Preceptorship blues

Nursing Students General Students

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The last time I was here (a long time ago) I wrote how I was bagging nursing school b/c the cost was so outrageous. Well, I actually went and am now in the last month of NS and in a preceptorship. The program was an accelerated one and what I like to describe as "teach yourself nursing" b/c the lectures are only the tip of the iceberg of what we're eventually tested on. The clinicals I have had so far consist of 5 weeks of med surge, pedi and maternity, psych, and 5 weeks of sitting with care managers in hospitals as part of my community rotation. The med surge is the only experience I have had with actual patient care. As a man I was unwanted in pedi and maternity, psych I played cards with pts., and care management was a complete waste of time!

I realized I have to get the most out of this preceptorship and again I am teaching myself nursing. I was never given a plan of care tool, but have gotten one from this site today. I was wondering if anybody else's experience has been so lame with nursing school. I have read some amazing stories here and asm completely jealous. My current preceptor iss the type of nurse who documents lung sounds without even taking her stethoscope off her neck. The floor is hectic and full of stressed out women (again I'm the only man).

Is there a website anybody can recommend to get a good clinical experience blueprint. I'm asking my colleueges and most say their final experience is good. Mine is starting out to be just like the rest. ugggg!

Anyway, thanks

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i used to give my students the opportunity to out together a self-learning clinical plan. they had to outline their specific learning objectives (and hint: i did not want a laundry list of tasks), seek out potential resources, and sell me on their commitment to in-depth learning. if i were you i'd put together a proposal like that and see if some faculty member would be willing to oversee you in it. can't hurt to ask.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

I'm not sure what a clinical experience blue print is? I'm sorry you are having bad experiences. Even with my program, experiences vary widely depending where you are at and who are you with. I feel terrible for those who did not get good preceptorship experiences because it is such a vital part of getting new nurses ready for the real world. When I compare my clinical rotations to my preceptorship, it is so night and day. It is not as if my clinical rotations were bad- they weren't and I enjoyed them, but I've learned so much more in my preceptorship. The difference between the two is that in clinicals, I followed the nurses around and do what I was told to do. In my preceptorship, I steer the ship and the nurse follows ME around. I can't believe that no nurse in my clinical rotation taught me to look at charts, note orders, do chart audits, to call doctors for simple things such as clarifying pt's activity orders...

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When you feel bored or left out on the floor, what do you do? Have you told your professors or preceptor about what you're feeling?

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In terms of a blueprint, I just mean a way to organize my gameplan, a formula to look at the big picture, and then critical thinking associated with the particular patient scenarios.

Preceptors, they seem like they can make or break the experience.

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

For a blueprint, do you mean like a "nursing brain" page, where the nurse organizes all of the day's duties for each patient?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
In terms of a blueprint, I just mean a way to organize my gameplan, a formula to look at the big picture, and then critical thinking associated with the particular patient scenarios.

I'm not sure if there's anything like that. You just have to take all your book learnin' you've had over the previous semesters and apply it to your patients during your preceptorship, with your preceptor's help.

Preceptors, they seem like they can make or break the experience.

Yes, they can. I would hope your school has done their due diligence on preceptors. IME and those of my classmates, the less experience that a preceptor has, the less valuable the nursing student found the preceptorship to be. More experienced nurses are so confident in their abilities that they will let out the rope a little on their students because they know the signs of a student drowning or about to make a dumb mistake. They are able to help the student put the pieces together. They are confident on assessing the student as much as the patient, and they know when to step in. Less experienced nurses are still understandably twitchy on handing over responsibilities.

OTOH, some experienced nurses are so comfortable in their roles that they are unable to explain step-by-step to students. To them, it's an almost intuitive decision, and breaking it down can be difficult for them.

I had a wonderful preceptorship in my last semester, and it helped prepare me for being an RN more than any other clinical rotation.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

OMG - am I the only one reeling in disbelief at the OP's description of his ABSN? How could this possibly prepare anyone for assuming the role of RN with actual patients? Please tell me that this is not typical. There are accreditation standards for pre-licensure education that mandate a minimum number of hours in each clinical rotation... no matter the gender of the student. I had wondered why our hiring managers are preferring not to select ABSN grads - this gives me more insight.

My deep sympathies to the OP - he did not get his money's worth for sure!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
OMG - am I the only one reeling in disbelief at the OP's description of his ABSN? How could this possibly prepare anyone for assuming the role of RN with actual patients? Please tell me that this is not typical. There are accreditation standards for pre-licensure education that mandate a minimum number of hours in each clinical rotation... no matter the gender of the student. I had wondered why our hiring managers are preferring not to select ABSN grads - this gives me more insight.

My deep sympathies to the OP - he did not get his money's worth for sure!

I'm not sure what you find odd. In my state, one can get the required number of hours in a five-week rotation, with the exception of a preceptorship (which is more hours).

As for the pediatrics and maternity rotation, I took his description of "unwanted" as his perception, which may or may not be reality. A male friend of mine was extremely nervous about those two rotations because of his gender, but he recognized that and didn't back off of his own learning opportunities.

As for the psych rotation, that seems typical. The application of learning seems to come in pre- and post-conferences. We were expected to go through the charts, spend time with the patients according to their therapy schedules, and then, in conference, identify the behaviors related to their diagnoses, recognize exacerbations and give possible reasons for them, and recognize side effects, if any, of the medications they were on. Psych rotation is really what you put into it. If the OP felt all he was doing was playing cards with patients, then that's on him.

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My clinical experience has been lame as Hades. I have a post on it and I've seen a couple others lamenting their crappy clinical experiences.

Even better, our school no longer does the preceptorship so I may not ever learn anything!

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