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Discussion

Orientation too short?

Hey, nurses! I have been a member FOREVER, and have posted as a student quite a few times, but am so excited and proud to post on AN for the first time as a nurse!! Thank you all so much for the reality checks, tough love and great advice in the past. Could use a bit of it now. (Grn Tea, Esme, I promise I have looked this up and got some great insight, but hoping for some newer, more recent perspectives. Please feel free to link to threads I may have missed. Thanks!) I have been hired on a neuro trauma unit at a big deal inner city teaching hospital. 90% of the training opportunities, culture, shared governance, etc seem great. However - I am a brandy new green as can be nurse. And the orientation is only 6 weeks, with the first two in the classroom. This seems nuts to me. I'm sure they know what they are doing, but only 4-5 weeks on the floor scares the crap out of me, especially with the acuity of the patients I saw during shadowing. I have verbally accepted an offer from the manager, but have to speak with HR before they will formally issue me an offer letter. Is it unreasonable to say, "I would love to accept this offer, but would like to formally request a (8,10,12?) week orientation" from the start? Rather than extending?

Tell me straight - is my thinking unreasonable for this kind of unit? I know I will always have the option to extend, I will not, as a new grad, try to negotiate salary, benefits, whatever. I'm thankful to have an offer. But is it wrong to negotiate this one thing before I start? I want the option of a 10-12 week orientation.

As a unit director, how would you respond to this request?

Thank you guys, so much for taking the time to respond!

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    I'm not sure I'd request up front additional orientation. However, I would ask how they would handle someone who is not quite ready to function independently towards the end of orientation- would they terminate the employee or would they extend orientation on a case by case basis?

    My specialty has a standard orientation of 12 weeks for surg tech and 6 months one-to-one for RNs. However, for those who are doing great on their own with minimal assistance, we will have them working without their preceptor ahead of time. For those who need additional time, we provide additional time (within reason- an extra 4 weeks max).

    My advice, should you accept the job (a choice only you can make), would be to ensure that you get at least weekly written feedback (we have weekly evaluation forms to be filled out) if not daily (definitely get daily verbal feedback), set yourself goals for each day/week, communicate with your preceptor and unit educator, and be honest with both yourself and those in charge of your orientation- if you don't ask for help, they may not realize that you need it.

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    Rose - thank you so much for your reply. I was able to ask a current orientee what her experience was like, and she said that she requested additional orientation, was told that it was an option, but they did not think she needed it. I believe that a unit would very rarely refuse additional orientation time, I would just REALLY love to not have to have the stress of counting down only 4 weeks of floor shifts (only 12 shifts after classroom residency!) in such an intense specialty unit. They apparently have ventricular drains, ICP monitoring, titrate cardiac drips, traches.....as a new grad, I have only seen most of that in the lab, not in real life.

    Thank you so much for reminding me to ask for weekly or daily feedback. Sometimes I have a hard time "reading" other people, and an honest strength/weakness report might give me some good insight into what I need to focus on for the next shift.

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