New Grad & Orientation - Do I Switch Floors??

[CleveRN2008]

Hi everyone,

First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to read this posting. I came home from my second week of RN orientation and I was completely beside myself...in tears, uptight and just basically unhappy. I am a new grad RN who graduated in August from an accelerated nursing program (this in itself was a poor decision). I accepted a full-time RN position in a teaching hospital that I did my clinical rotations in. I actually did a clinical on this unit...so I thought I knew what I was signing up for! This is a cardiothoracic stepdown floor and I really enjoyed the patient population.

In any event, I need your help and thoughts. Although this is only my second week, I feel like it is a mistake. I am struggling to get the material down and quite frankly, I just seem to feel "displaced" on the floor. Every day that I have been on the unit, they have put me with a DIFFERENT person. They still do not seem to know who my preceptor will be...this scares me. I am extremely organized and structured and I seem to be struggling with this style of orientation. I feel like I need to LEARN and I am afraid my learning is not going to occur on this unit based on what I am seeing. WHAT DO I DO? Since I have not really begun the main orientation...do I ask my NM about it and consider transferring to another unit? I worked way too hard in school to be placed on a floor in which I am miserable and most importantly, not fully trained.

For those of you out there, what do you suggest? I really hate feeling this miserable every day, so I think something is wrong. Almost as if I am "being warned" to make the change now before I get too far along.

Please help if you can. :)

Thank you for listening as it seems like no one else understands this.

[jschut, BSN, RN]

I would have a sit down with your NM and explain just what you have explained here to us.

Maybe the others feel since you did so well during your clinical orientation, you would automatically feel comfortable now....

Hang in there until you have a talk, THEN make your decision.

Blessings~

[lilla_fjaril]

Well, by switching floors you'd be going from what you thought was going to be okay to something completely unknown, wouldn't you?

Is it possible they're rotating you from nurse to nurse to accomodate your schedule or just to see if you click with a certain nurse? I have just started a SICU preceptorship and have clicked with 2 nurses, though 1 is officially assigned to me. Have you found someone you particularly like to work with? If so, ask him or her if they'd be willing to take on the responsibility of mentoring you and then go to the nuse manager and try to set it up.

As far as feeling like an outsider, I think what you are experiencing is like being the new kid at school. At first everyone will talk 'about you' to their friends but eventually they'll get to know you. Ask your preceptors lots of intelligent questions, do extra work outside of the hospital to show your dedication to the area, befriend the techs.

Don't be afraid to contact your nurse manager though if you don't feel like you're learning enough to be competent.

Oh, and I hear you on the accelerated woes. I am top of my class and still feel completely clueless. My limited clinical experience consisted almost entirely of giving bed baths and plodding through assessments which no one ever watched to see if I was doing correctly. Throughout 3 semesters I did no procedures and gave 1 oral med and 1 unit of insulin. I would never recommend an accelerated program.

[jjjoy, LPN]

Oh, and I hear you on the accelerated woes. I am top of my class and still feel completely clueless. My limited clinical experience consisted almost entirely of giving bed baths and plodding through assessments which no one ever watched to see if I was doing correctly. Throughout 3 semesters I did no procedures and gave 1 oral med and 1 unit of insulin. I would never recommend an accelerated program.

Just FYI, some traditional programs also have skimpy clinical experiences. I have my own reservations about accelerated programs but several of the complaints I've heard from accelerated program students would also apply in traditional programs. There definitely are some great nursing programs out there, but it seems that many, regardless of whether they are accelerated or traditional, share many of the same issues such as limited hands on experiences during clinicals, rushed unhelpful lectures, overemphasis on prepping for the NCLEX, etc.

[PediRN3919]

i went through that exact same thing my mistake was i actually switched give it 6 months to a year if you still feel the same then switch. i have been on my floor one year and i sometimes still feel out of place

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Talk over your concerns with the manager. You need a consistent preceptor that you click with. This isn't fair to you.

Much of what you're saying are typical feelings of the new grad nurse, no matter what program they graduate from. We all feel like dorks, square pegs in round holes, incompetent and question the gall that we ever had the ego to believe we would ever become nurses. But time goes by and we make it. So hang in there.

You also have to be willing to bend a little. It is very tough to make it on the floor being organized and structured...sometimes you just have to go with the flow, or even jump into the hurricane and go where the wind takes you.

Good luck to you!

[rickysyfee]

where did you go? I am in cleveland and am an lpn wishing to complete an rn program and I am just curious