I just Need to vent!!!

[prudence09]

So I've been working on the same floor for about 3 and a half months. I am out of orientation. Some days are better than others. There is just one problem. The person that trained me. She is always pointing all the mistakes I make and there not huge ones. She had taught me a lot but she can never say that I have done a good job. I think a lot has to do with the fact that we have different personalities. She basically told me the other night that I'm abnoxious and that I need to watch how I talk to her. I'm just the kind of person that says what I mean and am assertive. She thinks I act superior. I just don't know. I'm still a very new nurse and I still have to ask a lot of questions and I think that gets on her nerves. Like the other night I had a patient that was in a serious situation and I was calling the doctor every hour because my patient needed to be taken care of and it needed to be done. My patient ended up having to be transferred and I talked to the family. she proceeds to go behind me to talk to the family after I have and basically tells them the same thing. This makes me look like I'm a complete idiot to the family. I have a lot to learn but every time I go to work I feel like I walk on egg shells around her and I can't be myself. She's supposed to go to another shift after October and honestly I can't wait. I just really need to get this off my chest. Does any body have any advice how to handle this situation?

[SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN]

i had a preceptor similar to yours. after orientation i figured out she was not comfortable precepting anyone let alone me, a former "a" student who asked a lot of questions because that is how i learn. while under my bad preceptor's tutelage i noticed that i was not progressing well. i did not bad mouth her like she bad mouthed me. instead i talked to our director and stated that she and i are not a good fit. afterwards i was assigned to someone else. a preceptor who worked for 20 years with a reputation of great success related to his precepts. i figured that if i could not survive my new preceptor, then i was willing to accept that the problem was me and no one else.

well, guess what? i did very well under my new preceptor; he always had my back! for instance, if i ever made a mistake or needed help, which he anticipated rather then watch me fall on my face like my former preceptor, he made sure i had support. i also no longer felt like i was walking on egg shells when asking a question or presenting an opinion because he was not threatened by me or anyone else. he is very comfortable in his own nursing skin. in fact, when he introduced us to our patients he always made sure to tell them that i was their nurse and he was my back up. thus, our patients respected me as the rn. this change in experience helped me to grow a great deal. i no longer seconded guessed myself every second and thought my way of critically thinking equated to paranoia (my former preceptor would make a joke about my concerns rather then discuss them with me as a professional). i learned to adapt to my environment and i began to think, question, and implement orders like the more experienced nurses before i left orientation.

in short, you need to talk to the powers that be and let him/her know that you need a new preceptor fast! read some of the posts on this board... some new grads on orientation did not make a change soon enough and were released from employment. therefore, your orientation is not only to make you a safe nurse but it is to ensure that you remain employed. gl!

-new grad rn (4 months to go until i complete my first year)!