Hey everyone-

Background.........originally my preceptorship/orientation was set to be 6 weeks. Last Thursday, I found out that it was going to be cut to 3 instead.

My preceptor found out that it wasn't something that was being mandated by anything from HR but decided by my supervisor instead.

Well, I spoke to my supervisor on Monday about the change and why. I knew my "real" preceptor would be going on medical leave for her gb to be removed sometime soon right but really thought they would put me with someone else considering the fact that I am a new RN still.................geesh.......just 3 weeks as of tomorrow since I got my license. She told me the only other one that she could put me with was the nurse that I first had on my very first day and when she told me that I thought I would rather be on my own. She assured me that I would only have 5 patients the remainder of the 3 weeks and then gradually build up to full load which is 6. She told me that I had been doing great so far and that was directly reported by my preceptor to her, so that makes me feel good, and she said of course to use the other "senior" nurses to bounce stuff off of if I needed to or felt overwhelmed or felt that I was drowning or if I felt that I was not going to be able to practice safely..............That kind of reassured me and I must say, the other nurses on the floor have been very supportive and have all checked to make sure that I knew they were there for me for any questions that I might have which has been nice to know.

So, I guess that I will stay and see if she holds true to her word. Will have several extra copies of my form for safe harbor with me at all times just in case. I really don't want to change jobs after this short amount of time. Don't know what that would say about me in the next interview at a different hospital ya know? Don't want to endanger a pts life or loose my license either though. But, my gut instinct is to stick it out and see how I do. I do learn best from actually doing it rather than watching it be done and my preceptor has the confidence in me that I am lacking (as all new nurses do) so that really helps.

I took on 5 pts yesterday and though I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off :rotfl: I survived it. By the end of NS we had to take 5 so I have done it a couple of times b/f now but it will be different next week b/c it will just be me. We also have students at various times, which the past 2 days they were there and I got to speak with one of my freshman instructors and she told me that she thought I was ready for being on my own too with guidance when needed so that further increased my confidence (tiny bit) that I am ready to "fly". Still a little nervous about it though but I think that's good b/c it will really make me think b/f doing anything even more than now!!

Anyway, wanted to throw this out here and get some feedback from the rest of ya'll. Sorry the post got a little long. Hope to hear from some of ya'll w/ suggestions/ideas/any thoughts that ya'll have.

Thanks for reading this post.

GrinnurseRN

Although you are very brave to take on the patients on your own in three weeks, you only have one license which you worked very hard to earn. You are entitled to a decent orientation. Personally, I would speak to your supervisor about simply being a floater working on skills such as IV sticks, foleys, dressing changes, etc until your preceptor is available to begin where you left off...that way you would get some necessary training without having to forgoe a decent orientation. Six weeks orientation is not enough but do-able. My supervisor told me I would receive 6 weeks orientation and I told her that wouldn't do--I insisted on 8 weeks and could have pushed for more. I had 8 patients when the 8 weeks orientation was completed. If I weren't a very organized person I would have lost my mind!!! Good luck in whatever path you choose ...but protect your license!!!

A little off topic but I thought id throw this out there. In my program we will technically "graduate" in May 2006, we walk and get an empty diploma. After graduation we have to return to do our preceptorship which we have to finish before we get our diploma, they mail it to us upon completion....soo i guess my question is that it sounds like nurses here are saying they grad. then get hired and thats when they do their preceptroship? Do you do an orientation and a preceptorship? Our profs say to do our precept. in the hospital in which we want to work in bc we will most likely get hired there? So if I do that then I do my preceptorship then 6 weeks of orientation, or is the preceptorship considered the orientation? lol sorry...

A little off topic but I thought id throw this out there. In my program we will technically "graduate" in May 2006, we walk and get an empty diploma. After graduation we have to return to do our preceptorship which we have to finish before we get our diploma, they mail it to us upon completion....soo i guess my question is that it sounds like nurses here are saying they grad. then get hired and thats when they do their preceptroship? Do you do an orientation and a preceptorship? Our profs say to do our precept. in the hospital in which we want to work in bc we will most likely get hired there? So if I do that then I do my preceptorship then 6 weeks of orientation, or is the preceptorship considered the orientation? lol sorry...

At our college when you graduate you're done...we do not have a preceptor at all other than the clinical instructors who are with us throughout all our clinicals prior to graduation. Upon graduation we are pinned and set loose...After completion of boards and upon becoming hired to a position we have a preceptor (who is assigned by your supervisor at the facility) who basically orients you and is there by your side until they cut you loose. The preceptor is responsible for teaching you "the ropes" of the facility and assisting you in getting started as a new nurse. Hope this answered your question.

At our college when you graduate you're done...we do not have a preceptor at all other than the clinical instructors who are with us throughout all our clinicals prior to graduation. Upon graduation we are pinned and set loose...After completion of boards and upon becoming hired to a position we have a preceptor (who is assigned by your supervisor at the facility) who basically orients you and is there by your side until they cut you loose. The preceptor is responsible for teaching you "the ropes" of the facility and assisting you in getting started as a new nurse. Hope this answered your question.

Thanks for your reply, it did hellp! we have clincials too, we cover all the usual areas before our "graduation". Then we return for a 6 week preceptorship and we have 3 specialty areas we can choose from: L&D (which i know is not for me), psych, or peds...we have our usual rotation in those areas but they offer those as a preceptroships for i guess further study...we dont have to take jobs in those areas if we dont want too but our teachers say choose wisely bc they will prob offer us a job there...so im thinking if I choose peds (if i like it in our first round) and do the 6 week preceptorship I wont need another orientaion if I choose to work there? or maybe i will, if I don't do peds ill do psych for the preceptorship but if i dont want either of those after receiving my diploma im thinking med surg or ICU or ER....our preceptorship is part of our program and our getting our diplomas hinges on us completing it. Well thats still 10 months away so we'll see.

A little off topic but I thought id throw this out there. In my program we will technically "graduate" in May 2006, we walk and get an empty diploma. After graduation we have to return to do our preceptorship which we have to finish before we get our diploma, they mail it to us upon completion....soo i guess my question is that it sounds like nurses here are saying they grad. then get hired and thats when they do their preceptroship? Do you do an orientation and a preceptorship? Our profs say to do our precept. in the hospital in which we want to work in bc we will most likely get hired there? So if I do that then I do my preceptorship then 6 weeks of orientation, or is the preceptorship considered the orientation? lol sorry...

From what I understand and have experienced myself...

Preceptorship is something that happens in nursing school. It's like an unpaid internship, ranging anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, in an area of your interest. It's usually the last class you ever take in school, and while it's usually done before the graduation ceremony, sometimes it's afterwards like the poster above said.

Orientation takes place after your get hired into your first job as a new grad. Actually, any time you switch jobs you need an orientation because every unit, even within the same hospital, is going to have their own way of doing things. But new grad orientation should be at least a month long, while an expirience nurse may only need a few days to get the lay of the land. You get paid for orientation, since you are now a hospital employee and not a student.

Edited to add...

It's confusing because with both the preceptorship and orientation, you'll be assigned a "preceptor" who trains you, so they both sound like preceptorships. And if you get hired onto a unit where you did a student preceptorship, you still have to go through a hospital and unit orientation. True, the unit orientation might be cut a little short due to your familiarity and experience, but they still have to cover themselves legally to show that you were trained. The school has documentation of your preceptorship, not the unit, so if something were to happen, they can't fall back on "Oh she was trained here as a student that's why she didn't go through orientation..."

From what I understand and have experienced myself...

Preceptorship is something that happens in nursing school. It's like an unpaid internship, ranging anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, in an area of your interest. It's usually the last class you ever take in school, and while it's usually done before the graduation ceremony, sometimes it's afterwards like the poster above said.

Orientation takes place after your get hired into your first job as a new grad. Actually, any time you switch jobs you need an orientation because every unit, even within the same hospital, is going to have their own way of doing things. But new grad orientation should be at least a month long, while an expirience nurse may only need a few days to get the lay of the land. You get paid for orientation, since you are now a hospital employee and not a student.

Edited to add...

It's confusing because with both the preceptorship and orientation, you'll be assigned a "preceptor" who trains you, so they both sound like preceptorships. And if you get hired onto a unit where you did a student preceptorship, you still have to go through a hospital and unit orientation. True, the unit orientation might be cut a little short due to your familiarity and experience, but they still have to cover themselves legally to show that you were trained. The school has documentation of your preceptorship, not the unit, so if something were to happen, they can't fall back on "Oh she was trained here as a student that's why she didn't go through orientation..."

oooooohhh...that makes sense...i didnt realize when you were going through orientation you also had a preceptor...i see i see.:)

Don't feel too bad....my orientation in the ICU will only be 3 weeks long! True, I've been working there since December 2003 as a Nurse Apprentice and since January of 2005, I've been taking 2 patients (full load in the ICU). But it still scares me that after 3 weeks with my preceptorship, I will be "thrown to the wolves".

Melanie = )