I am a new grad on a busy M/S floor on day 16 of my floor orientation. I have two more weeks under a preceptor, though I have been caring for my patients independently for the past several shifts with supervision over my charting. I work in a hospital that has no formal residency or training program, you essentially get paired with a preceptor and are expected to take on 4-5 patients independently by the end of 6 weeks on the floor if not sooner. People are very helpful, but of course it is very scary as a new nurse on this type of floor especially, as every patient is a different set of problems never encountered before as an inexperienced nurse. I worked last night, and everything seemed to go just great with my patients overall. I did my hourly rounding and made frequent checks. I got called in this afternoon to meet with my manager. I was terrified I had made a medical error...but instead, I received a verbal warning based on a complaint regarding my interpersonal interaction with a parent and the care of their child last night. I am not going to go into specifics, but there was no indication through the night of dissatisfaction, and the patient was sleeping most of the time except during an episode of acute pain, which I attended to promptly. However, the parent's perception of my service was very negative (no med errors or unsafe practices...essentially a negative interpersonal impression). Of course, with all the emphasis on the patient experience and ratings, they take this complaint very seriously. My preceptor was never notified of any issues through the night. Now I have a verbal warning that I have to sign, and am feeling like a failure. How do I regroup? Maybe this sounds silly to everyone else, but I feel I have a target on my back, though my clinical skills are not in question and up until now, I have gotten really good feedback. The thing is, I get along with almost everyone really well, and my patients...up until this one, have always loved me. The patient's parent complained loudly, and took it up the administrative chain. Now I have to sign a verbal warning because this complaint will take our patient satisfaction ratings down significantly. Of course I can reflect back and understand misperceptions and miscommunications and will learn from it. I just feel like this will have a very negative impact on my success and am doubting myself and my career. I guess I am looking for support. Being disciplined is not something I am used to. I am a third career new nurse and now am questioning everything.
