done yesterday.
My eval also stated that I act as if I "know it all" and am "over confident" and don't ask enough questions and that I drew blood from a central line and didn't know what I am doing cause I didn't have the proper syringes(am I not allowed to have a brain fart?) I've drawn blood from central lines my entire nursing career.
Well, I was intimidated by the night shift preceptor cause she was so blatantly rude and I have never been talked to like that ever!!! So, I've been hesitant to ask her questions. I've not jeopradized pt safety mind you but I didn't know You HAD to take 15 minutes to assess a pt? I didn't do my assessments any differently on nights than I did on Days and there was never a problem with it then? I explained all of this to the AHN, the DON was also present and she said that I am right where I should be with my critical care skills and it takes a year to get comfortable in an ICU. How am I gonna get comfortable if I don't get to work in the unit and am always bumped out to the floors because I am the low man on the totem pole. I knew that I'd have to float when I took this job. But I don't know how they expect me to be a good ICU nurse if I never get to work in ICU!!!!!!
If I am uncomfortable around people then I am quiet which the other night RN's perceived as being "cocky". I had NO idea I was being perceived this way and I explained this to the AHN. We talked for 45 minutes yesterday. I still don't feel any better even though the AHN said it wasn't a bad eval per se. I said well it doesn't sound like a good one either! I was so upset that I almost started bawling. I'm getting tears in my eyes as I type this.
The night shift ICU RN's who have worked there for over 10 years are cliquey and can be hard to deal with. I knew this going in but didn't think it'd be this bad. They don't talk to me when I'm there unless I initiate a conversation. Another RN who I worked with on my old floor transferred to ICU last September and they LOVE her! I don't know what to do, I'm ready to quit! Please give me some advice. Sorry this is so long!
