My preceptor is everything they taught us NOT to be...

Loracs72 · Dec 15, 2015

Also as the new nurse I would not say anything to the Preceptor, but bring it to the attention of the Manager. It could cause friction between the Preceptor and the new nurse, but it's worth bringing it up. If nothing is resolved, I would practice nursing as I was taught after I am finished with orientation.

sarose611 · Dec 15, 2015

I am appalled at the responses you are receiving, though not terribly surprised. It is often said that nurses eat their young, and you are a perfect example. As a new grad from a good program, you have the theory to be a good nurse. Your preceptors job is to.assist you in putting that theory into actual real life practice. As an RN, you.may not be as directly involved in some of your patients' less critical cate. Delegate some of that to the proper people, such as aides, the family or the patient themselves. You focus on what has to be done by an RN. Set priorities. Charting in some cases is more important than assisting with morning care,for instance. Check orders for things like sterile vs clean dressing changes. And in the case you described, the treatment has long since been proven ineffectiv, so perhaps one could speak to the provider about better, current treatments being used. Your preceptor sounds jealous and scared. You are better prepared than she, and she may see you as a threat to her job. No one should be precepting with only 1 year experience. She is still learning as well. Since you wil likely always work in a group setting, polish your collegial behaviour. How you present yourself and your views is as important as what you present. Have a little charity for you fellow nurses, and try to gently raise their levels of care, rather than decreasing your own. GOOD LUCK!

Heartnurse24 · Dec 15, 2015

I am appalled at the responses you are receiving, though not terribly surprised. It is often said that nurses eat their young, and you are a perfect example. As a new grad from a good program, you have the theory to be a good nurse. Your preceptors job is to.assist you in putting that theory into actual real life practice. As an RN, you.may not be as directly involved in some of your patients' less critical cate. Delegate some of that to the proper people, such as aides, the family or the patient themselves. You focus on what has to be done by an RN. Set priorities. Charting in some cases is more important than assisting with morning care,for instance. Check orders for things like sterile vs clean dressing changes. And in the case you described, the treatment has long since been proven ineffectiv, so perhaps one could speak to the provider about better, current treatments being used. Your preceptor sounds jealous and scared. You are better prepared than she, and she may see you as a threat to her job. No one should be precepting with only 1 year experience. She is still learning as well. Since you wil likely always work in a group setting, polish your collegial behaviour. How you present yourself and your views is as important as what you present. Have a little charity for you fellow nurses, and try to gently raise their levels of care, rather than decreasing your own. GOOD LUCK!

I agree with this also. What I find in my own practice is that some veteran nurses automatically go on the defense whenever a new grad nurse joins the ranks. They label them as know-it-alls or that they want to throw people under the bus, when in essence they just want to learn. They are taught so much theory that they just haven't acquired the skills yet to put it into practice. So what may appear as them being nitpicky is really just them trying to transition. They are nervous and overwhelmed and i'm sure having a preceptor being all offended and attitudy doesn't help. My opinion is, if you are a veteran nurse and are doing things the *right* way, and are practicing safe then you shouldn't have a problem mentoring new grad nurses. IF a new grad nurse is questioning your skills or bad habits, then maybe you need to take a step back and reevaluate how you are doing things. It's not always the new grad nurse's being difficult, they most likely want to make sure they are going to do things correctly.

Sweecy · Dec 15, 2015

No need for sterile dsg on chronic wound, ok to scan all meds,check recent creatinine and fluid intake on oliguric pt before calling provider,pts will not be checking their own bp prior to meds at home,more important to check 1 hr after esp if new med, ok to remind preceptor of hippa rules in a nice way like what if that was your family member etc, transitioning to the real work is hard, all nurses practice differently to some degree.its a balance between taking reasonable shortcuts so you can get done what needs to be done and following best practice based on evidence.

Sometimes pre scanning can be dangerous. What if you forgot to go back and hang it. That happens all the time. I walk in a pt room and previous nurse left full bag hanging in room and didn't tell me anything, I don't know what to think. I scan, hang mine and discard theirs because I don't want to throw people under the bus. It's ok for med to be late oh please. Leave it red so u can remember to do it just make a note on why it was late to cover ur a$$.

Pt don't check their bp at home, but a hospital is not home. It's acute for a reason, anything can happen. What if the nurse before u gave bp med later and 'pre scanned' now pt bp is on the low side. We wonder sometimes why pt crash early on during the shift? Bad judgment from previous shift mixing with bad judgment from current shift. Sometimes a few minutes extra and second guessing our act can save a life. Sometimes, I'm afraid when a family member is in the hospital. I learn to not trust hospital care because too many people worry so much about leaving on time, cutting corners. If management tells me to leave early I ask them if I can leave my charting undone right in their face. I let them know my care will be done and I will only document what was done. Sorry about the overtime that you want to keep as your bonus is what I really want to say.

Sweecy · Dec 15, 2015

I agree with this also. What I find in my own practice is that some veteran nurses automatically go on the defense whenever a new grad nurse joins the ranks. They label them as know-it-alls or that they want to throw people under the bus, when in essence they just want to learn. They are taught so much theory that they just haven't acquired the skills yet to put it into practice. So what may appear as them being nitpicky is really just them trying to transition. They are nervous and overwhelmed and i'm sure having a preceptor being all offended and attitudy doesn't help. My opinion is, if you are a veteran nurse and are doing things the *right* way, and are practicing safe then you shouldn't have a problem mentoring new grad nurses. IF a new grad nurse is questioning your skills or bad habits, then maybe you need to take a step back and reevaluate how you are doing things. It's not always the new grad nurse's being difficult, they most likely want to make sure they are going to do things correctly.

Thank you for that answer. I was that new grad. Always anxious and asking questions I already knew the answer just to make sure I was right and ready. Not because I know it all. I sure was labelled a know it all. My preceptor would have done things differently in different days or I would have observed someone else do it differently. I've always wanted to know why and wouldn't get rationales. I would be met with hostility and retaliation. Leaving that job was the best decision I made in my life.

Heartnurse24 · Dec 15, 2015

I was that new grad also. I was met with so much attitude, not from everyone, but a select few. I wasn't pompous or a know it all but just wanted to soak everything in to learn. I don't know why some nurses feel threatened. We really do eat our young and then we wonder why there is such a nursing shortage in this country. We need new nurses, as there are many older ones that are at retiring age. New nurses get so discouraged not because they don't want to help and care for patients but because of the atmosphere they get hired into. We really need to do better.

bethchpn · Dec 15, 2015

Been a nurse for 40 years and my only advice is to learn quickly that the only thing we can change is ourselves. The sooner you learn it the better. You in general will always want, nurses,patients, loved ones etc to change but it is fruitless. Concentrate only on what you can do to change.

Txldy · Dec 15, 2015

Nursing school is VERY different from the real world. That said, nursing school gives you the ideal. You may be dealing with a preceptor who became bitter and angry over a staffing situation over which she had no control. You need a HECKOVA lot more nursing experience to be a mentor to a new graduate. I have been a mentor for a new RN grad. You have to care about your patients, and you MUST, legally, respect their privacy. You must wear clean gloves to remove a dressing to protect the patient AND yourself. You know to do these things. Perhaps you can ask for a different nurse on your floor, or even another floor, who will give you a different experience.

Kellorn, ASN, RN · Dec 15, 2015

I don't even know where to start. I had been an RN for 10 years in long term care before deciding I needed a change. At my interview for a med/Surg position at the hospital, I was honest with the managers that I did have good thinking skills, but lacked clinical experience as there were a lot of things I never did in long term care. As far as charting went, I knew I had that skill, but I told them if the hired me, I would need to be treated as if I was a new nurse, with a preceptor and an organized orientation period. Lucky for me, I was hired and basically treated as a new grad, because that was my experience level on med/Surg. I learned from wonderful nurses who were encouraging, and I was never disrespectful, but grateful even though most of these nurses were 15 years younger than me. Because I was respectful and willing to learn from all different types of nurses, when I was on my own I never ever had an issue of somebody helping me if I needed help, or me helping someone else. Fast forward one year later...manager wants me to start precepting new nurses and be charge nurse. I fought this for months, I was not nearly comfortable trying to teach a new grad how to be a nurse when I was trying to be a proficient nurse myself. I had a lot of anxiety at the time, worrying myself to death about making sure I did a good job. Finally manager said I had to precept and couldn't refuse. I was not happy about this, because I wasn't confident in myself. I got 3 great grads to whom I explained my methods and rationale, however I expected them to develop their own methods and critical thinking. Nobody treated me like a bad nurse, because I told them from the start that we are all RN's with the same credentials and we were going to be a team and figure things out together if I didn't have the answer. It was part of the learning process for all of us. I was always tools I did a good job, and was never critical of another, either as as preceptee or preceptor.

EaglesWings21, ASN, RN · Dec 15, 2015

Please believe that this is not about nurses eating their young. Yes the OP's preceptor sounds like she is too inexperienced to be precepting. But this isn't the NCLEX world. Instead of making waves and demanding others to do their job a certain way set an example by doing it right yourself. You are going to see bad practice everywhere in nursing but trying to be super nurse is more likely going to get yourself in trouble rather than help the situation. I would never ever think about nit-picking like this. If it is this bad you should have asked for a preceptor with more experience instead of complianing about everything your preceptor did. And BTW most dressing changes are not sterile on adult units.

Renewed RN · Dec 16, 2015

Good luck. No right answer here

Txldy · Dec 16, 2015

So.. what I hear you saying is... while one is orientation... one has no say in the delivery of care?

One thing that I am seeing is that the Dr's order and your policy and procedure manual are your best friend. Perhaps your "preceptor" knows that. You can quietly know that you would do it differently. That you would use gloves during the removal and clean gloves for the placement. You could quietly and pleasantly hand your preceptor clean gloves from your clean, gloved hands. I do not know that you will be getting fired. Knowing the policy and procedure set forth by your hospital (most hospitals. They are pretty standardized within the scope of nursing practice guidelines) and following them will keep you in good practice and out of court. Just because a patient is nonverbal doesn't mean he doesn't know what's going on.

Any lawbreakers can sue your butt off for ignoring the privacy act and you will be be dragged in to court if the hospital doesn't settle.

Keep your head down and get through it. Then do it right when orientation is done. Work on your speed as your practice gets better. Be a conscientious an kind but all business team leader.