Having trouble precepting new orientee

[rn-jane]

I've been a nurse 11 years in critical care and stepdown nursing. I've been precepting at my hospital for the last 4 years and have seen alot of nurses come, go and really grow. I love new grads and most new nurses have rated me high on my evaluation as their preceptor. My new grads I keep a close eye on the floor even after orientation and I believe I am an excellent teacher and prepare them well before they hit the floor on their own. Enough said. I currently am precepting a nurse that has been in nursing for over 20 years in a field totally different from what we do on our stepdown unit. To say the very least, our personalities are clashing. She is inappropiate to families, she can be abrupt and rude at times. She is very disorganized and does not use time wisely or know how to prioritize. She is so slow in everything and when i make suggestions to make things easier or more time efficent, she is rude to me and says she has been a nurse longer and knows what she is doing. We took over 20 min giving a patient a pain med. She cannot even read an ekg strip. She was only given 6 weeks to orient since she is"experienced" and i told her on friday if you think you need more time, to let the educator and our boss know and that we would give it to her. I have talked to the manager about her and she says "everyone really likes her, I'm not sure what your problem with her is, you are too much a perfectionist" A few of our staff members told me they are not impressed with her and worry about her being on the floor. I really don't know what to do? I'm ready to go to my manager and tell her to please find another nurse to orient her because i don't feel comfortable signing her off on orientation. She has next week off for thanksgivning, so i'm trying to come up with a plan to either make things better or get her another preceptor. I honestly don't trust her to work on our floor.

[bagladyrn, RN]

Sounds like you are taking all the right steps. It's good that these incidents are being seen by others than you. My only suggestions now would be that if you continue to precept her you document very specifically what you see that demonstrates the issues with her and what you have done to correct and assist her in correcting these problems. Since you have criticized her she may now try to claim that it is not her, that you "have it in for her". This is where a very objective list will help.

[inshallamiami]

Is it the common consensus that "experienced" nurses are harder to orient?

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

Is it the common consensus that "experienced" nurses are harder to orient?

I wouldn't say that. There are stubborn and/or difficult people everywhere.