Precepting Problem--HELP

[SuperCEN]

I have 23 years of ER experience and cannot count the number of new employees I have precepted. This has all been without a pay differential and without any well organized way to document issues when someone is not cutting it. Through the years they have had a tendency to also give me the "problem children" who have failed with other preceptors--which is the situation I am currently in. In the past, when I have told management that this or that person just wasn't cut out for ER, they would keep them anyway and it would take a very long time for some of them to "error" their way out of a job. Therefore, I do the best I can with what I have been given and try to say little negative and do the best I can with each new employee's skill level.

Now, with the current "problem child" I have been assigned to, management has decided to have a meeting with her and tell her that she is not performing up to snuff and to set a timeline for changes to be made or else an end to her employment. My problem lies with them insisting that I be present for this meeting. This is the first time that has happened. I am not management, nor do I get management perks or pay. If they retain this employee (which they usually do) and she becomes my co-worker, I feel this will create a negative environment for me. I have never gone into management myself for a reason--I am like the Wal-Mart greeter. I am the happy greeter and would NEVER be able to be the person firing or disciplining ect.... Just don't have it in me. I am so stressed and frustrated over this! I will be the one in tears there tomorrow.

Am I wrong to feel it is unfair of my bosses to expect me to take part? They give me no tools to report the problems that I see, no compensation for the extra time it takes to train, yet expect me to take part in this "meeting".

Am I being a baby????

[MajorAl]

1) Do you do any sort of evaluation on those nurses you precept, even if it's just a note to the supervisor? 2) I think that you should take the attitude with the new employee that YOU are there to help HER, not management. Do you have a union where you work? If so, there should be a union rep present also. I have also precepted many new nurses. Where I work, there are about 80 nurses and I have probably precepted, or helped precept, 30 of them. It is an expectation of the precepting nurse, here, that we communicate with the supervisor of the new nurse how s/he is doing. This is not to put us in a management position, but to give us a stronger nurse in the future. I, personally, would go and present what this nurse's strong points are and where she needs improvement. Good Luck. Alan

[TraumaICURN]

If the employee is retained, it WILL create a hostile work environment for you. The only way management would know that he/she is not performing well is through you, the preceptor, and the orientee knows this. With you being present at the meeting, I am almost positive that they will ask for you to state as to why you feel that the orientee is not competent. And then you will have to go back out onto the floor and continue to work side by side with this orientee.

Tell management how you feel about the situation. It is not your job to discipline someone. You have done your job by reporting that you feel the orientee isn't cuting it.

[Jokerhill]

At the end of each shift I talk to my orientee and we go over what is going on that way they know exactly where I stand. I do it in a way to help them not just critical of the errors. If we had a meeting like this they would already know where I stand both good and bad. W do have a very good set up for this where I work, one of the best things there, with checklist ect. to go by.

[linzz]

Just wondering, as I still a student, how do you define a problem child, I am just wondering for my own knowledge. I am in no way judging this situation at all. Also, a lot of people think that a new grad should do a year on a med-surg floor, just wondering if some people just should not start in the ER without the year of med-surg, or is this not true?

[ginger58, ASN, RN]

How about writing a "Memo for the record" when you see problems. You could indicate the problem and how you've tried to solve it. Turn a copy into your manager and keep one.

[nursing 101]

Sorry but you have to be present in this meeting... As someone already stated how would mgment know exactly what the preceptee is not doing right? You have to be critical in the best way possible... Critical but not nasty. Let us know how it went...

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I think you will be "blamed" by the employee regardless of whether you were present or not in that meeting. It is better to go and be as objective as possible. A competency list would be helpful. Remember, it is not your decision whether or not the employee remains, and it was not your actions that created the meeting in the first place, although that employee might want to transfer the blame to you. I would ask your supervisor if you could be dismissed when the employee is dismissed (before a decision is made) so you are not part of the decision.

[TazziRN, RN]

Just wondering, as I still a student, how do you define a problem child, I am just wondering for my own knowledge. I am in no way judging this situation at all. Also, a lot of people think that a new grad should do a year on a med-surg floor, just wondering if some people just should not start in the ER without the year of med-surg, or is this not true?

A problem child is one who keeps making mistakes over and over and doesn't learn from them, and/or does not take advantage of the experience of the preceptor and fights at every turn.