Preceptorship venting

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So I graduate in May and a professor came in last week to talk to us about our preceptorship for next semester. Those of us who have not passed all of our HESI's with >900 were told we have to do our preceptorship in town and on a Med-Surg unit. Now I understand the Med Surg part, it's good experience and I probably would have chosen that any way because I'm not sure exactly what I want to do. However, "in town" is very limited. We have two choices of hospitals, one of them I feel like would just be a horrible experience, I did one clinical rotation on the Med Surg floor there, know someone that did their preceptorship there, and my boyfriend stayed there for a week one time. The nurses just don't care about the pts and they are rude to each other and students. The other hospital here is just very small and not much better. There is a BIG city with lots of good hospitals about 30 minutes away which I go to several times a week anyways- not a bad drive), which is where we do most of our clinicals now. I really feel like we are being punished for not passing hesi's. i just don't understand why it would be so awful to drive a little ways, or even stay in the next city. We don't have any classes or anything at the same time. I have studied tremendously for all of my hesi's and gotten within 10 pts of passing on all of them, but they don't want the number. They just want "pass" or "fail" And what hesi considers passing is 850 i think... but noooo not my school. I understand that they want to look good and prepare us for nclex and stuff, but I feel like we're being punished or something, if not by the rule, by the way they talk about it. They talk about us (the people that haven't passed ALL of their hesi's) as if we're a weak minority, when this is really >75% of my class for sure. My grades mostly A's with the occasional B. I guess I just don't test well on these big tests. I don't know how they are even going to get all of these people into these two small hospitals med surg floors. blah.

So that's my rant. Is this common at other schools?

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

Just like a perceptor has worked with one lazy student that didn't know their rear from a hole in the ground, you should not assume that all nurses in that facility share the same attitude.

If you go into the experience feeling that negative, then that is exactly what you'll get, a negative experience.

Give the perceptor the same thing that you would hope that they would give you--an open mind.

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I know my post was kind of negative, but I'm not one to ever not make the best out of a situation. I always try to get everything I can out of an experience. And I know that the overall impression I have of the units is not always indicative of every nurse.

It's really more the fact of the matter. I just don't see the advantage of making us stay in town. I want to work in the town that's 30m away and most of the recruiters I've talked to say that they only hire new grads that precepted there. Also, this is just my initial reaction/disappointment, and it will probably wear off for the most part in a week or so.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.
I know my post was kind of negative, but I'm not one to ever not make the best out of a situation. I always try to get everything I can out of an experience. And I know that the overall impression I have of the units is not always indicative of every nurse.

It's really more the fact of the matter. I just don't see the advantage of making us stay in town. I want to work in the town that's 30m away and most of the recruiters I've talked to say that they only hire new grads that precepted there. Also, this is just my initial reaction/disappointment, and it will probably wear off for the most part in a week or so.

They want some of you to stay in town because the hospital can only accomodate so-many students per unit and many of the hospitals further away are also going to have students from other nursing programs.

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Specializes in ccu cardiovascular.

"Got lemons? Make lemonade!" I know corny saying but it is true. If you go in there with a sour attitude that is what you are going to get back. You didn't score well and those are the rules. Well you know what the consequences were before you took the test so just deal with it the best way you can. I guarantee if you go in with a negative attitude, your nurse is going for one give you one back and two give you a mediocre grade so you will end up messing it up for you the whole way around.

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