Med/surg orientation

[chvysangel]

Hello I am a nurse educator on a med/surg, oncology floor. I started this job about 6 months ago. I've worked on this floor for 5 years, started at a nurse tech and now I've been a nurse for 3. I am having a difficult time relaying the new information to the new grads. I guess I need a new teaching method. And most ofthe new grads come from the same nursing school I did, but it appears that either they are not retaining the information they need to know and didn't get it at all. So bascially, I want to know if there are any other educators having this issue and how is your orienation to your unit set up?? Thanks for all the help yall!!!

[GermPhobe]

Well, I'm not a NE, but I am a new nurse. I'm also over 40 years old, with a large and varied resume behind me. Here's what I can tell you. I have NEVER felt so ill-prepared for a job as I did when I graduated with my BSN and finished my 3-month orientation on a cardiovascular surgical step-down unit.

My orientation was USELESS. All I did was follow another nurse around. There was no rhyme or reason, and no organization to the orientation process. In my case, I had done my leadership/management in critical care. So I had NO experience caring for multiple patients. I never even SAW an admission or a discharge. That was a huge part of the learning curve for me.

Believe it or not, I also graduated from nursing school without ever being taught how to look at a chart, where orders came from, what the unit secretary's function was, or what the charge nurse function was. AND none of this was covered in orientation, either.

My orientation focused on things like "this is where we keep the meds." As I like to say, I got "all trees and no forest." What I really needed was the BIG PICTURE. There was so much to learn, and no EMPHASIS on anything. Somebody needed to put things in persective, and to have some checks in place to make sure I was aware of all the IMPORTANT things.

A friend of mine started at a different hospital. She spent the first entire day with the charge nurse; the second entire day with the secretary. I think that experience would have been invaluable. When you work TOGETHER with other people, it's important to understand THEIR jobs, and how YOUR job influences, and is influenced by others.

Another thing that would have been invaluable would be to follow a patient from admission to (in my case) surgery, and then up to the floor. I think the RN should understand the PROCESSES involved in patient care. And she should be able to understand things from the patient's perspective.

When I was done with orientation I "didn't even know what I didn't know." I really wish the NE had known for me!!