New Nurse/ Frustrated

[Kim, HHRN]

I have a couple of questions and need to vent, too. This will be my third week of orientation. I am taking care of 3 patients. My plan is to take care of 4 patients on my second month and 5 patients on my third month. Does that sound feasible and customary?

I wish that there was some classroom time instead of on the job training. It sure would have been nice to learn how to use an IV pump instead of learning how to do it under so many other things going on and trying to figure it all out on my own. No wonder new nurses are so stressed. If we learned how to work the machines prior to actually working on the floor, it could alleviate some fears and frustration.

I've worked customer service for quite a while prior to becoming a nurse and it seems they prepare workers better than an employer in a health care setting. I love my employer, don't get me wrong, but health care in general seems to take training lightly. These are human lives we are dealing with here. To assume that we learned our training in school is really kind of dangerous. And although we have preceptors, many of the new nurses are at their mercy. Just because they are a preceptor does not mean that a new nurse will receive the training that one needs. Some are just condesending and some just don't care. I think there really does need to be some kind of training reform to ease the transition for new nurses to feel safe and competent in providing care to patients. New nurses in general have the theory but still lack the hands on experience.

Also, I'd like to mention that I was so excited to be administering meds on my own (and scared at the same time.) When I offered the meds to my patients, they were difficult to deal with. One patient was notorious for being uncooperative and the other one was always having a bowel movement everytime I entered the room. I finally got him to take his meds while he was on the bedpan. So, I ended up passing most of my meds late due to these circumstances. My question is: Is it always this difficult when administering meds or just bad luck of the draw? It didn't seem so complicated in school as it is now.

Sorry this is so long, thanks for reading and would love some responses. Thanks.

[LiliaBSN]

Is there a nurse educator at your facility? During our orientation, we had three days with the nurse educator who showed us everything from how the IV pumps and PCA's worked to the different cath kits we had, how their IV kits looked, and everything else between. If you can find a nurse educator, ask them, because it's their job to make sure the nurses in their facility know this stuff.

[Kim, HHRN]

I wish our facility operated like yours. Actually today we had a staff meeting and we went over this very thing. Apparently everyone just learns from a preceptor and once you have shown competency, it is signed off.