preceptor stories

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Dear OR nurses,

I'm currently working on my masters thesis about "eating our young" in OR nursing. There is a lack of information regarding this topic. I would appreciate hearing about the preceptors you hated as well as the preceptors you admired. I will try to catorgorize the experiences into usuable data. Thank you for your participation.

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the facilitator

Wow good or bad we have a lot to answer for don't we? As professionals within the OR we perform as we ourselves have been taught. It's an area for prima donnas and ass lickers (same thing) I was bullied and hurt by Sister's who just wanted to assert themselves but were laughed at by surgeons because of their incompetence.

How do we as practitioners want to train newbies?

certainly not the way I was introduced!

What worries me is that newly qualified nurses expect to be experinced too soon. They 'suffer' inadequacy etc when wanting to move on.

To my mind experience is in continuity same mentor different setting though we (as mentors) do not sing from the same hymm sheet. We have all been taught differently.

The basics such as gowning gloving and policy sterility should be the fore runner and mandetory. Experience from the mentor goes a long way in training. To my mind this can take up to 2 years to become a competent practitioner and developing ones own personal preferance.

I took 12 months out of Theatre to do my midwifery, in that sphere they had Midwife Supervisors. Nothing to do with management but were there as support for new and experienced midwives to call upon, support and evaluated practice.

Theatre has the preceptorship but who evaluates mentors or tainees? The Midwife supervisors were elected by their peers no grades are imposed? Shouldn't this be the same for Theatre?

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I went into the OR a little over a year ago, yep straight out of nursing school, and I love it. I do get a lot of flack (for being the baby mostly), but I also get a lot of support. I have no problem saying when I'm uncomfortable and need help, and you know what, nobody I work with has a problem with it either. Many people I work with tell me that it takes a good 3 years to be competent and more importantly FEEL competent in the OR... anyone who does so sooner is fooling themselves... the more you know, the more you know you need to learn!

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Originally posted by mare-mare

I went into the OR a little over a year ago, yep straight out of nursing school, and I love it. I do get a lot of flack (for being the baby mostly), but I also get a lot of support. I have no problem saying when I'm uncomfortable and need help, and you know what, nobody I work with has a problem with it either. Many people I work with tell me that it takes a good 3 years to be competent and more importantly FEEL competent in the OR... anyone who does so sooner is fooling themselves... the more you know, the more you know you need to learn!

Absolutely right! Nobody is an expert; there are always new things to learn no matter if you have been working for 40 years in the same area. I just think sometimes that people forget what its like to be a novice OR nurse and expect you to do things right. And yes I was told that it would take a couple of years to really start to get comfortable/competent in the OR, so I just ignore or deal with the rude people and think to myself: "Nobody's perfect" I;m going to learn as much as I can and keep my spirits high ;)

Christine

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I too went straight to OR nursing after graduation. I had NO IDEA what I was doing, but my preceptor and I are very good friends to this day. She showed me the ropes and took time to answer all of my questions. That was over 10 years ago. A few nuggets she gave me:

You are the patient advocate.

Circulating is like leading an orchestra.

When you go for supplies during a procedure, always bring two.

Anticipate, Anticipate, Anticipate!!!!

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