Just hired on Med/surge

Tweety, BSN, RN · May 3, 2006

Are you a new grad? If not then six weeks should be enough. If you are a new grad, you might need more than six weeks, if you're not ready, or your preceptor thinks you're not ready, then plead your case with management, they usually don't throw people to the wolves without being ready. Our new grads get 12 weeks. Some need the full 12 weeks and some don't.

Good luck.

aunttae · May 3, 2006

Yep, Brand new Grad! :eek:

meownsmile, BSN, RN · May 4, 2006

I agree, a new grad should have 9-12 weeks if at all possible. If not there better be a good supportive staff in place or there could be problems. But remember no new grad is going to be totally comfortable even when management thinks they should be ok. Hence the supportive co-workers and staff. Find a mentor and use them, they wont have a problem with you going to them after you are off orientation with questions etc. Pick someone you will be working with regularly so you can have fairly recent feedback with things if needed. You will be fine.

ljds · May 4, 2006

Ours is also six weeks of hard core orientation; then you are reevaluated and it can go longer if either you, your preceptor(s), or our clinical nurse specialist feels you need it.

liljsmom02 · May 5, 2006

Ours is also only six weeks. i have seen cases where people were not comfortable so they were given more time. One thing I felt was helpful was that we would have wekly meetings. My boss, my preceptor and myself would have a sit down and i would discuss my week, what i did new, what i feel comfortable with and what i need improvement on. then my preceptor would do the same. i found it less stressful to always know where i stood.

crb613, BSN, RN · May 5, 2006

I am a little worried too...6 weeks is what I was told. I have absolutely no experience expect school.

TallGirlAni · May 5, 2006

I am a new grad and just finished up my orientation to a surgical/ortho floor, which lasted about 9 weeks total. I had five weeks on the day shift, and 4 weeks on the PM shift, which is my permanent shift.

When my orientation was over, I am sure that if I did not feel "ready," I could've asked for an extension. The reason I felt that I was ready was that I knew that I knew enough to be safe, to know whom to go to when I had questions, to know what was something I knew how to do and why I was doing it vs. uncertainty, and that I knew that at least for the first year anyway, I would still be in a "learning phase."

It also happens that I was once a student on this particular floor, so I knew the computer charting, and bar code medication administration. That helped me parlay my time into learning my weak points.

A good tip is to know your strengths and weaknesses. What do you need to work on more? Hanging blood, IVs, passing meds, inserting foley catheters, calling docs, etc. Your weak areas are the areas that you should seek to practice at every opportunity. I found that letting the other RNs know that if they had blood to be hung, or foleys to be inserted to come and get me so that I could practice. This helped me immensely.

I also knew that orientation was for a limited time and that it was not a time to dawdle or "get through the day." I worked my butt off, taking advantage of each thing or two to be learned. This also promoted team work with my fellow RNs and made it easier to go to them when I had questions, especially later on after orientation.

Another thing that I did was to always keep my ears open, listening out for what other things were happening on the floor and how the RNs or LPNs resolved the problems. In other words, become a sponge, absorbing, absorbing.

Always remember to trust your intuiton or instinct. If something doesn't seem right, get another RN--or two--to run it by before acting on it. Hopefully, you have supportive nurses on your floor who will be more than happy to help you out in these times. That brings me back to establishing good relationships with your peers.

Keep a journal and write a little bit about your experiences so that you can reflect. Make a list of things you'd like to look up, learn about, etc, and look them up when you go home, especially procedures, pathophysiology, pharmacology, etc.

Other healthcare team members may also be able to teach you a thing or two. Ask questions of all---wound nurse, IV nurse, Respiratory therapists, Physical therapists, etc. You'd be surprised to see how much they can teach you to help you improve your practice.

Even though you may be paired with one preceptor, ask to work with others, especially toward the end of your orientation. Each nurse has a different nursing style, and you can decide what you want to incorporate into your own.

If you have a poor preceptor experience, get out of it as soon as possible. Let your manager know so that you can switch to another one. You don't want to complete your orientation having a horrible foundation.

Apply those critical thinking skills. You will see that nursing is a lot of trouble-shooting. You may even be cleaning up after the previous nurse because he or she did not catch something or made an error. Never assume that it was done and always check and double check everything. After I get report, I look up labs of the day, writing down out-of-range values, any Doctor notes, interdisciplinary team members notes, orders (just because they were taken off does not mean they were done), etc. Be on top of things so that you have the most complete information you have when you have to make your decisions. And, question, question, question. If you don't know the rationale for why something is ordered or being done, then you have no business doing it.

Overall, don't be afraid to speak up, be assertive (not aggressive), don't let others take advantage of you being new, and try to have a positive outlook. You will not learn it all in orientation. Heck, every day at work seems like I learned a hundred new things.

Don't sweat it now, as you are just beginning. Get into your routine, remembering not to be hard on yourself. No one is perfect Also, don't bite off more than you can chew, and learn how to tell others, politely, "no."

Nursing is more than learning the tasks and treatments that we do, it is about a myriad of responsibilities that ultimately must be done by us. It is a lot like learning a language, taking a fair amt of time before we are fluent.

Keep your manager apprised of your progress, letting him or her know of your needs. Your manager is not a mind-reader and will not know what you need if you do not make it known.

Some days are great, and some days are not so great, but the greatest satisfaction is getting the compliments from your patients about the care you give to them.

Above all, do not create bad habits. They stay with you and are hard to break. I mean handwashing, gloving, and following your hospital policies. This also sets examples for the nurses who are not following protocols.

Good Luck with your orientation and future success as a nurse. You will be the one who makes the most of it, and the ball is in your court!!! Play ball!!

aunttae · May 6, 2006

I am a little worried too...6 weeks is what I was told. I have absolutely no experience expect school.

EXACTLY!! I am glad I am not the only one.

aunttae · May 6, 2006

Thanks for the advice/pep talk. I only hope I come out as confident as you seem to have. I guess worrying about it is not going to get me anywhere.

aunttae · May 6, 2006

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