Hit the ground running.

[oldnurse1990]

Travelers are supposed to "hit the ground running". Relatively speaking, a truth; however, phrases can be dangerous. People live by platitudes and that's one of them. My strong thoughts are: never ever use a platitude instead of real solid judgment.

I'm an experienced ICU nurse. My new boss at my new travel job wants the preceptor to take the hardest patients on my first night and I'll also be switching from being a day person to a night person on the first night. Have not worked nights for a year. I haven't learned the documentation system yet and had only a few hours with computer access. I tend to think that I would learn more about documentation quickly and familiarize myself with the unit without the most severe pt on the unit. I want to start out as fully armed as possible.

It might seem to me that they are trying to get rid of me already. I do not see the benefit of trial by fire to a new person. New to travel, relatively new to nights. I will remind them in a diplomatic, but confident way tomorrow. If they don't respond like I think they should, I will be tempted to get out of this job and will measure all things against this and be wary. I did poorly with their PBDS test. I wonder if they are trying to test me passive-aggressively. If they are wary of me, they should just send me home packing. I'm a confident nurse.

I don't know the politics of travel. I am going to read my contract over again. The education dept. tester said that they have sent travelers packing due to poor testing. She told me the unit was in need. Maybe they are contractually bound to have me, and are trying to wage a war of attrition. Maybe that is just the way they have always dealt with travelers. The unit did not discuss the test with me. They received it. I want to talk to them about it to see what they will say.

Any thoughts?

[DutchRN09]

All I can say is that PBDS is a poor indicator IMO. The hospital were I was just stopped using it. I would clarify expectations if possible.