Preceptor Finding Blues

[RebeNurse]

Well, apparently it is not a good thing to find a preceptor too far in advance and then not remind them over and over that they agreed to be your preceptor. I just called the one I had found for this semester and she forgot about agreeing to this and booked two other students instead. She mentioned these students when I talked to her before, but I guess now she realizes this is too much. So I have to find another preceptor and the semester started today. Great. This is simply the most stressful part of school I have encountered. If I have to drop this class, it will set me back by another year since this class is not offered again until this fall and then I have to take the final capstone class after that.

I feel a bit better after my vent and my cry earlier.

[JessicaDanielle]

Uhh! This is my biggest fear! Good luck!

[Conqueror+, BSN, RN]

This is why I refused to attend a school that does not arrange placement for the student. It simply is not worth it.

[lhflanurseNP, APRN]

I can sympathize. When I started, one of my preceptors passed away suddenly, another one developed cancer and had to quit the practice, and the third just up and retired! Luckily I live in a small community and was able to find replacements pretty easily. As I look back, I believe it actually all worked out for the better.

[PMHNP to be]

Did you ever get another preceptor? Have you continued with the program? Finding a preceptor is a very stressful process. I am having an easier time simply asking doctors that I work with or have seen around different workplaces. Otherwise, it's very difficult to convince a total stranger to precept you.

[ICURN7]

…And i think it is better to have back up plans so in cases like this, you would just go with the other preceptor.

[jj224]

I find it so odd that there are programs that require you to find your own preceptor. That sounds stressful as hell and your experience would only be as good as your preceptor, given the school doesn't vet them in anyway. Good luck finding someone. Good luck with the rest of school

[zmansc, ASN, RN]

@ICURN7: I agree in general it would be good to have a backup plan as well, however in reality you don't want to tell two folks they are going to be precepting you full time for say three months and then back out on one either, these folks would have committed to another student and are now faced with not having a student when they expected to. I do think a take home message from the OP's original post is to keep in contact with your future preceptor after you line them up. I know one classmate that has had three preceptors lined up, and then each of the first two switched jobs before she was able to do her clinicals, so in reality she had to find her preceptor three times, flexibility and having a good network established with the clinicians in her area made it all work out for her, but it was certainly frustrating and stressful.

@jja224: 1) This is not a thread for debating the pros/cons of how programs handle clinical assignments, there are plenty of threads discussing those issues, and there is no reason to hijack this thread. 2) No one said the school doesn't vet the preceptors.

[Jules A, MSN]

I am having an easier time simply asking doctors that I work with or have seen around different workplaces. Otherwise, it's very difficult to convince a total stranger to precept you.

I agree and loved being able to rely on my work contacts who I knew were good at what they do rather than being stuck with some random dolt assigned to me by the school. It was nice to customize my clinical experiences to areas I would benefit from when I started practicing.

[RebeNurse]

After an intensely stressful couple of weeks and calling about 30 clinics within a 1-2 hour radius, I have found and started with my new preceptor! It is with a big clinic that services low income patients and I have been calling the contact person for months for this and other rotations and never really got anywhere with her since she rarely returns calls. I finally started emailing the HR and administration contacts from the clinic website and got someone to answer me. I am so thankful I got in there and am already learning and seeing a lot. I had started to accept that I wouldn't find a preceptor and that I would be in school another year by thinking about all the time I would have to spend with my kids. Well, now I am as busy as ever and I miss them, but Mom won't be a student after this summer!!! Thanks for all your support :)

[lhflanurseNP, APRN]

Congratulations. Things always work out for a reason! You will see a very wide range of patients. Are there other providers here? do they cover various aspects of your clinical rotation needs? The reason is I had a site in which I was able to work with different providers in the same clinic for my rotations: women's health, primary care, and adult/gero. They even had pediatrics. This was great because I only had to submit the information on the individual provider for the rotation as the clinic was already "approved". Just a thought.