I am a new graduate and after lots of looking I finally managed to land my first hospital job. The hospital who hired me has 6-week preceptorship program for new grads, which I was more than happy about. The unit I was assigned to has a few other new hires. The preceptor I was assigned to is a young lady with a friendly enough yet assertive (hear loud and cocky) personality. Talking to her I found out she has 1.5 years of hospital experience, and I was her first preceptee. I didn't think anything about that first. I have been working with her for 2 weeks now, and I can say she overall knows what she is doing, I have been developing some second thoughts and mixed feelings. She can be blunt. I witnessed her yelling at a patient who underwent a BKA 3 days prior for no real reason. To me also, making feel like I should already know and act with the most confidence. Not only that but I started questioning her skills. It's been several times that she induces in error but refuses to admit she was wrong. The biggest question mark occured the other day. One of her patient needed an NG tube to be inserted, and she told me she had never done it before. For the record, I inserted 2 NGT while in nursing school. She got the charge nurse involved to guide her through the process. Long story short, it costed the poor patient a few bouts of vomit to have the tube inserted. The X ray confirmed that the tube was inside the right lung... The medical team had to be called and the tube placement had to be fixed.
After the incident, I noticed her picking at me in an semi aggressive way. Back at home, I was giving the day and the 2 weeks a re-run. I feel like I really starting to hate the job already. I'm the type of person that's quiet at first. I starting thinking that precpeting is not for everyone, and certainly not for the "hyper" personality type. Not only that but someone with 1.5 years of experience shouldn't probably be teaching either.
One of her patient needed an NG tube to be inserted, and she told me she had never done it before. For the record, I inserted 2 NGT while in nursing school. She got the charge nurse involved to guide her through the process. Long story short, it costed the poor patient a few bouts of vomit to have the tube inserted. The X ray confirmed that the tube was inside the right lung... The medical team had to be called and the tube placement had to be fixed.
After the incident, I noticed her picking at me in an semi aggressive way. Back at home, I was giving the day and the 2 weeks a re-run. I feel like I really starting to hate the job already. I'm the type of person that's quiet at first. I starting thinking that precpeting is not for everyone, and certainly not for the "hyper" personality type. Not only that but someone with 1.5 years of experience shouldn't probably be teaching either.
What do you think?
What exactly is your point here? Are you suggesting that having done 2 in nursing school that she should have allowed you to do the NG insertion instead of consulting the Charge Nurse? While it is possible that you may have inserted it perfectly your preceptor was correct to involve a more experienced nurse to do a task she wasn't comfortable performing. If you feel she was semi aggressive with you after this occurred you may want to really ask yourself if that was a response to how you handled her not letting you preform this task.
The first year as a new graduate is a very challenging year. It was for myself and every other nurse I personally know.
It's great that you are reviewing your shifts. I would suggest you focus on what you learnt, what went well and what you could have done better. Do not make the mistake of putting yourself into an adversarial role with your preceptor, regardless of how many years of experience they have, that rarely ends well for the new nurse.
Or tone it back, think about the good advice you have been given, and remember she has proven herself over that year and a half and your employer is still trying to decide if your performance is worth the gamble they took when they hired you.
Gosh there are quite a few things I’ve never had to do in my whole career, including placing an NG. It’s never come up. Nursing is a team sport. I’d ask for assistance to do one too. Give the preceptor a break.
kp2016
517 Posts
What exactly is your point here? Are you suggesting that having done 2 in nursing school that she should have allowed you to do the NG insertion instead of consulting the Charge Nurse? While it is possible that you may have inserted it perfectly your preceptor was correct to involve a more experienced nurse to do a task she wasn't comfortable performing. If you feel she was semi aggressive with you after this occurred you may want to really ask yourself if that was a response to how you handled her not letting you preform this task.
The first year as a new graduate is a very challenging year. It was for myself and every other nurse I personally know.
It's great that you are reviewing your shifts. I would suggest you focus on what you learnt, what went well and what you could have done better. Do not make the mistake of putting yourself into an adversarial role with your preceptor, regardless of how many years of experience they have, that rarely ends well for the new nurse.