how much orientation did you receive as a new grad?

noyesno, MSN, APRN, NP · Oct 9, 2011

~16 weeks

Peeker19 · Oct 9, 2011

3 days in the SNF setting

Then we I moved to a hospital 10 months later I got 6 weeks. But I signed on as float pool so it was different floor each night and a different person they "dumped" me with each night. SO unfair and horrible, I thought I had made the wrong decision but now I LOVE IT! So glad I stuck it out.

coneartist · Oct 9, 2011

I got 4 weeks, but this was for a level 2 unit. I am meant to take 2-3 patients and often found myself with 7 and NO NURSING ASSISTANT. It's stroke as well so they're all incontinent, neuro obs, going to CT, NG meds, going into AF and tracheostomy!!!!!

My preceptor was fantastic but she left recently saying she's had enough.

My second shift working on my own, there was only a charge nurse and me - the rest agency.... the sister said she'd work with me in the bay of 7, she did nothing, didn't even give a single med to her patients or any obs, I had to do everything. I'm there juggling heparin infusion, GTN infusion, sliding scales, multiple IVs and no help.

gunrock · Oct 9, 2011

6mo of protected preceptorship time...This is in an ICU, but new nurses on floors get 3months.

Trigirl.m · Oct 9, 2011

2 weeks of classroom, 2 weeks of day shift, 2 weeks of nightshift.

MamuhmiaRN · Oct 9, 2011

About 2 1/2 weeks of classes on policies and procedures, and then 6 weeks floating in 3 different units, and then 4 weeks on my home base floor. I really feel like they try to set us up for success in my hospital. Reading some of the other stories on this board really makes me appreciate where I work.

Not_A_Hat_Person, RN · Oct 9, 2011

I worked as a med and charge nurse at an a ALF. I got about 2 weeks of training on the med cart, and another week or 2 of charge training.

My next job was the Nursing Home from Hell, where I had 17 patients and was on my own after 2-1/2 days.

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Oct 9, 2011

I keep reading these posts about new grads being dumped on a floor with little to no orientation.
How much did you get?
Mine was a week with another nurse, after that I was on my own with 5 med/surg pt's with no CNA on the floor. It was tough and totally unfair, but I thankfully survived.

I had two weeks of classroom training and 7 weeks of preceptor orientation (26 shifts day and night). Had a midpoint and endpoint review and felt very comfortable starting on my own at completion of orientation. Still have a couple "training" days on procedures and protocols left and a few other "New Grad Residency" days.

brokenroads27 · Oct 10, 2011

i get as much time as i need. the minimum where i work is 8 weeks with a preceptor who is there to help you with everything. they say most people take 8-12 weeks but there are nurses who say they took way more than that if they needed to

DragonPurr · Oct 10, 2011

16 weeks broken up between Ortho and my assigned floor which was Acute Rehab. I felt it was a good orientation for a rural hospital in Mo.

rubylipstick1 · Oct 12, 2011

As a brand new grad, I received roughly a week of classroom orientation which was of little benefit to me. It included very vague information about the hospital as a whole for the most part (nothing specific to my clinical area). On the floor, I received six weeks of orientation with a preceptor.

Calabria, BSN, RN · Oct 16, 2011

12 weeks for an OB unit. We spent more time in the classroom than on the unit in the beginning, but then slowly transitioned to spending more time on the unit by the end. I worked with 2 preceptors: one on days, one on nights.