I have been a nurse for 30 plus years but most of that time was spent working home health and hospice. Recently I have started working in OB. I actually love working the unit because it is nice after 15 years of being present at the end of life to actually be able to be present at the beginning of life.
I have been orientating for four weeks I have worked a total of (11 days) twelve hour shifts. My preceptor has been very tough on me. She constantly finds things wrong with everything I do and is very demeaning in her attitude when what I do is not perfect. After only four weeks she gave me a paper that she and the director of the unit put together stating that I was too slow and that I was only going to be given a four day time frame to be able to competently admit a labor paitient, a c-section patient, and a newborn to the nursery.
Here is a list of the expectations that they listed for me to be able to complete on each patient in a one hour time frame. Patient's Height, Weight, vital signs, assessment, start IV, get labs and send them to lab, set patient up on the monitor, do a lady partsl exam, set patient up on the pitocin drip at 1mu/mn and do all my admission charting on two different charting systems in a one hour time frame.
My question is this to all the experienced OB nurses out there. Is this truly a realistic time frame to be able to expect someone new to be able to function in. I consider myself a very good nurse and I want to be a successful OB nurse. I don't give up easilly and am trying to learn as fast as I can, however trying to learn two different charting systems on the computer, where everything is located in a new hospital, where all the departments are in a new hospital, the flow of the new paper work, how to operate the new equipment like the warming units, the fetal heart monitor, each doctors different protocol for admission and how each doctor likes their delivery table set up is a lot to learn. I don't feel four weeks is a long enough time to judge someones abilities on being able to be successful.
There is a lot more to the story than this brief synopsis and I have submitted a letter to human resources about the way I was treated, but I don't want to spend hours boring you with those details. Basically I would just like to know from some experienced people if you expect your new employees to be able to meet all of those goals in a one hour time frame. Any feedback you can send me positive or negative will be greatly appreciated.
