Now what??

Nurses General Nursing

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So I have been having a hard time at work, I made one error and had a few meeting (no harm to patient) and went over the whole situation. I learned my lesson and what to do, not do etc. I was also put on a PIP. My manager came to me and said how they are planning on giving me a tough assignment and have a charge sit and observe the entire shift to see me on action and my critical thinking skills. I am newer to my unit with just over a year experience. What are your thoughts on this? I feel very anxious and conflicted by this. Is there a positive way to look at this?

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At least they are being up front about putting you under the microscope. Some employers would have done that without so much as a hint to you. Trust your instinct going forward about whether or not you should start a relaxed job search.

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That is hard. Be relaxed as possible on that shift. Treat it like you are a student again. Articulate what you are doing and what you are thinking. "Im going to see patient a first because I'm concerned about their low bp overnight" "I'm concerned about xyz because I know ... I want to do this, but am not 100% sure so I'm going to ask the charge nurse" etc. Pretend you know something of you don't and outline why you are asking for help and what your thought process is.

Best of luck

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

While they play being honest at the time of that particular assignment, nothing prevents them from putting you under microscope and with target on your back at the rest of it.

Truly, honestly, I would seriously question if I really want/need this job and dust off my CV, to be ready to get out of there before they decide during this assignment that you were breathing 0.675 times/min more than "we always do here" and so potentially affected customer safety and satisfaction.

(((Good luck)))

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That would make me extremely uncomfortable! I do not perform well when someone is standing over me like that. I have absolutely no desire to work in a place with that kind of culture. Personally I'd be looking for another job ASAP. Also, they very well could be trying to establish a paper trail to fire you.

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So I have been having a hard time at work, I made one error and had a few meeting (no harm to patient) and went over the whole situation. I learned my lesson and what to do, not do etc. I was also put on a PIP. My manager came to me and said how they are planning on giving me a tough assignment and have a charge sit and observe the entire shift to see me on action and my critical thinking skills. I am newer to my unit with just over a year experience. What are your thoughts on this? I feel very anxious and conflicted by this. Is there a positive way to look at this?

I admit to being cynical, but it sounds like they're trying to intimidate you into quitting. I doubt there's a genuine interest in helping you improve.

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I honestly do not understand what I truly did. Yes, I made a few errors (as we are all human) and none of them had any negative effect on the patient and the errors were not repeated! This is having a big emotional, physical, psychological effect on me. It is making me feel so depressed, cannot sleep, muscle tension, headaches, stomach issues and more. This situation will make even the smartest and most competent nurse make mistakes. Very frustrated.

Thank you all for your replies and comments.

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Couple of questions: What type of unit? One error or a few errors? What type(s) of error(s)? A few meetings?

I've been a nurse for a while, and I've made my share of errors that were self-reported. I've never been pulled aside much less had a meeting (or several) about them. Either you're more ham-handed than you realize, or you're getting unjustifiably micromanaged. I'm genuinely curious which you think it is, and I'd genuinely like to offer help.

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