How to impress my preceptor.

[ohyea12318574]

Hi everyone! I am graduating nursing school in May. Before I graduate though I am required to do an internship / preceptorship at a local hospital. One of the local hospitals is becoming a trauma unit and is hiring a lot of people. I was approached by my instructor about the hospital being interested in me doing an internship / working in the OR (Circulating Nurse) after seeing my resume (and I assume I impressed someone there during my surgical rotation).

Problem is, i'm the first student nurse doing their internship in the OR at that hospital in 10 years. They typically do not offer internships or jobs to new grads. I have no idea why they decided to start, maybe the new trauma has something to do with it. So i've been under a lot of pressure from my instructors and everyone around me to perform well because I guess i'm kind of paving the way for other students to get the internship behind me. I even had to go in and do an interview for the position with the director of education over the entire surgical services.

On top of all this, my car broke down, I had a test on thursday and a test on the following Monday, I have a careplan due, and 3 patient reviews due, also i'm planning a wedding for march. I spent all weekend extremely busy trying to find a new car I could afford and the unthinkable happened......I FORGOT I HAD ORIENTATION THIS MORNING (Tuesday).

My friend called and said "why werent you at orientation this morning?" I thought I was going to die, my heart hit the floor. I got dressed, raced up to the hospital, went to the education department and introduced myself to the lady who did the orientation this morning. She said " Oh ok, it happens". She then asked me for my name and instantly she says "oh you're the guy doing the preceptorship in the OR, are you excited?" I was like "yea, until i screwed up this morning (in a joking voice)". So i'm sitting here like great even the people in the hospital know how big of a deal this is. So anyways, She sat me down at the desk and went over a few things (I had done this orientation before), I took the test, passed it and she said i'm all caught up and good to go now. I'm freaking out because I couldnt get a read on her as to just how upset she was about the whole thing (probably not as upset as I think she was).

So that's my story now time for the question. I feel like because I messed up this morning i'm going to have to come in and absolutely KILL this internship in order to have a chance at getting a job at the end (which they told me is highly likely if I mesh well with the team and do good work, this was of course pre screw up).

I need all the experienced nurses on here, especially if there are any circulating nurses out there, to give me tips on how I can shine like a bright star at this internship. Even if you're not a circulator all the advise I can get will be appreciated. I need to not just do well, but stand out and really leave a good impression on the staff.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Welcome to AN! Since your internship is going to be in the OR, you should check out the OR forum.

Particular threads I recommend:

Sooo, you're observing in the Operating Room (O.R.)

What Do Operating Room Nurses Do?

Tips for New Operating Room Nurses

Ask an OR nurse (Questions about what we do or how to become one of us)

There's also the AORN website, which is the professional organization for OR nurses. Very discounted membership for students if you're interested. The chapter meetings can be both a way to network and to learn.