Hi All-
I am a new grad RN who accepted a position at a large hospital. When I interviewed, they really played up how well they were going to train me (14 weeks total) and outlined how it would go. However, I am now in Week 6 of my "training" and have barely been shown how to do anything, have had to figure out everything on my own, and when I ask questions, people are not very helpful. No one is supervising me at all, and the "Clinical instructors" are too busy to spend much time with me. No one is even reviewing my EMR notes or anything. I have not gotten any feedback on my performance at all (and frankly no one would even know it seems). I am taking care of 3 "easy" patients at a time at this point, and each week it is supposed to progress by 1 additional patient until I reach 6 patients. Then I will begin a new phase of "training" on the floor they actually hired me for- At this point I feel like it's going to be another situation where I am winging it.
I try very hard to ask questions and to advocate for myself, but this gets very exhausting on top of learning the EMR, etc, and I can't yet do anything fast as I am a new RN without the advanced time management skills. I am concerned that I will drown when this "orientation" is over and I have to care for at least 7 complicated patients with even less support.
My question is...
Is this normal in a hospital setting?
Is training usually this bad?
Because this is really crazy. I have been bringing this to the attention of the those in charge of training new hires, but they say they cannot help me due to short staffing. I will try to keep advocating for myself and perhaps bring this to a higher level of management if need be, but I just wanted to see what insight other nurses may have. I know it is hard for new nurses but the lack of training and supervision is surprising to me.
