Help! Preceptor Issue

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Hey everybody! Question about preceptors and staffing. I'm a nurse that just started orienting on an IMC unit. Today the staffing grid called for at least two nurses to go home, and somehow my preceptor was the first one to be able to go home. I got a new preceptor, but I am wondering if anyone else would be okay going home early when they had an orientee? It didn't seem right to me because I was the one who mainly took care of the patients and I felt stranded. I also couldn't talk to the charge nurse about it because she hadn't asked me about it, told me to "just be flexible" and then let my preceptor go. What do you think? Should I talk to my manager because it made me uncomfortable or should I let it go?

Where I work, you are not sent home if you are precepting. I find it odd that they picked your preceptor to go home.

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Specializes in Adult Primary Care.

Maybe?? the preceptor begged to be sent home!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
10 hours ago, LovingLife123 said:

Where I work, you are not sent home if you are precepting. I find it odd that they picked your preceptor to go home.

Not every facility works like that, but I do understand the logic to an extent. It would all depend on if preceptors are volunteers or if they are voluntold, and more often then not they are voluntold.

If they volunteer to precept then it is reasonable to include a clause that they can’t be floated or sent home if they volunteer to precept. However if they’re voluntold to precept, and likely don’t want to be preventing in the first place, then they shouldn’t be forced to stay on shift if it is their turn to be sent home.

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2 hours ago, JadedCPN said:

If they volunteer to precept then it is reasonable to include a clause that they can’t be floated or sent home if they volunteer to precept. However if they’re voluntold to precept, and likely don’t want to be preventing in the first place, then they shouldn’t be forced to stay on shift if it is their turn to be sent home.

Probably also matters whether they are precepting a great deal of the time or just rarely/very periodically.

16 hours ago, Hoosier_RN said:

But then again, the original preceptor may have told the preceptor taking over "she knows her stuff and is doing it all, just be there in case. This one doesn't need her hand held", or whatever. We don't know what may or may not have been discussed, as the OP may not either

Yes...with regard to my original comment I stand by the general idea, although I wrote it based upon an incorrect assumption that we were talking about a new grad RN. Later, after full disclosure, it became clear that this was an experienced nurse who felt like applying a more critical standard to a peer than s/he probably appreciates having applied to self.

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The way I see it, either you dont know enough about the unit to second guess their decision-making process about staffing, in which case the real problem isn't that they sent your preceptor home but rather that they gave you an inadequate substitute for the day and/or possibly that you got a bit up in your feelings about decisions that aren't yours to make... OR you know everything you need to run the place and make their staffing decisions, in which case why do you need a preceptor at all?

Either way, complaining to management about it is a bad look.

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Specializes in Staff RN in ICU.

Precepting is an important job that a nurse takes on if we want our new nurses to learn & be able to function at a high level. So unless a nurse is committed to the goal of teaching a new nurse, why take on that role if at first chance you leave your preceptee to go home? Are these nurses trained in proper precepting techniques or are they just staff nurses with the most experience so the job is delegated to them? I feel nurses must be flexible but flexible enough to accept another dedicated person who wants to work along side the new nurse versus just sending the new nurse out to do the job that the preceptor is supposed to be observing for executing the tasks & duties correctly, & guiding the preceptee along in the process. Also, I would not bring it up to your boss because her reply says it all in how she/he feels about the situation. But at the end of your precepting, I hope that your facility allows you to give written feedback regarding your precepting experience with what was done well & what could be improved upon so that they can better service the new nurses & retain them. Good luck in your new journey & welcome to the world of nursing.

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Specializes in ICU/ER/Med-Surg/Case Management/Manageme.
On 9/25/2019 at 12:14 PM, Guest said:

No not disgruntled, I've been a nurse elsewhere and completely understand how busy floors get. I'm more concerned with how there were three other nurses that could have gone home but the charge picked my preceptor. I was never complaining and told backhandedly to be flexible. To be honest just 'not wanting to be there' is not a good reason. The new preceptor was from the float pool which to me did not make sense because our floor is IMC and the floats don't take IMC patients. I'm a big fan of doing what makes the most sense and this didn't. Probably not worth "escalating" as some have said, but there's nothing wrong with asking what others think.

No, nothing wrong with asking what others think, but frankly, upon reading your initial post, I thought you were an inexperienced new grad. If you've "been a nurse elsewhere" I don't think it would be at all unreasonable to expect you to work one shift with a different preceptor. As for float pool nurses, in my almost 40 years of experience, I found most floaters to be excellent nurses with tons of experience. Perhaps not the exact experience on the floor to which they were assigned but experienced enough to know when to ask for help and as far as I'm concerned, that's one of the most important things any of us - 40 years or40 minutes experience - can offer our patients and our co-workers.

Since this situation appears to be a major issue for you, I'm afraid you are going to have a difficult time through the years. You'll come across many management decisions that don't make sense but that's true in any industry.

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For Pete’s sake it was one shift and she’s an experienced nurse. Trust me, nobody’s going to die from this.

Also, being voluntold to precept is more the norm. We show up for our shift, are told “tag you’re it” and we don’t get compensated for the extra work. I like precepting...I like days off better.

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On 9/25/2019 at 3:32 AM, andrea3434 said:

I disagree. If you are on orientation you should have a preceptor available. I could see getting someone else to precept if your original went home.

i don’t think it’s safe to leave a new Rn without a preceptor when still on orientation (isn’t that the whole point of having preceptors?) I would look up policy and go from there.

I definitely agree that you are to have a Preceptor readily available.

If you agree to essentially work without one, you are placing yourself in jeopardy, I believe.

You were assigned a new preceptor. So you shared her patients, right? Or did you keep the patients from the original assignment? Are you being assigned patients by yourself while the Preceptor just kind of looks in on you now and then? Does the Preceptor you were used to, the one who left early, have an assignment of her own that is different than yours?

The assignment should have been re-done so that you and your new preceptor shared the same assignment.

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On 9/25/2019 at 12:32 AM, Guest said:

Hey everybody! Question about preceptors and staffing. I'm a nurse that just started orienting on an IMC unit. Today the staffing grid called for at least two nurses to go home, and somehow my preceptor was the first one to be able to go home. I got a new preceptor, but I am wondering if anyone else would be okay going home early when they had an orientee? It didn't seem right to me because I was the one who mainly took care of the patients and I felt stranded. I also couldn't talk to the charge nurse about it because she hadn't asked me about it, told me to "just be flexible" and then let my preceptor go. What do you think? Should I talk to my manager because it made me uncomfortable or should I let it go?

What if the preceptor had become ill, had a death or other emergency in her family, or some other equally serious matter arose during the shift?

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Being the new person on a unit is not easy. I think you did a great job by self-reflecting and identifying how this situation made you feel. I recommend you taking this self-reflection and store it in your memory bank. Keep self-reflecting and identifying your emotions as you experience them and you will be a stronger nurse at the end of the day. Being emotionally intelligent goes a long way in staying resilient to burn out/fatigue. If you bring a complaint your manager, have a solution to your problem. I wish you good luck on your orientation. We have a very fun and exciting career.

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