Preceptor becomes villain

caliotter3 · Jul 9, 2009

I went through a situation where the instructor told my preceptor how to evaluate me. One nurse refused to do her bidding, so they hunted around until they found somebody who was more than willing. She was interested in getting credit for precepting a student for her own personnel file for promotion purposes. There was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I went to the Student Grievance Committee at the school after exhausting my recourse at the nursing department. Now I just make certain that I warn other students about this snake in the grass. She rubbed it in my face what she had done to me at the end of the clinical placement. After all these years she still teaches clinical rotations at the school. You can tell by my tone that the instructor did not tell the preceptor to praise my performance.

If you are going to complain about this person, you need to provide written dates, times, details of incidents and hopefully you will have some witnesses to back up your allegations. Expect for the school administration to take the side of the preceptor over you.

mominsd · Jul 9, 2009

I had a preceptor who sounds exactly like your nurse. She would tell me to be quiet in front of other nurses and patients, she would belittle me, tell other nurses I am terrible at IV's and put me down, although I was sucesssful with 8 out of 9 IV attempts! She would break basic rules too, but with me she would stand over me and pick at me non stop about things like using 2 alcohol wipes, or wiping up instead of down..... I talked to my instructor. I kept it very short and to the point. I didn't want to sound unprofessional and immature. Basically I told her the nurse will probably give me a terrible eval and that she was not a very easy person to get along with. I told my instructor I will be very professional, polite and praise my preceptor like she was the greatest nurse on earth. Although it killed me to do it, I did it so I would not make waves, get my hours done, and get the heck out of there. She ended up giving me a decent eval. I was top in my class and always received above average on all my clinical evals through school, so it was very hard to be treated this way. In the end, I am done with my preceptor hours, school and have just passed my boards. Just keep your eye on the reason you are there, and take from it what you can...you are learning how to work with a difficult nurse. You will be prepared for this situation if it comes up again. Be grateful, kind and give compliments to her with out sounding fake. It worked for me!

NewestRN_OnTheBlock · Jul 11, 2009

i had a bad preceptorship experience as well. my preceptor didn't want to teach me anything. if i didn't perform procedures as fast as she would have, she would belittle me in front of the patient while i was in the middle of the procedures. she asked if i could start an IV on my own. when i asked her if she could kind of guide me through the first one (in the past, my instructors or preceptors would take over so i just wondered if she could just be there to watch me do it), she gave me a dirty look and walked off. then she did it herself without telling me. the next opportunity i had, she came to watch me... but then she told me i was doing it all wrong and then she took over and did it without telling me what it was that i should have done instead. she laughed at my charting... when i asked her what method of charting i should use (we used different methods throughout school, depending on each instructor), she just said "just chart." i asked her for help with one of the IV pumps on my first day with her, and she stood there and stared at me in silence until another nurse jumped in and offered to help. she then muttered "thank you" to the other nurse and walked away.

to top it all off, she attempted to write my evaluation in the worst possible way... she even came down to the point where she lied... stating that i wouldn't even START charting until half an hour before the next shift arrived. which was completely untrue. my instructor called me and read off the entire evaluation and my mouth dropped open from all the things my preceptor said about me. in the end, i learned NOTHING from her. i did everything that i had previously learned from my clinical rotations. i didn't try anything new during my preceptorship. and if anything, i lost my confidence after having her sit me down and tell me that she had no idea how i would ever make it as a nurse.

i survived only half of my preceptorship with her. my instructor called us regularly to check and see how we were all doing with our preceptors. so i was straightforward with her from the beginning. so she knew that i wasn't gaining any experience... and that my preceptor wasn't good at precepting at all. what really helped my case was that when my instructor paid my preceptor a visit to chat about me, their conversation somehow led to the point where my preceptor was insulting my instructor. so she knew what kind of personality my preceptor has and how our professional relationship had a faulty basis from the first day i worked with her. my instructor eventually called her, thanked her for the "help" she already gave me, and told her that we no longer needed her as a preceptor. she then switched me to another preceptor. now THAT was an entirely different story. i learned so much, and had a great experience with her. so i suggest you communicate with your instructor so she knows what's going on...

NewestRN_OnTheBlock · Jul 11, 2009

oh and btw, my preceptor is the same age as me, had been a nurse for about 2 years... in case you were wondering. and my instructor told me that the school has no intention of asking her to precept any other students from now on.. lol

chilly2008 · Jul 13, 2009

good:yeah:, at least one villain was thrown out of your school. Very appreciative of your school.

I fail to understand why these nurses forget that they were also new grads in some point of their life.

BabyLady, BSN, RN · Jul 13, 2009

I'm a new grad and I have one of those witches too.

When we do charting, I have to write down what I am about to chart before I chart it so she can review it and approve it, and then all I do is copy it down.

The last couple of days, she has read my notes, told me it was ok...and then bring the chart back to me telling me that it's wrong, that it wasn't what she told me to write and where did I "get off" on changing things without asking her, how I am going to lose my license, blah, blah, blah.

For some reason, she always does this "review" around other staff members and when family comes to visit.

It would be easy to keep the pieces of paper but she has me put them in the shredder as soon as I do my "recopying". So I can't retrieve it and go back to her and say, "I wrote word for word the same thing that you said was ok an hour ago."

So, I feel your pain.

NewestRN_OnTheBlock · Jul 13, 2009

good:yeah:, at least one villain was thrown out of your school. Very appreciative of your school.
I fail to understand why these nurses forget that they were also new grads in some point of their life.

i know!!! especially when they've just been out of school for a couple of years... you would think they'd be more understanding. i guess not. good luck to you though... communicate with your instructor and push through your preceptorship!

deliverator, MSN, RN, NP · Jul 14, 2009

just wondering, all these preceptor witches you are all talking about, are any of them male nurses? has anyone had the same experiences described above with male preceptors? or is this mainly a problem with female preceptors?

NewestRN_OnTheBlock · Jul 14, 2009

just wondering, all these preceptor witches you are all talking about, are any of them male nurses? has anyone had the same experiences described above with male preceptors? or is this mainly a problem with female preceptors?

for my actual preceptorship, my preceptor was a female... i think all throughout nursing school, i've only worked with 2 male nurses. and they were both AWESOME. i'd pick either of them as my preceptor if i had the choice... a lot of the female nurses i've worked with had attitudes... or they would get annoyed that instead of just doing their job for them, i would ask them questions... they'd be like "you're in 2nd/3rd/4th semester... you should already know this. i shouldn't have to show you" but with the male nurses as my preceptor for the day/week, they would sit me down and find things to teach me... and they were pretty supportive.

so i'm curious too. has anyone had any bad experiences with male preceptors?

NewAggieGrad09 · Jul 15, 2009

Wow I am so sorry you all had such bad experiences!

RN from Pennsylvania · Jul 15, 2009

I have been a nurse for 17 years; the last 12 have been in management, DON, Consultant, etc. I remember when I was completing my med-surg and experienced a similar experience with an RN, who was younger than me and had been a nurse for about two years. Two things that I want you to remember; 1- If an individual is acting in this manner, they are very insecure about themselves; Never take a short-cut; do it the right way. If this individual is taking cuts, this needs to be reported and it is also good to have a witness. 2- What comes around, goes around; A few years later I had the displeasure of meeting up with my so called preceptor from med-surg training and guess what, I was the DON; she was caught taking short cuts and I happen to be the one who caught her. Never let anyone intimidate you and always do the right thing. Good Luck; you will be great!