I am a new grad NP. I am currently working in a pediatric private practice . The doctor wants me to work alone in the office after 60 hours of "training". My training was a 8 hour shadowing, and starting to see patients myself. The doctor would come over and double check after I am done seeing the patients. He would tell me to go to the other room to see another patient while he double checking. During this week, the doctor gave me feedback, saying that I am too slow and I should be able to see patients on my own by now.
Because the doctor has two offices, he wants to put me in one office by myself with a MA, so that he can be in the other office. I told him that I don't feel comfortable yet. He was upset and telling me I am wasting his time. He said he has already gave me a lot of training. He wants me to give him a timeframe to let him know when will I be comfortable to work solo. I feel that I am rushed to finish training and I don't feel safe at all. I told him my feeling and he said I will not be able to be a provider since he thinks that I don't have confidence.
Also, the MA in the office only does measurement, such as weight and head circumference. She also prepares vaccines. I need to do all the blood drawn which I think it made me slow down on seeing patients. Since I need to hold down the fussy kid in order to take blood.
I am thinking about quitting, but not sure if this is a good decision. Any advice please? Thank you. (English is my second language, sorry for any grammatical mistakes)
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
chare said:
I'm curious. What type of residency, and how long of an orientation and transition period do you think would be appropriate?
Post-graduate training programs for NP's are still relatively new. Most programs are actually not called residencies...they use the term fellowship more often. They are typically 12 months. Is this enough? there isn't a lot of data on this but the truth is NP's need a long period of orientation in role transition compared to physicians. I work in a strictly in-patient practice as an NP in a role very similar to a Hospitalist and in fact, we work alongside Hospitalists in a Cardiology practice.
Because new Hospitalists finish a 3-year Internal Medicine residency, they are hired and hit the ground running on day one. We do offer help to them in terms of logistics and workflow matters but as far as medical management, they can function right off the bat with a full patient load. New NP hires, even those with experience, get a 6 week orientation and longer if a new grad. Physicians who hire NP's should know this as and not have the same expectations for NP's as a new hire physicians.
I'm a new grad NP. I am in primary care now, my orientation was 1.5 days of shadowing the doctor at the very busy practice seeing 45 patients in 8 hours. It was hard to grasp anything or learn as it was very face paced and wasn't enough time in my opinion. I was completely on my own after day 2 and had 7 patients. There was another doctor in the practice with me to ask questions if I had but she was often times super busy and in patients rooms and was not there for me to ask the questions. I emailed the practice manager after day 1 asking if I can have additional guidance, support or training since I had questions but found it difficult to find anyone to ask and assist me. The practice manager told me that she isn't here to teach me medicine and I shouldn't need additional training, that I should have learned medicine in school and if she needs to "teach me medicine" she will have to renegotiate my salary. I told her I just wanted some extra guidance being a new grad NP and that I if I had questions I just wanted someone else to reach out to.
it's now my 4th day seeing patients on my own and the start of week 2 and I'm still so nervous and have no idea if I'm doing my job right or wrong as no one is offering me any input. I saw 14 patients today and was extremely fast paced and often double booked. I am not sure if this is normal in all new positions or if it's just the practice I'm at but I'm seriously debating on quitting
This sounds positively ridiculous. They aren't giving you many options besides looking elsewhere if there is no real ramp-up period/orientation, no one who can actually mentor you due to their own workloads, and a bully/smart*ss rude office manager? That just doesn't sound good. I know people survive these situations and sometimes report success despite getting thrown into the deep end but that isn't fair to you and especially isn't fair to patients. I can only speak for myself but I would *not* try to do this job as a new grad under these circumstances.
Continue to report back if you want. You can create your own thread about this if you want and let us know how it's going or what you decide to do (this thread is an old discussion).
Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP
8 Articles; 4,471 Posts
Post-graduate training programs for NP's are still relatively new. Most programs are actually not called residencies...they use the term fellowship more often. They are typically 12 months. Is this enough? there isn't a lot of data on this but the truth is NP's need a long period of orientation in role transition compared to physicians. I work in a strictly in-patient practice as an NP in a role very similar to a Hospitalist and in fact, we work alongside Hospitalists in a Cardiology practice.
Because new Hospitalists finish a 3-year Internal Medicine residency, they are hired and hit the ground running on day one. We do offer help to them in terms of logistics and workflow matters but as far as medical management, they can function right off the bat with a full patient load. New NP hires, even those with experience, get a 6 week orientation and longer if a new grad. Physicians who hire NP's should know this as and not have the same expectations for NP's as a new hire physicians.