Ok, so I'm in my first year of nursing. This is a second carreer for me and I really don't know anything about how various branches of the health care field organize their orientation. Mine seems to be a bit screwed up. I have to say that I didn't start out "solid footing". I was hired in November and after the third day at work, at a different location, I fell and broke my ankle in three places. So, after surgery and a lengthy recovery, I was cleared to go back to work (they held my job for me :) ) and returned in March. I work Part-time in a very rural hospital. It's an 18 bed facility so we see it all.
I haven't gotten much feedback during my orientation. we are supposed to do written evaluation on ourselves and our preceptors every week, and our preceptor is supposed to be doing a written evaluation of our progress every week. Well, my preceptor hadn't been doing hers. So, after 6 weeks, I finally get a stack of evaluations and they would have been really helpful if I had had them sooner.
My last day of orientation was supposed to be last Thursday. In fact, it was that day that my preceptor got a stack of papers that told her what we should be doing on week 1, week 2, week 3,....... That was also the day that I got a large three ring binder with a lot of orientation materials that I happen to know that other nurses orienting recieved the first day of their training. So what am I to think when I get a call today saying that they would like to have me on orientation for two more weeks?
I feel like I have this huge L plastered in the middle of my forehead. Other nurses are off orientation already but I know that they have also had previous LPN experience and have worked for the facility for a number of years too. It still makes me feel like a loser.
I love my job, I just want to do it on my own and not have someone watching me all the time. There are times when it all makes me mad and times when I feel like there isn't anything I can do, and times when I know that I've found the right place because the working atmosphere itself is so great and that is why I took the job in the first place.
Thanks for letting me ramble on and spill my guts. Hopefully I'll be a little more up tomorrow.
There are times when it all makes me mad and times when I feel like there isn't anything I can do, and times when I know that I've found the right place because the working atmosphere itself is so great and that is why I took the job in the first place.