Maybe I should be a greeter at Wal-Mart

[ShiphrahPuah]

I am 3 weeks into my floor orientation, and I am just so discouraged. I did really well in school, but working is so different. At least I got constant affirmation in school because of regular tests. I have a few different preceptors, and I feel they are just frustrated with me. The hardest thing is keeping up with all the paperwork and forms, and unless someone points that stuff out to me, I won't just know that there is this form in the 3rd drawer of the file cabinet that needs to be filled out whenever X needs to be done. I am also struggling with adjusting to the patient load and constantly getting called on my portable phone to jump and do something else when I am in the middle of something. I guess I need to prioritize what is most urgent, but everything seems to be urgent. I really enjoy patient teaching, but it seems there is little time for that and many people just blow that off. In order to do everything I need to do, something has to give, and I hate that patient teaching is probably the first thing to go. I am not allowed to clock any overtime during orientation, and I am scheduled for two twelve hour days and two eight hour days during orientation while everyone on the floor works 12 hour shifts. That means I HAVE to leave after 8 1/2 hours two days a week, but sometimes I don't finish what needs to be done and I have to hand it over to my preceptor. Today I got an opportunity to learn to do something I haven't done yet and was supposed to know by the end of this week, but it came near the end of my shift and I didn't get all my patients assessed and needed my preceptor to finish. I felt she was very disappointed in me and/or that she thinks I am incompetent. I just cried and cried in the car. I have heard it takes a year to feel comfortable, but that seems like a lot of stress in the next year. School was plenty of stress (but at least I did really well at that), and now I feel like I am out of the frying pan and into the fire. Wal-Mart is looking better and better all the time.

[mcknis]

Ship:

Don't give up just yet. I am 5 weeks into my orinetation and I feel the same way as you do. I have had several poor experiences and feel that this is just not what they told us it would be in school/ Work is def different than the "training" we received in school, if you can call it training. I have had the hardest of times with prioritization and am getting better with delegation. I still have difficulty knowing when to call MDs about situations and beleive me you are not in this boat alone! Keep your head high and take time to relax! You will do great and just think, we are just starting this crazy journey together with many others!

[Guest296136]

Don't be discouraged, but you should sit down with your preceptor and talk about your concerns. You should not have more than one preceptor, it will just confuse you. If you feel you are not getting what you need, than talk to the floor manager or nurse educator that works with new grads. Don't be afraid to tell them you are feeling overwelmed, you only get orientation once and you need to make the best learning experience possible.